Media Clearance

Media Clearance

Navigating individual markets with varying rules and regulations for marketing material can be a challenging task. Well-established local and international partnerships help agencies guide their clients through this process in various media channels, such as television, radio, or cinema. Cultural consultation and careful management of both pre- and post-production processes will ensure the content complies with media regulations without compromising creative integrity.

Effective global marketing campaigns are central to many of today’s top brands. However, this often means achieving media clearance in several countries simultaneously, while navigating the many fine details in different international advertising laws, cultural norms, and distinct compliance procedures. Local talent with thorough knowledge of local media regulations helps guarantee that your advertisements meet regional conventions and don’t infringe on existing intellectual property. Ensuring international ad compliance will help avoid financial penalties, undesirable lawsuits, and wasted resources spent on superfluous reproductions.

Advertising in most countries is regulated by both self-regulatory and co-regulatory controls. The system includes legislation, codes of conduct, government and industry guidelines, and privacy laws that ensure all advertising is legal, ethical, truthful, factual, and inoffensive. This means that advertisers must have evidence to substantiate any claims made. Because rules are updated regularly, it is important for businesses to ensure they are adapting to changing practices. With the scope of worldwide media channels continuing to grow, it is necessary to have a system in place that helps you meet these regulations efficiently and cost-effectively.

With all this in mind, it is clear agencies cannot realistically be expected to be experts on all industry-specific regulations. Regulatory training is therefore a beneficial added component to onboarding and should be executed at no charge. This will help employees make content choices that are law-abiding, consistent, and protect your brand’s reputation. At the onset of the campaign, local marketing teams could be taken on to assist in reaching your objectives and proficiency targets, or, alternatively, media regulations could be sourced at local rates.

The overseeing of technical industry guidelines should reside primarily with the client’s brand marketers, with local market media regulations incorporated into all briefs from the local market client. The agency can then proofread and quality check the work to ensure the requested direction and amendments have been followed meticulously, with all incorporated artwork, and that it is free of spelling or grammatical errors. Proofreading also includes fact-checking all claims made in marketing tactics with the use of references, as well as content revision to ensure the accuracy and consistency of all claims and associated references. For medical, legal, or regulatory reviews, the client should circulate the work internally to all stakeholders and submit the consolidated feedback to the agency for implementation.

With up to 40% of ads being used just once and in only one market, tracking, measuring, and extracting the most suitable information is the difference between a powerful, targeted campaign and spraying and praying. Valid data allows companies to instantly analyse their sales effectiveness, awareness levels, and conversion rates. This drives sharper real-time planning and functions as a reliable source of information for the advertising industry.

Media buying is the act of transferring strategy from the proverbial page into the real world. In this way, a media buyer is responsible for seeing the plan through. Their primary responsibilities are detailed below:

• Establishing Relationships - Like any good salesperson, a media buyer should be well-versed in developing and maintaining relationships with media vendors. Though we live in a time when automated tools are becoming more commonplace than these vendors for purchasing inventory, it is still a worthwhile skill to have.
• Negotiating & Buying - Once ads are primed for distribution and RFPs have been sent, negotiations must be made for the purchasing of ad space. The cost incurred corresponds to several factors, most notably traffic and exposure. The media buyer should succeed in securing ad spaces at or below budget. With the right foundation from the media planner, the potential should justify the price tag.
• Monitoring & Optimising Ad Performance - Once ad space has been negotiated and bought, the media buyer is responsible for following the ads over the course of the campaign cycle to make certain they are being optimized. If not, the media plan should be reexamined.