Why Your Distribution Brief is the Secret to Your Marketing Campaign

We all know the importance of the creative brief for great content, but did you know that a distribution brief is equally important? Much like a creative brief, which outlines the elements to be used to create your content, a distribution brief sets your marketing campaign up for success by detailing the target demographic you’d like to reach, and then lays out a plan of attack for achieving your goals.

Like a good journalist or investigator, we should be able to answer the 5Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) and 1H (How Much?) for good measure.

The following represents a typical client inquiry:

We’re a healthcare brand wanting to raise awareness for a new drug. We’d like to reach women ages 18-34 through radio. The creative needs to run on the days leading up to the NYC Spring Half Marathon and we have a budget of $25,000.

Let’s dissect this request and see if it passes the “5Ws and 1H” test.

Who?

Who is your target audience? We know the target audience are likely female sports enthusiasts ages 18-34 in and around New York City. That can be further segmented into moms, household income, and more.

What?

What message is your brand trying to communicate? In this case, they’d like to raise awareness for a new drug. That can be done two ways – with a branded or an unbranded message. An unbranded message could be a :30 or :60 creative spot. However, a branded message, which would need important safety information included, could add upwards of :30 additional seconds, making the resulting creative :90 or more. Ninety seconds is longer than what most distributions channels will accept – so defining these parameters at the outset will ensure a smoother distribution process on the back end.

When?

In our example, we know the creative needs to run before the NYC Spring Half Marathon, but that is only part of the timeline equation. We would need to know how long it would take all stakeholders to provide creative approval and make sure that the approval process will allow us to meet the deadlines set by the desired distribution channel. For example, with radio distributions we know that turnaround times to air can range from 3 days after creative approval to as much as 3 weeks. If we’re working against a set deadline, like the date of a marathon, being aware of both approval timelines and distribution deadlines will help our team choose the right distribution channels for the project.

Where?

Knowing your geographic parameters and target demographic will help us determine the right channels for your audience. Millennials and boomers love listening to the radio, but how they listen could be different. You may find more millennials listening on Pandora and more boomers on terrestrial radio. Knowing where to reach your target and how is part of what our team will evaluate when we’re creating your distribution brief.

Why?

What is the ultimate desired goal and why? In our example, the client’s end goal is simply awareness, but what does that look like for the client? Knowing the key performance indicators against which the project will be evaluated will help determine which channels will be included in the distribution brief. If the client has a specific audience goal to reach, we’ll choose distribution partners to fit that required metric.

How Much?

While knowing your target audience and timeline helps narrow down the appropriate options for possible selection, your budget is one of the biggest factors. A healthcare creative for radio, like in our example, might require longer edit time to get the message just right. Or, your target audience might be classified as a premium audience segment, making the rate per spot much higher. Our team will work within your budget to provide the right mix of production and distribution to accomplish your goals.

Whether your distribution is for Radio, TV, Out-of-Home or online, you can improve your marketing campaign’s efficiency and effectiveness with a distribution brief featuring the 5Ws and 1H. Don’t know where to start? The MultiVu team is here to help!

ABOUT THE EXPERT: Wendy Chung

A graduate of New York University’s Communication Studies program, Wendy began her career in commercial production. With a blooming interest in media strategy, Wendy spent time at account services and marketing team before joining MultiVu in 2008. She currently oversees radio, television, out-of-home and PSA strategy and the execution of the team.