Marketing Communications and Media Planning Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Marketing Managers, Brand Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-M-063

Before you join: Participants should have practical exposure to marketing, communications, campaigns, customer acquisition or brand activity.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Marketing communications plans often fail when objectives, audiences, messages, channels and measurement are developed separately. Teams may buy media without a clear communication task, use the same message for every audience, or report impressions without showing contribution to demand, leads, sales or retention. This course addresses the practical decisions required to build integrated campaigns that connect commercial priorities with audience behaviour, channel choices, budget allocation and accountable performance reporting.

Participants learn how to convert business goals into communication objectives, segment and prioritise audiences, build customer journeys, develop positioning and message architecture, and select channels using the PESO model. The course covers media briefing, reach and frequency, media weights, flighting, budget methods, agency and supplier management, search, social, programmatic media, CRM, content planning and sales enablement. Participants also learn to define meaningful KPIs, apply attribution and incrementality methods, and use campaign results to improve future activity.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group planning work, media-plan calculations, message-development tasks and campaign review simulations. Cases can be adapted for banking, public services, consumer goods, business-to-business, healthcare, NGOs and technology markets. Participants leave with a reusable marketing communications planning pack containing a campaign brief, audience and journey analysis, message architecture, channel plan, budget logic, measurement framework and 90-day application plan.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with campaigns, customer communications, agencies, digital channels or brand activity and need a more disciplined method for planning and evaluating marketing communications.

What you will be able to do

  • Translate business priorities into measurable marketing communications objectives and KPIs
  • Segment audiences and build customer journey maps for campaign planning
  • Create positioning statements, message architectures and actionable creative briefs
  • Select paid, owned, earned and shared channels using the PESO model
  • Build media plans using reach, frequency, media weights, flighting and budget assumptions
  • Evaluate media costs using CPM, CPP, CPC, CPA and ROAS measures
  • Design campaign measurement frameworks using attribution, brand lift and incrementality methods
  • Produce a 90-day marketing communications application plan with governance actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce stronger agency and media briefs with defined objectives and decision criteria
  • Explain channel and budget recommendations using recognised media planning measures
  • Assess campaign proposals beyond creative preference or supplier claims
  • Build performance reports that connect communications activity with commercial outcomes
  • Lead more productive discussions with agencies, sales teams and senior stakeholders

For your organisation

  • Improved alignment between campaign activity, customer needs and commercial priorities
  • More defensible media investment decisions using transparent planning assumptions
  • Greater consistency between brand messages, content, media and sales communications
  • Clearer campaign accountability through defined KPIs, ownership and review routines
  • Reduced waste from poorly targeted channels, duplicated activity and weak measurement

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame marketing communications as a coordinated response to a defined commercial and customer problem.

  • Marketing communications role within the customer journey and commercial plan
  • RACE framework links reach, act, convert and engage objectives
  • Paid, owned, earned and shared media roles using PESO
  • Category buying situations shape communication task selection and timing
  • Distinguishing business, behavioural and communications objectives before media decisions
  • Briefing stakeholders on decision rights, dependencies and approval gates

Participants can identify priority audiences and translate insight into communication planning decisions.

  • Segmentation variables combine needs, value, behaviour and channel accessibility
  • Prioritising segments using attractiveness, fit, reachability and profitability criteria
  • Personas document jobs, barriers, triggers, media habits and desired outcomes
  • Customer journey maps identify moments, questions, friction and influence sources
  • Category entry points connect purchase occasions with distinctive brand memory
  • First-party research plans specify hypotheses, sample, method and decision use

Participants can develop message direction that is relevant to audiences and consistent across campaign assets.

  • Positioning statements define audience, frame of reference, promise and reason-to-believe
  • Message architecture separates master message, proof points and audience variations
  • Value propositions translate functional features into relevant customer consequences
  • Creative brief uses objective, audience, insight, proposition, mandatories and response
  • Copy testing checks clarity, credibility, relevance, distinction and intended action
  • Brand voice guidance maintains recognition across campaign assets and channels

Participants can select channel combinations that match audience behaviour, campaign objectives and buying stages.

  • Channel selection matches communication tasks, audience behaviour and buying stage
  • Media roles distinguish awareness, consideration, conversion, retention and advocacy
  • Reach and frequency trade-offs reflect category, budget and campaign duration
  • Attention quality, context and creative fit affect media effectiveness
  • Offline media assessed across television, radio, out-of-home, print and events
  • Digital formats compared across search, social, display, video, email and affiliates
  • Retail media and marketplaces assessed for shopper influence and closed-loop measurement

Participants can build a structured media plan using recognised delivery, timing and allocation measures.

  • Media brief defines objectives, audiences, geography, timing, budget and constraints
  • Gross rating points, reach, frequency and impressions calculated from media data
  • Effective frequency assumptions documented against message complexity and purchase cycle
  • Media weights allocate exposure by segment, market, channel and campaign phase
  • Flighting patterns compare continuity, pulsing and bursting against demand patterns
  • Daypart, placement and device choices reflect audience availability and context
  • Media plan tables present activity, delivery, cost, timing and rationale

Participants can prepare costed media recommendations and assess supplier proposals using relevant commercial measures.

