Media Buyer or Media Seller

One thing to consider in selecting an agency is whether the firm is truly a media buyer or a media seller. There are differences, and oftentimes the agency may be confused.

A media buyer works as your buying agent. With no “inventory” to clear, the true media buyer can objectively look at all the available time slots without prejudice to find the best time and negotiate the best deal for you, the client.

However, some agencies are actually media sellers. They may claim that they “own the time”, but even if this is the case (debatable), it creates a bit of an interest conflict. If we owned inventory (we don’t), then we would have the pressure of moving that inventory. And if you were interested in time, we might just give our inventory a bit more of a push than other time slots out there in the market place.

There are also some agencies that represent stations (sellers) and clients (buyers).

Some agencies may be able to pull that off.

We can’t.

We represent the client. Not our inventory. Not the stations.

You.