Introduction
A media career can mean one of two things.
1. A career with a media owner like Star TV or Times of India
2. A career with a media agency like Carat
I will talk about the second where I have spent the last 30 years of my life.

Scope
What does a media agency do? Essentially, the agency plans, buys and executes a media program within a given advertising budget for a brand. Within the marketing budget for a brand, a certain amount is apportioned for media. The client then tells the media agency the objectives that the brand must achieve. Accordingly, the agency begins to process of planning.

Media Planning
There are numerous TV channels, newspaper and magazines, radio stations, cinema theaters and out-of-home sites. These are the traditional media options. Today, the word media includes online, mobile phones, events, product demonstrations, public relations and anything else that can reach and influence consumers or potential consumers for the brand.

Building Effectiveness
In planning for a brand, the media planner must ensure that an effective and efficient plan is generated. Effectiveness is a function of how each medium is able to reach and influence consumers. For example, we can do product demonstrations and consumers will really understand what the product is about. But product demonstrations do not have scale – meaning that they cannot reach millions of consumers across the country. Television can reach millions – but it is difficult to do a demonstration in 30 seconds! So each medium has strengths and weaknesses. The media planner must weigh the pros and cons and make a considered decision.

Building Efficiency
To build an efficient plan, the media planner must ensure that the costs are the lowest given the size of the budget. India is a negotiable media market. All costs can be negotiated – up to a point. So the media planner and buyer work together in ensuring that the client gets true value.

Implementing
Once the plan is approved by the client, then it is passed on to operations who then do the actual booking, send the material and monitor to see if the advertisements/events actually occur. Then a final report is sent to the client.

Conclusion
What makes this industry really attractive is that media forms are multiplying everyday – and those in the industry are in the forefront of all this evolution. There are various skills required – but more of that in my next mouthpiece.