Going Crazy About Principle Media

The advertising world is pretending to be up in arms over last week’s reports that the ANA had more to say about principled media buying. The reason I say ‘pretending’ is because how can you really be mad about something that you know has been happening but you did nothing about. I’m not going to get into the details — you can certainly look that up yourself (search ANA Principle Media), and there’s been plenty written about the dilemma facing marketers and whether their agencies are taking a margin on media purchased on their behalf. What I am going to talk about is how this affects the sales side of the business.

For the past 25 years, the digital media business has been undergoing a fairly dramatic shift in how media impressions are bought and sold. And I really shouldn’t even say “the digital media business,” because this applies to the entire media business — television, magazines, radio, outdoor, and so on. The world has moved from a manually transacted system to one that is, in many cases, largely automated. By “digital” I mean that machines now do most of the work, because the decision of when and where to place an ad has shifted from a human making a manual placement to an algorithmic one based largely off of stolen (ahem..borrowed…ahem inferred) consumer data.

So with this mishegas (Passover is next week so get your Yiddish phrases ready) going on with the buyers, what should sellers do? That depends on what — and more importantly, how — you are selling. Have you always been transparent with your pricing and your value? (Be honest.) Do your selling materials clearly articulate the nature of your relationship with buyers? Does it even matter? Because if you’ve been selling to agencies that have been reselling your inventory, you may not even know it’s happening.

Now is the time for everyone selling media to engage directly with clients whenever possible. Search for the clients who want to deal with you directly because you offer a unique product and that’s where you should be spending your time. It may feel risky to sidestep agencies for a large part of your time, but making a strategic bet will be worth it.

Gey g’zunterheyt!