Buying media

Media buying from my inexperienced vantage point

Buying media has never been my forte. I've never done consumer media buying and the B2B advertising I've done has been very focused, hence limited number of media venue.

Upfront I'll say that for consumer and large b2b advertising, I strongly believe a heavy weight media buyer is worth their agency commission.* Without this person, I'm sure many a media buy was based on emotion rather than logic. "I read this magazine and my product is for people like me..." Or the proverbial, "our customers are wealthy (read: they're the only ones that can afford the product) so we need to be in a 'shiny sheet'."**

Does anyone remember the Lane Bryant (retail clothes store chain for women sizes 14+) advertising executive who bought radio spots on Howard Stern? Even Howard questioned the buy. Apparently the ad exec demanded a meeting with Stern. What an expensive and wasteful way to meet an airwaves favorite. Made more costly because it also pissed off any listening Lane Bryant customer, Howard makes fun of women over size 8 (and that's being generous). That ad exec was 6 sizes too small and focused on the wrong sex for his company's britches.

But I'm in the B2B world and, except for five years in the advertising department of a retail chain right after college, I always have been B2B.

Why I felt the need to buy media on my own

When I first landed this job, I had been open to letting an agency handle my media buying but a couple of rotten proposals changed my mind.

Agency #1

The first was a page and a half listing all 70 insertions with the following data "date/media/featured product" on a single line. To get all the insertions on a page and a half he used a might small font and didn't give a line break even between months.

We're are talking about annual commissions totaling just under $30K. I know it's not an IBM or an SAP budget, but $30K is nothing to sneeze at. And whatever ad budget you have, however small or large, no ad agency should treat it like it's pitlings.

Always remember, small and medium sized businesses may not have a lot of advertising clout but who ever 'gets' our accounts will get better ad rates*** that could entice other new business for the agency. More volume, lower advertising rates, and the agency decides if you the customer gets the breaks or if agency profits just increase.

Agency #2

The second proposal didn't give me a schedule because "that wasn't done until we agreed on how we would work together." I was assured that they had some great ideas for our advertising campaigns, if only I signed the agreement.

This second company did, however, show me a sample schedule. Although I was grateful for some white space on the pages (5 in total), the information was not much more than "date/media/featured product" nicely formatted.

DIY - more information, more flexibility and more money to advertise

I admit it; you're not going to see a complicated media schedule. But it is a solid schedule built on management input, media editorial calendars, and our advertising needs.

The schedule is only one worksheet in a medium sized spreadsheet that pulls together my overall budget. Of course, the numbers and some of the projects have been altered or deleted to protect my company's confidential information.

The spreadsheet builds from right to left, going from ad prices to ad schedule to annual budget (the names in italics are worksheet names in the spreadsheet:

1. Ad prices - just states the prices with discounts based on insertions. I wanted to be able to change the insertion rate, if desired, one place and have it filtered throughout.
   
2. Ad detail - This is the list of ads with "date/media/feature" enhanced. Costs are added up by month/year/product/media, The number of insertions are tallied by month, by media, by product being features. Ad prices are pulled from the previous worksheet.
   
   This gives me a lot of flexibility. After I set-up a 'strawman' schedule, I sit down with my management and juggled things around based on harvesting schedules, how much we want to advertise for a particular product, how many times a product should be advertised before a tradeshow, etc., etc. If I didn't have this flexibility, I would have to redo the schedule a dozen times. It's spending a good deal of time in the beginning to avoid spending a lot of time near the end.
   
3. Ad dates - are simple schedules that I use during the year as general look-up (what ad is next...). I make each of the media venues a copy with just their information on it.
   
4. 07 project detail - has the advertising budget one line in it but details all the other projects and expenses I have during the year. Again, if I change an ad in the ad schedule an hour before handing in my overall budget, my budget is ready to print with the change.
   
5. Budget - is just a line-by-line of my budget with no details. This is what I hand in to accounting.
   
6. Actual - is a worksheet where I keep myself posted on how well I'm doing with my budget. Yes accounting gives me the numbers, but I like to play around with them.

View spreadsheet

*For those not familiar with media buys
Generally speaking a newspaper, magazine or other venue will publish rates and give advertising agencies a 15% commission off that rate. The venue invoices the agency minus 15% and the agency bills you the full rate plus any fees to pull together the ad. Please note: if you - the advertiser - gives the media outlet an electronic file ready-to-go they'll bill you with the 15% deducted off your invoice.

Why use an agency if you know what media you need to be in, how big of an ad you should do, and when it should run? Because a really good agency (for your product or service) will have enough customers buying the same media that you'll get a better rate even with the 15% tacked on. Also an agency who buys a lot, can demand a lot (better positioning, etc.).

The real reason to use an agency with a good media buyer is because that buyer can change your perspective on what media you should be in and how much and big you should buy. A good media buyer is well worth the commission.

**I did do a stint in a small Palm Beach ad agency. The reference to a 'shiny sheet' was the nickname for the newspaper that was popular in that area with the upper class and those aspiring to be.

*** A media venue will list its rates based on the number of insertions or frequency of ads. So if you run 10 ads chances are you'll pay more per ad than if you ran 20 ads. Know your media venue's rate cards. Make sure you don't advertise 19 times not knowing you could have advertised 20 times and gotten a better overall rate. Any good sales rep will alert you to this, but you should know it up front.