NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> "Media Buyers" NOT "publishers' advertising
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> "Media Buyers" NOT "publishers' advertising
S. Alles (allmedia_at_cris.com)
Fri, 3 Jan 1997 09:31:12 -0500 (EST)
representatives"
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At 05:23 PM 1/2/97 -0800, Mark J. Welch wrote in part:
>The difference, I think, is that a "media buying service" should tell you
>about the best places for you to place your advertising on the web --
>while a publisher's representative or ad network will try to sell you the
>sites they represent, and not other sites that might give you a better return.
>That doesn't mean that one is "better" than the other, but that they serve
>different roles.
Appreciate Mark's comments; believe that there has been some continuing
confusion this area.
To add some history, media buying as a separate segment of the US
advertising industry, emerged about 30 years ago. It is the "unbundling" of
the typical ad agency, media function. So media buying services should
represent the advertiser and not be associated with any media site(s).
Mark also said:
>This doesn't mean that a media buying service is somehow unbiased --
>they may focus too much on paid (vs. free) media,
(snip)
>(They also might ignore sites that won't pay them commissions.)
IMO the key for ensuring objectivity is in the financial structure of the
service agreement. The incentives have to be in the right place.
My recommendation (with the obvious disclaimer that we do media buying) is
for an agreement that guarantees full-disclosure to the client of both the
media costs and the service fee.
Current media buying, pricing practices are varied. Some buying services do
not disclose the actual price paid to the media. Obviously this can lead to
an overpricing situation. (Pretty arrogant too IMNSHO since it's the
client's money that's being spent.)
Media-provided, agency commission is still sometimes used as the
compensation basis for the media buying service or ad agency. But usually
when that's done, the traditional 15% is supposed to cover the total
advertising function - not just media buying.
Today though, fee-based services are more common in the advertising
industry. This allows flexibility for aligning costs with the work level
(and in some cases results). In these situations, the advertiser should
then be billed the NET media cost (after the agency commission is deducted)
plus the agreed upon service fee.
Sylvia Alles
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AMS Advertising Media Planning/Buying/Consulting
allmedia_at_cris.com
http://www.cris.com/~Allmedia
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