The role of the media buyer/analyst is to plan and execute a cost-efficient "media buy" that best presents the advertisement to the desired target market. This media buy must fall within budget and market constraints established by the client and time or space availability determined by the station or publisher.
A typical media buy begins with the media buyer/analyst meeting with the account manager to interpret the client's ideas and the strategy to be followed. After the media budget, the number of advertisements to be placed, the type and extent of audience to be reached, and other strategic questions have been decided, the media buyer/analyst chooses the appropriate medium (TV, radio, print, outdoor, and so forth) or combination of media through which to advertise. If the advertisement appears in an electronic medium, the next step is to contact the appropriate representative from that medium (this may be a broker representing many different media and markets) and solicit an availability ("avail"), which is a proposal by the representative that indicates actual time, costs, and context in which the advertisement will appear. In the print media, space costs are quoted on rate cards and remain much more firm, so little or no proposal solicitation is necessary.
When the proposals are received, they are evaluated by examining the cost and the estimated size of the viewing audience by using data provided by Nielsen and Arbitron services. At this stage a good deal of numerical analyses take place to assure that the best exposure is received per dollar and that the viewing audience characteristics are compatible with those of the target market.
Using all the information obtained, the media buyer/analyst negotiates with the representative to provide the most cost-efficient placement for the client.
Before the actual buy is made, the entire proposal for all media must be approved by the client through the account executive. At this point, the media buyer/analyst must be able to support all the aspects of the buy with concrete reasoning and numerical analyses.
The actual buy is the most routine procedure for the media buyer/analyst. A successful buy is made only after thorough study of many variables, examination of numerous alternatives, and consideration of good old intuition.
"OKAY, NOW HERE'S WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE."
Q - How did you get into media buying?
A - Very rarely does someone come right out of school and get a job as a media buyer without some prior experience. You can go into print sales, or broadcast advertising, usually radio, in a small market. Print advertising in a small market is wide open, especially in the newspaper business, because there are a lot of country and local newspapers, both weekly and daily, where people can start.
When I was in school I worked for a small agency and did a little bit of everything, from bookkeeping to helping write copy. I went into a production studio and helped do the recording. I was a "go-fer" and went around delivering tapes and that sort of thing. I got a pretty good taste of the client end of it as well as the media end.
I went back to school and got an internship in sales and promotion with a professional soccer team and then another internship selling advertising for a business directory. When I graduated from college, I gc my job here after six months of pounding the streets and handing out resumes.
A I majored in psychology and elementary education, but the school system here was quite overloaded at the time, and they were not doing any hiring. I was looking for a job, and a friend of mine happened to be working in advertising, so my career started here at the agency. There was an entry-level job in "broadcast" open, but I said I didn't have any advertising background, and she said, "Why don't you come in and talk about it and we'll see?" So I did, and they had just picked up a new account, so they were hiring a lot of new people to gear up. I got the job and it was really no problem at all.
Q - Could you describe a career path?
A - My first title was an estimator of broadcast buyers in all facets of making the buy, whatever that might be. My job included calling the stations to place orders; contracting the traffic department to send out tapes; working on billing discrepancies; calling for availabilities; and even helping to poll ratings and adjust ratings out of the syndicated sources, the Nielsens and Arbitrons, both for radio and TV.
After I had about six months' experience in that, I was taught spot TV buying, and I began buying some smaller markets. I started with Green Bay, then Peoria, and some other non major markets. After 1 proved myself there, things happened, and openings came up, and I was made a full buyer, buying markets in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; New York; Miami; Milwaukee; and other major markets. That's sort of a second level that a buyer moves to.
Agencies have other ways of assigning a buyer. They'll assign a buyer to a product, and that buyer does all the buying for that product. We do not work that way. We believe in the market specialist system, because we feel that this gives one person a full range of accounts.