  • Objective-and-task budgeting converts communication requirements into costed media actions
  • Share of voice compared with share of market and competitive pressure
  • CPM, CPP, CPC, CPA and ROAS interpreted for appropriate decisions
  • Rate-card negotiation addresses inventory, added value, cancellation and payment terms
  • Agency scopes distinguish strategy, planning, buying, production and optimisation responsibilities
  • Procurement evaluation balances price, quality, transparency, brand safety and service

Participants can coordinate paid, owned, earned and shared activity around a single campaign strategy.

  • Integrated campaign architecture aligns paid, owned, earned and shared activity
  • Content pillars organise messages by audience need, proof and format
  • Editorial calendars coordinate publications, launches, events and reactive communications
  • Landing pages and calls-to-action connect media exposure with conversion paths
  • CRM and email sequences support lead nurturing, onboarding and retention
  • Sales enablement assets maintain message consistency through customer-facing teams
  • Local market adaptation preserves strategy while meeting language and cultural requirements

Participants can apply digital media planning controls for targeting, tracking, consent and brand safety.

  • Search keyword strategy maps intent, query themes, landing pages and bids
  • Social media targeting considers audiences, placements, creative specifications and exclusions
  • Programmatic buying explains audiences, inventory, bidding, viewability and frequency controls
  • UTM conventions preserve source, medium, campaign, content and term attribution
  • Consent requirements affect data collection, retargeting, suppression and measurement design
  • Brand safety controls cover suitability, fraud, viewability and placement exclusions

Participants can design measurement plans that link communications activity to audience and commercial outcomes.

  • Measurement frameworks connect inputs, outputs, outcomes and commercial impact
  • SMART KPIs distinguish leading indicators from lagging business results
  • Dashboard design pairs objectives with metrics, targets, cadence and owners
  • Attribution models compare last-click, rules-based and data-driven credit allocation
  • Incrementality testing uses holdouts, matched markets or geo-experiments where feasible
  • Brand lift studies measure awareness, consideration, preference and purchase intent
  • AMEC framework evaluates communication outputs, outtakes, outcomes and organisational impact

Participants can improve campaign performance through structured testing, review routines and documented actions.

  • Test-and-learn roadmap prioritises hypotheses, variables, sample requirements and decisions
  • A/B tests isolate creative, audience, placement or landing-page differences
  • Optimisation decisions distinguish signal, noise, seasonality and operational constraints
  • Weekly performance reviews assign actions, owners, deadlines and escalation routes
  • Campaign post-analysis records results, learning, financial implications and next actions
  • 90-day application plan schedules stakeholder actions, measurement and review milestones

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Marketing communications campaign brief template
  2. Audience segmentation and customer journey map
  3. Message architecture and creative brief model
  4. Media plan and budget allocation template
  5. Campaign measurement and KPI dashboard framework
  6. 90-day marketing communications application plan

Who should attend

  • Marketing Managers — need a disciplined method for planning integrated campaigns and budgets
  • Brand Managers — need to connect positioning, creative development and media choices
  • Communications Managers — need to coordinate stakeholder communications across multiple channels
  • Digital Marketing Managers — need to integrate digital activity with wider campaign plans
  • Media and Advertising Specialists — need stronger planning, buying and evaluation disciplines
  • Account Managers — need to turn client objectives into clear agency briefs and plans

Skills and tools covered

Media planningAudience segmentationMessage architectureCampaign budgetingMarketing measurementChannel integration

Tools and standards

RACE Framework, PESO Model, AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, SMART Criteria

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce planning methods, followed by case analysis, group discussions, media-plan calculations and campaign decision simulations. Participants work with realistic briefs to define audiences, messages, channels, budgets and measurement approaches. Digital and offline media choices are examined through practical planning scenarios rather than platform demonstrations. Facilitated reviews test assumptions, compare alternatives and identify trade-offs. The final application planning session helps participants adapt the methods, templates and governance routines to their own campaigns.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to marketing, communications, campaigns, customer acquisition or brand activity. They should understand basic commercial terms such as target market, budget, conversion and customer journey, and be comfortable discussing campaign performance data. Experience working with agencies, media suppliers, sales teams or digital platforms is useful but not essential. The course does not require advanced mathematics, media-buying experience, statistical software, graphic design skills or prior use of advertising platforms. It is not intended as an introductory marketing principles course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have practical exposure to marketing, communications, campaigns, customer engagement or related commercial activity. No prior media-buying experience or advanced analytics capability is required.

Participants should bring a laptop if possible and may bring a current campaign brief, media plan or communications challenge. Sensitive commercial information can be anonymised before discussion.

It is designed for marketing, brand, communications, digital, media and account management professionals with some existing workplace experience. It also suits managers who approve campaigns or work closely with agencies and media suppliers.

This course focuses on the planning decisions that connect objectives, audiences, messages, media, budgets and measurement. It covers digital channels but does not provide platform-specific training in Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager or creative production software.

Participants can use the templates to improve live campaign briefs, review agency proposals, build media plans and establish clearer measurement routines. The 90-day application plan identifies the first actions, stakeholders and review points.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from strategy and audience insight through media planning, budgeting, integration, measurement and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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