Strategies That Link Great Creative and Effective Media Planning

Strong, memorable, effective brand campaigns are rarely the ones that focus solely on outstanding creative. Nor are they the ones whose media planning is so precisely scripted that there’s no room for local adaptation.

At Curious Jane, we know that great brands are the ones that pair breakthrough creative with dynamic, effective media planning to deliver results. Not only that, but when executed strategically, a campaign can bullet-proof your brand.

Why Outstanding Creative Is Important

A brand’s creative is, in many ways, its signature as well as its current call to action. Great creative reinforces the brand’s identity with its desired audience and introduces it to new ones. Without great creative (be it copy, audio or video), a campaign is lucky to leave the launch pad. It’s essential to capture the consumer’s attention in a way that creates interest and, ultimately, drives purchase consideration and action.

Media Planning Puts the Message Where You Want It

Media planning that combines strategy and efficiency is essential in reaching your target audience. Ad technology creates the opportunity to reach as broad or as specific an audience as possible. It also opens up vast possibilities in terms of budget, timing and platform. Choosing an expert media planner should be part and parcel of any company’s brand investment.

Let’s dig a little deeper into how paid, earned, shared and owned (PESO) media accelerate great creative, build brand awareness and move the needle on results.

The nuances in the PESO method are important when mapping our strategy and maximizing budgets: Paid media, of course, is purchased: social ads, digital video, search and out-of-home. Earned media is the coverage and mentions a brand earns from press, partners and word of mouth. Shared is perhaps the most nuanced – social content that audiences, partners and creators engage with and pass along. Owned media are the channels your brand controls, such as website, app, email and on-site experiences.

The PESO method is tried and true for a reason, and we think it’s especially applicable for franchise and multi-location brands.

Hyatt Combines Resonant Creative with PESO Media Planning

For franchise and multi-location brands, campaign strategy should leverage the brand’s creative equity to spur local action through careful media planning. In January 2024, Hyatt Hotels launched its “Be More Here” brand platform alongside an expanded World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards loyalty program. The goal was to encourage travelers to be more present, and to differentiate and elevate the loyalty program across Hyatt’s portfolio of brands.

Hyatt based its creative on what it knows best: the transformative power of travel. With a strong emphasis on wellbeing and mindfulness, the platform speaks to travelers who want to be fully present in the places they visit.

With resonant, memorable creative in place, Hyatt supported the platform with a coordinated media plan across all four PESO layers:

Paid – Hyatt bought media across social, digital and video, plus out-of-home placements in travel hubs such as airports, to reach potential and active travelers where they consume media.

Earned – Hyatt kicked off a first-of-its-kind collaboration with MasterClass at the Sundance Film Festival with a fireside chat featuring MasterClass instructor Issa Rae. The announcement, along with a Headspace partnership, drew coverage in marketing and hospitality trade outlets.

Shared – Social was central to the rollout. Hyatt announced the platform across its social and digital channels in January and tied it to the MasterClass and Headspace partnerships designed around wellbeing.

Owned – Hyatt used its own channels and properties to reach members directly, including the World of Hyatt app, in-room television and on-property touchpoints. Partner content from MasterClass and Headspace was available to guests at more than 350 properties, creating an individualized, hyper-localized experience.

When Excellent Creative Leads, Effective Media Planning Ensures Success

As Hyatt shows, a relatively simple creative idea becomes far more powerful when it’s plugged into a coordinated media plan. The numbers point to the momentum: World of Hyatt reached approximately 54 million members at the end of 2024, a sustained 22% increase over the prior year.

At Curious Jane, we approach every project with a similar high-altitude, boots-on-the-ground mindset. For more than 23 years, we’ve helped bullet-proof franchise and multi-location companies with work that reinforces the brand and activates consumers at the local level.

If you’d like to learn more about our perspective and how we work, drop us a line. We’d love to chat.