Lintas Media Group goes the SAM way

Lintas Media Group has introduced a global tool that will make media budget decisions easier in India. The tool, called Strategic Allocation Model (SAM), aims to “fill the gap” in the industry in the area of budget allocation.

To sharpen its strategic strengths, Lintas Media Group constituted the Planning Sciences Collaborative (PSC) earlier this year. PSC has focused primarily on enhancing the media planning processes and on evolving methods for result oriented media strategies.

The efforts are designed to finally enable a demonstrable return on investment for the media investments. Lynn de Souza, chairman, Lintas Media Group, says in an official communiqué, “Today, in the ever increasing complexity of the media landscape and the increasing selectivity of the media consumer, clients are looking more and more for a better understanding of the delivery of media initiatives. PSC aids our business collectives in better definition of the media objectives and subsequent measurement of the brand deliverables.”

Its uses are varied. On the one hand, it serves the media manager in detailing the investments planned into each media task and the costs associated, while, on the other, it is a tool for the senior management to synergise budget allocations with their brand and company objectives.

Premjeet Sodhi, chief planning officer, LMG, who has worked on commissioning the tool in India, says, “This is a tool developed along global standards and is in use across initiative offices worldwide. The key strength of SAM is the objectivity that it brings into the media budgeting decision. It imposes this objectivity by seeking a quantification and justification of the various elements involved.

Sodhi adds that brand custodians can then simulate real time situations and leverage SAM to iterate and arrive at various scenarios of allocation and choose the one most appropriate for their business challenges.

“With its rigorous approach to investment prioritisation, SAM will facilitate our clients in realising the best results from their media investments,” concludes Sodhi.