Media Buying Exercise: Marketing Communications Students Put Copilot to the Test

HLOs:

Third-year Bachelor of Commerce – Marketing degree students completed a media buying exercise that introduces them to the essential aspects of media buying and helps them become familiar with a variety of media rate cards and how to interpret them. These rate cards are sourced from Canadian Rates and Data (CARD) via cardonline.ca, which summarizes rate cards for all print and selected out-of-home media in Canada.

Students rely on CARD as a key resource because it consolidates rate information commonly used by marketing organizations and communication agencies. Many specialized sources are available only by subscription and often come at a significant cost. By using free tools, students can still make accurate calculations for media buying across digital, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and outdoor transit shelters. This year, for the first time, students asked Copilot to perform the media buying calculations to compare its output with their own.

The results showed that Copilot is not embedded with the detailed rate card data needed for precise media buying. While it understands the step-by-step process, the lack of access to accurate rates led to significant underestimates across all media categories. When prompted to use cardonline.ca, Copilot correctly noted that a subscription is required to access the database.

In the end, students enjoyed the exercise and learned that Copilot cannot always provide accurate calculations for complex media buying tasks.

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