When did media plans become identical?

Agency pitches still wheel out the interesting ideas - the big creative plays, the innovative channel thinking. But once the contract is signed and the day-to-day campaign planning begins, something else happens. Especially for brand campaigns with small to medium budgets, the plans start to look the same: 60% YouTube, 40% Instagram, maybe some TikTok.

Brief after brief. Campaign after campaign.

Regardless of the category, the objective, or the audience, the output becomes interchangeable. And increasingly, so do the results.

This homogenisation isn’t accidental. It reflects how video, the biggest driver of brand investment in most media plans, has become easier to buy, easier to measure, and easier to justify through short-term metrics, even when it’s not delivering real impact.

Yet the evidence tells a different story.

Research from effectiveness thinkers like Karen Nelson-Field and Peter Field shows that high-attention environments - including broadcast, BVOD and CTV - consistently outperform the low-attention formats that have come to dominate media budgets…

Join us for an open, honest, and provocative discussion on the present and future role of the media mix. 

Who can attend?
This event is open to The Marketing Society members. Members may book via the membership portal.