Media planning is the study of advertising placement. Knowing what type of ad to create and where to run the advertisement is the primary job of a media planner. Media planner jobs such as those of an assistant media planner, a media buyer and a senior media planner are common throughout the industry. Within these jobs, many people have specializations, such as digital media, print media, television and radio media. Each job aims to help a client get the right exposure to an audience.
An assistant media planner is considered an entry-level job at most advertising and media firms. These media planner jobs primarily are support roles for those actually doing the ad space buying and campaign planning. Some of the biggest responsibilities in this role include running reports based on research and often handling smaller tasks associated with the media buying process. This job usually requires a college degree in communications or business.
One of the most important media planner jobs is that of media buyer, also referred to as a media planner. This job requires an individual to work with a client to determine the needs and goals of a campaign. Additionally, this person must work with the advertising department to create copy, scripts or entire commercials for the client. Finally, this person often must negotiate with media outlets such as television stations, newspapers and websites to get the finished product out to the public. This job also requires a college degree and usually many years of experience within the media planning industry.
The job of senior media planner is different because of its management responsibilities. Senior media planners often handle complex and high-dollar clients, but they mostly focus their attention on running the media department. This job requires getting updates from the media planners on various projects, monitoring the budget and helping to develop the company's strategy with other management team members. This job often requires a master's degree and many years of media planning experience.
These three positions make up the core media planner jobs, but they often are broken into smaller niches. Namely, these jobs, especially that of media buyer, are focused on particular types of media. Digital media planner jobs revolve around making use of the Internet, television media jobs focus on commercials, and print media jobs deal with magazine and newspaper ads. Some jobs combine all of these mediums, but many divide them among different planners to allow each one to have a stronger focus.