Observed Signal · Oct 28, 2026 · Opinion / Analysis · Source: ExchangeWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Media Planning Needs to Reconsider Its Thought Process
Jess Treasure of Bountiful Cow argues that media planners' own biases, such as novelty bias and consumption bias, lead to suboptimal media plans. Planners often overvalue new, 'innovative' channels and undervalue established ones like TV, despite evidence of their effectiveness. Political bias also risks editing out audiences that don't align with industry views. She suggests structural changes like diverse hiring and spending time with media outside one's own consumption, and calls for agencies to have the freedom to recommend plans that may feel uncomfortable.
Provides insights into biases affecting media planning, but is not a concrete industry event.
Track Real-Time Media Planning Signals & Market Shifts
Polaris7 autonomous intelligence agents track regulatory filings, primary sources, executive changes, and deal flow 24/7. Create your Polaris7 workspace to monitor these entities.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Jess Treasure of Bountiful Cow wrote a column on media planning biases for ExchangeWire.
- UK TV ad investment dropped 14% between 2001 and 2025, despite TV's proven effectiveness.
- A WARC study found 39% of marketers plan to withdraw spend from TV over the next year.
- A UN study in 2026 found 44% of AI systems had gender bias and 26% had gender & racial bias.
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Marketers Must Shift Focus from Channels to Audiences
As marketers build 2027 media plans, a common pitfall is structuring budgets around channels rather than customers. This article argues for an audience-first approach, where strategy begins with identifying business goals like acquiring new customers, increasing purchase frequency among occasional buyers, or retaining loyal ones. For each audience segment, KPIs differ, and media mixes should be tailored accordingly. The author cautions against relying solely on channel-level ROAS, which may over-credit search without revealing true incrementality. Instead, marketers should use attribution, modeling, and incrementality testing to evaluate performance. The article recommends planning analyses before launch, defining consistent audience segments, and considering cross-segment overlap to avoid double-counting. Ultimately, shifting budget between audience strategies may yield more profitable growth than reallocating within a single channel, and decisions should be based on audience value, not just channel reports.
ARD Media and RMS Launch 'Compass' Assistant for audioXpert
German audio sales houses ARD Media and RMS have upgraded their audio planning tool audioXpert with a new media planning assistant called 'Compass'. The tool computes multiple mathematically optimized scenarios for audio campaigns based on user-defined parameters such as stations, target group, campaign period, and budget or GRP targets. The aim is to reduce manual optimization steps, allowing media planners to focus more on strategic tasks and client-specific requirements. Compass deliberately does not use artificial intelligence, but relies on rule-based algorithms to ensure transparency and reproducibility of results. The final evaluation and selection of the proposed scenarios remains with the media planners. The tool is available as a browser-based application and integrates with the audio booking platform audioXchange. ARD Media and RMS will accompany the launch with information, presentations, and training sessions for existing users.
Arosa Comedy Festival Adopts Demand-Driven Media Planning
Agency Morning is managing the media strategy, planning, buying, and ongoing management for the 35th Arosa Humorfestival, which takes place from December 3-13. Arosa Tourismus and Morning are using a multi-stage, data-driven media strategy based on analysis of previous festival years, examining ticket sales and campaign performance by artist, day, location, target group, and media. Instead of a fixed media plan, Morning dynamically adjusts channels, placements, target groups, creatives, and budgets throughout the campaign. If an event sells well, ad pressure is reduced; if another needs support, budget and communication are shifted accordingly. This 'Dynamic Planning' approach is channel-agnostic, using (D)OOH, display, social media, search, and cross-channel retargeting. Creative is also dynamic, ranging from general festival communication to specific artists, locations, and event days.
Receive all future signals for Media Planning in your executive briefing
Never miss material M&A deals, leadership changes, account wins, or product rollouts. Polaris7 monitors 20,000+ primary sources 24/7, delivering verified telemetry directly into your executive briefing.