Media planning, already a complex activity, is getting even more complicated as time goes by and new data privacy laws come into play. Using data to determine and inform strategies and tactics is nothing new, but with a reduced volume of data available, understanding consumer behaviour deeply is trickier than ever before. 

However, even with less data available, the advertising industry will continue to rely on data to meet the needs of its consumers – making privacy-first audiences even more valuable in the coming years.

Finding the balance between data and creativity is even more crucial for media planners, and understanding behaviours and nuances with less reliance on third-party data will be fundamental. So, why do media planning tools continue to be so difficult to navigate? If anything, they should make media planners’ jobs easier, not even more complex.  

Good interface ≠ complex interface

One of the biggest myths in adtech is that a good interface equals a complex interface. Media planners are used to dealing with complicated tools to plan their campaigns. They are used to endless training sessions with multiple providers to understand how they need to use each of their solutions. That needs to end. 

The quality of the data is not related to how complex the interface is. Unlike most customer insights tools, Audience Explorer is a visual, intuitive, real-world planning tool that combines precise location data with hundreds of rich and anonymised third-party signals, ranging from lifestyle characteristics and affinities to browsing and shopping habits. That gives media planners the most holistic view of customers. Right at their fingertips. 

Using Audience Explorer, media planners can now discover audience insights and build richer audiences themselves, ready for activation at scale via Blis Managed Service or via their own agency traders. All up to them. 

An art masquerading as a science

While media planning tools are getting more sophisticated, it’s often difficult to buy what is planned. In this case, real-world, easy-to-read insights can be the most powerful asset. Understanding your target audience behaviour may not be enough, but finding additional clusters with characteristics and behaviours that resemble your unique audiences, or better understanding the competitive battlegrounds, can reveal an immense pool of potential buyers. 

The right insights, based on privacy-first data, are invaluable. However, media planning is an art of experience and instinct. It’s not just about access to good data. It’s about intuitive decisions based on informed leaps into the unknown. And no data could be more valuable than real-life behavioural data. 

Blis is tackling this challenge head-on by leveraging its prowess in the location-based advertising space. It combines location data with hundreds of aggregated and anonymised behavioural and lifestyle signals, building a more visual and accurate picture of a brand’s customers. This means brands can reach them at scale in a privacy-first environment, helping each media plan become a masterpiece. 

To learn more about Blis’ Audience Explorer, visit our hub.