The media report may be intimidating with acronyms, but it's easier to read than it seems. A marketer's primer without formulas.
A media report is a document that makes half of all marketers' eyes glaze over. Columns, abbreviations, tenths of a percent. It's easy to nod, put on a smart face, and sign without really understanding anything. But that's a shame: hidden within these numbers is the answer to the main question: did your money work or was it simply "got used to it.".
Let's take a more human-level look at media literacy. No formulas for the sake of formulas—just what's needed to communicate with the agency as an equal.
Spot, Minute, Channel - Basic Physics
Spot - this is one broadcast of your video. Minutes — the total timing of all outputs. Channels - How many different TV channels are involved?.
These three metrics answer the question "how much total airtime did we buy?" Important, but not sufficient: two hundred spots on a channel no one watches and two hundred spots on a leading channel are two different results for the same nominal figure. Weight is needed.
GRP's - The Main Currency You're Undervaluing
GRP (Gross Rating Point) — a rating point, a measure of a campaign's real weight. It doesn't measure "how many times a video was shown," but "how many ratings engagements it generated." The same spot on a highly rated channel will generate a lot of GRPs, while on an empty one, it will generate almost nothing.
That's why GRP's - not the budget or the number of spots - most honestly answers the question "have we been noticed?". When an agency reports spot volumes but remains silent about GRP's, it's a warning sign.
Reach and frequency are two sides of the same coin.
Reach - how many different people saw the advertisement at least once. Frequency — the average number of times each person saw it. GRP's is essentially reach multiplied by frequency.
The same GRPs can be reached in different ways: shown to many people once (high reach is good for launching) or to a narrow group many times (high frequency is to "finish off" those already in the know). The right balance depends on the goal, and a sound media plan always explains the rationale behind the chosen approach.
SOV and SOS – how to understand who won the category
SOS (cost share) — what share of all advertising money in the category did you spend?. SOV (share of vote) — what share of the category's total airtime did you account for based on GRP's? Both figures can't be calculated from your own report alone—you need data for all players in the category, which is provided by advertising monitoring.
The magic is in the gap between them. If yours SOV is significantly higher than SOS - You received more attention than you paid for: a sign of strong planning. our Сбербанк case The share of voice was 52.4% with a cost share of just 23.3%—more than half of the category's airtime for less than a quarter of its budget. This pair of figures alone speaks volumes about the agency's performance than the rest of the report.
Plan vs. Fact: Where the Truth Hides
A good report always shows not only the actual results but also a comparison with the plan. It's not about "catching an agency in a discrepancy," but rather about who benefited from the deviations. A campaign that delivered a bonus airtime or saved budget without losing any value is a campaign where the deviations worked for the client.
Media Report: A Cheat Sheet Worth Saving
- Spots/minutes/channels — how much ether was purchased. A baseline, not a result.
- GRP's — the actual campaign weight. Main KPI. Always ask.
- Coverage - How many people did you see?. Frequency - how many times each.
- SOV vs. SOS — share of voice versus share of costs. SOV above SOS = money well spent.
- Plan/actual — in whose favor the deviations played out.
Knowing how to read a media report isn't just an accounting nitpicking exercise, but a way to understand what you're paying for and what you're getting. And a marketer who asks the right questions always produces higher-quality work.
Do you want a media campaign where every number works for you?
TAG plans and runs campaigns based on GRP's results, not just by eye—with transparent reporting and results. Let's calculate yours.