Bringing Media Buyer-Seller Relationships into the 21st Century
Posted by Brian Gramer on Thu, Jan 06, 2011 @ 11:26 AM
Dunbar’s number suggests we can have no more than 150 meaningful social relationships. Whether our personal maximum is 20 or 200 doesn’t matter—we have neither the time nor the mental energy to actively maintain an abundance of worthwhile relationships either in our business or personal lives.
Sure, we can have 500 Facebook friends, but that’s because we have tools to manage those relationships and streamline our communications. And even then, only a fraction of those friends are included in the inner circle where we interact the most.
And if you continue to ask them to buy from you or your affiliate, they’re no longer your friends.
These days, maintaining business relationships has become an art form, one that’s both dependent on and diluted by technology.
Balance in Business Relationships
Balance comes in maintaining necessary relationships efficiently. In my experience working at and interviewing owners of media agencies, this is one of the greatest challenges in media buying, largely due to the cost structure of those services.
It’s impossible for a media buyer to have meaningful relationships with all media sales reps for all their clients, not to mention new relationships with reps that might have something else to offer.
Even full-service media buying shops limit themselves to the media with which they are most comfortable and familiar—traditional buyers buy traditional media, and online buyers stick to online. Building and maintaining relationships to support multi-channel media buying takes a lot of time.
On the other hand, these relationships with media sellers are what media buying agencies use to justify their existence. Otherwise, the advertiser could just learn a few formulas and place the buys on their own, right?
The Inventory Doesn't Care if You're Friends
Yet schedules can still get bumped—regardless of relationships or whether they’re planned a year in advance—when someone comes in that will pay more. The relationship comes back into play when it’s time to make-good—when the media outlet has a bunch of inventory available.
No one really gets better rates—it’s all based on supply and demand. Sales reps lead you to think you’re getting something special, and maybe they do throw in a little something extra, but hey, they’re salespeople. Small agencies just don’t have enough buying power to get ahead of that supply and demand curve.
Agencies that do little more than collect information, negotiate, and handle billing and invoicing are providing minimal value to their clients because all of those things can be automated. The real value a media buying agency can bring is in exploring advertising opportunities in other media and, if it applies, other markets.
No one has time to do these things if they’re busy developing and nurturing relationships with people they might request proposals from or do business with, at some point.
Technology Enhances Buyer-Seller Relationships
That’s why we need technology to help us find, develop, and maintain those relationships with media sellers. Tools such as email, online collaboration, and automated communications enable us to continue these efforts more efficiently, keeping track of communications and information exchanged in a place more accessible than a steel file cabinet and a rolodex.
But we can be flexible in how we use this technology, too.
For example, it lets buyers like me conduct a purely transactional but effective business relationship. It spares both parties the time spent with the getting-to-know-yous and other niceties that inevitably result in sending an extra email to thank someone and tell them you hope they’re having a nice day. Multiplied by 20 sales reps, and that’s a busy afternoon that does little to impact the bottom line.
No media outlet will say there’s any relationship more important than that of the client, the advertiser. It’s not the media buyer, or the agency. The efficiencies that can be gained by automating the media buying process directly impact the client—time saved by the media buyer results in more advertising budget for the client.
How would you use technology in your media buying process? Would it augment or replace your relationships with media sales reps?
Image credit: Hannes Grobe via Wikimedia Commons