Having spent a couple decades selling media, I can attest that there is more to media buying than what meets the eye. From understanding gross rating points to measuring reach and frequency, an effective media strategy involves a lot of science, but also a bit of art as well. If you’re not in the business, it can be a lot to manage. Below are four reasons to hire us as your media buyer and get the biggest bang for your advertising budget.
1. Our Media Plans Are Data-Driven
We don’t represent any one media outlet, so there is no incentive to steer you toward one media platform over another. We give you unbiased recommendations based solely on helping you reach your marketing objectives.
We’re one of the few small agencies in the market that invests in Nielsen Television and Audio data, among other sources, to help guide our decisions. In addition, we have good, old-fashioned know-how and decades of experience. This means our media plans are more efficient, delivering a better ROI.
As a Google-Certified Partner, we are also able to develop and execute digital marketing campaigns that achieve the desired results. You may read one day that print advertising is dead, and then have a print rep tell you the next day that the opposite is true. We cut through self-serving messaging with a strategy that works best for you based on your specific goals and demographics.
2. Media-Buying Is Time-Consuming
Even if you understand all the ins and outs of media buying, it is a time-consuming process. By offloading it to an experienced agency, you free up your time, or the time of your marketing team, to focus on other higher-payoff activities.
Our experience, data research, and buying power are second to none in New England. No one offers a more tenacious or better equipped team to research, negotiate cost and added value, place, track, and analyze your media investment. In addition, we vet solicitations, submit co-op advertising paperwork if needed, coordinate make-goods or credits, and reconcile invoices, providing you with a single invoice for payment.
3. The Media Market Is Always-Evolving
If you’re not in the media-business, it can be hard to keep up with changes that may impact your strategy. For example, in our local market, Nielsen Media TV data is no longer captured via old-school manual diaries. They now use Return Path Data (RPD), which takes data directly from cable and satellite boxes in the home.
In our market, Comcast owns more than 90% of the boxes in homes. Their data is right in line with our Nielsen reports. We’ll start seeing some shifts in the market and a little leveling off. We have subscribed to Nielsen Media Research since our beginnings and this data is instrumental to our media buying strategies—and something you don’t have access to if you are buying your own media.
We also understand the intricacies of the data. While most of our local media outlets (both TV and radio) use Nielsen data, WWLP and The CW, who were recently acquired by Tribune Media, will shift to using comScore data. However, Nielsen and comScore data cannot be compared as they use two entirely different methodologies. We will look at the comScore data (they have good qualitative), but will continue to buy/negotiate/post against the Nielsen data. Using the same form of measurement across the board gives an apples-to-apples comparison.
These examples showcase why it’s to your benefit to work with a strong media buying firm that understands and subscribes to data to make the most efficient use of your budget. Our goal is to align you with the audience you need to reach.
4. Hire a Media Buyer, Get Much More
When you hire an agency like Market Mentors for your media buying, you actually get so much more. You may only need our expert media strategy skills to start, but you’ll always have access to our comprehensive range of services. We offer complete marketing and advertising services that hit their mark, including writing and design, video production and website expertise.
Creating an advertising campaign is only half the battle and it means nothing without an effective and efficient media plan. Ready to get a bigger bang for your advertising budget? Contact us today.
