Media Buying Agencies
Media buying is the process of developing a media plan, deploying that plan to media houses like radio and TV stations, and monitoring their compliance to the media plan before making payment.
Media buying may be a huge undertaking depending on the scale of your campaign. Aside from internal decision making about which locations and stations to select, setting up contracts with various media houses and ensuring they have the correct content and media plan will require dedicated staff. Depending on the size and scale of your campaign, you may need a team to ensure a smooth operation.
Media Buying Agencies
How to contract with an agency for media buying?
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria describes its media buying process in this brief, Media Buying for Impactful SBC Programming. The program switched from in-house media buying to an agency because of the high number of media houses involved in their coverage area. Although the media agency eased the program’s administrative and finance burdens, compliance with the program’s media plan fell from a previous rate of 84% with the in-house team to only 69%.
How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:
Working with a Media Buying Agency
Decision Point: Whether to Use a Media Buying Agency
Media buying agencies fulfill this role. They handle all contracts and individual payments to media houses, significantly streamlining your administrative and finance functions. Media buying agencies also may be able to negotiate better rates for your campaign because they regularly buy media spots in large numbers, although you may have more leverage to negotiate rates or complimentary spots by appealing to their corporate social responsibility. A media buying agency also will either charge an overall retainer fee or a percentage of the broadcast budget, which should be factored into your campaign’s overall budget when deciding whether to use their services.
Request for a Media Buying Agency Proposal
Suggested time:
2-3 months
Participants:
Administration team; finance team; core design team
Example: Request for a Media Buying Agency Proposal
This example of a request for proposal for a media buying agency and template to evaluate and score the proposals can be adapted to your context. You may consider contracting more than one agency in case a single agency does not have a presence in the program’s entire coverage area, does not meet expectations, or the program needs to quickly redistribute coverage areas to another agency. The tool also will help you with contracting with media buying agencies.
The other media buying tools are helpful to understand the media buying process, your program’s role in that process, and the expectations of a media buying agency. An example of a contract with a media house, like a radio or TV station, also is available for those who keep media buying in-house.
Effort required:
Media House Contract
Suggested time:
1–2 weeks, depending on procurement processes
Participants:
Administration team; finance team; core design team
Example: Media House Contract
This example of a contract with a media house is for campaign broadcasting. If you keep the media buying function in-house, you will need to negotiate unique contracts with each media partner. Your project must follow standard procurement processes to engage each station selected, with justifications explaining why the station is preferred over others based on the media preferences of your intended audience.
Effort required:
