Nue Media Mix™

Media buyers should be able to spend more time on the activities that create value for their clients, such as negotiating placement and rates, rather than manually collecting and organizing information related to a buy. That’s the premise behind Avenue Right’s web-based media buying software.

Avenue Right founder and CEO Brian Gramer was interviewed by “Media Man” Michael Massey on his Internet radio show Your Ad Here (February 12, 2010). This is the second in a series of blog posts with excerpts from that interview.  You can listen to the full recording of the show here. 

This excerpt examines how buyers and sellers adapt to new technologies and changing the way they do things, such as exchanging information.

Michael Massey is also author of Your Ad Here: Demystifying the Business of Media and Advertising and an Avenue Right power user.

MM: On the other side of the fence, I’m getting a lot of resistance from media properties. And I think, well, I know why. But what I want to hear from you is why do you think certain media properties are really resistant to using a service such as this?

BG: There are a variety of reasons, and some of them are real simple ones. First off, technology-wise when my agency-owner father was sending faxes to media departments, people had just started using faxes. Before that you actually had to send it by mail courier. And then the mail courier would be back.

So when they started sending faxes, they were resistant to that at first because it was a new way to get an order.  So then all of a sudden email comes along, and I don’t know if you were in the business when the changes started, when people started faxing orders, and then they started emailing them and there was resistance—wait a second, I’m not going to take an email because I need a real signature and to see that it’s on the paper.

MM: Yeah, I remember that.

BG: And then all of a sudden email became acceptable, but change takes time. And some people today still use fax. So now we’ve got fax orders and email orders.

If you think of our system, we’re sending sellers a link to a website—a secure portal—and we’re saying, “Hey, here’s a spot for you to approve and order.” The only difference from email is that it doesn’t live in an Inbox, it lives on the web. And this is a new way now. And there are plenty of industries, by the way, who do orders through this technology, so the first thing I’m going to say is they just have to get used to change. It’s change management—them getting used to it.

The reason they accepted the change with the fax and the email is that the buyers forced the change, right? One of our beliefs is that the buyers are going to force the change with the media outlets. And if the buyers request it and want to do it this way so they can manage media buys more efficiently for their clients, we think the sellers will fall in line.

MM: You know what? I do believe that is the case. I’ll use myself as a prime example, if you don’t mind. This is relatively new to me; I was buying 4 markets, multiple mediums—cable, television, and radio. I set them all up ahead of time, I said, this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to get an email from Avenue Right, they are not an agency, they are not another media property, and they are not a commissionable business. It’s a portal. I need it, and I use it manage all of my information.

Every email I got back said yep, ok, sounds great. I mean, I got as few people that said well, I don’t really know how to do that, but I’m sure I’ll work it through. Of the 50 RFPs, I bet you there were at least 10 that just ignored the request, said I’m not going to do it I’m going got send it this way. And one of them was a TV station. And I said you know what, because we’re on a time constraint I’m going to allow it, but it’s not going to happen ever again. You need to do what I tell you to do, so I guess, Brian, what I’m saying is I think you’re right on. The buyers have to stand firm though—they can’t use it and then go ok, yeah, I guess you can do you that way.

BG: I agree with you. And that change will come with the more value we can provide you as a buyer with reporting and customization and the tools we’re making for you. It’s likely the buyers are going to stand firm. Remember these technologies like fax and email were such huge changes in productivity that it was a no-brainer for the buyer to push back and say listen, you’re going to take it this way. I’m not going to get a courier to run over there every time.

But you’ll be surprised. It still took time—you have to have a battle with the media outlets to make that change happen. The media outlets have been burned, so it’s not all their fault. There are a lot of players out there that try to take business from them, and from agencies. Google had a radio product to allow small businesses to buy their own media so they didn’t have to go to an agency. They took a commission from the radio stations themselves, and once you start taking that commission, you’re looked at differently. So again, it was better for the stations to fight in that instance and say, “I don’t want to take orders that way and give up commission because they are competing with me.”

And some of the products that have taken a first run at this problem, they’ve taken it from an angle that made all the agencies and all the media outlets competitors, so there’s a little bit of this reaction, “Oh here comes another one,” right?

The other thing about change is that our system is designed to remember things that were done in the past, so there is less manual input for them every time they use it. So the same goes for you as a buyer. But all these systems are the same. The RSS feed that collects information is a hugely productive tool, but you still have to set up your RSS feed. You still have to figure out what you want to search for as far as news and different things in the feed.

So there’s always, in any technology, the part where you have to get things set up, and it seems manual, but I would say that it’s worth my time to set it up. And that’s our challenge—we have to show them that it’s worth their time if they spend a little time on the frontend getting set up. In the long run, it’s going to save them a ton of time.

MM: I think you’re right, that is the way to look at it. And it’s a little painful, I have to acknowledge from personal experience, to get everything set up at the beginning, but I’m already feeling once better because I’ve already told media properties—and I told Erin (Avenue Right Client Services Manager) this yesterday—I can’t fill binders of their papers. I can’t do it. I need to be able to look at everything one place. So I’m willing to be flexible with you, but you’ve got to give this a try.

Read more from Brian’s interview on Your Ad Here. Check out part 1, Information Collection, Visibility, and the Value of Simplicity in Media Buying, and part 3, Tacks on the Wall: Finding (and Fitting) Your Target Audience.

Read more about media buying automation for ad agencies.