Trigger 7

Media agency

(PBL session 8, closing trigger 7. 12.11.2014)


A company's marketing can be outsourced to a media agency, whose job is to make sure that the message appears in the right place at the right time and reaches the right people with the best possible price.  

A media agency are supposed to understand the consumers more deeply, understand the media landscape better and have better relationships and more power with media owners than others in order to deliver better deals for their clients.  

Originally media agencies were focusing on buying media space cheaper and more efficiently than the mainstream advertising agencies. Later when the sector has developed planning skills and understanding the customer behaviour has been added the their skill set. By understanding what motivates a target group, the medias they follow, watch, read or hear, the media agencies became a vital source of communciations advice for all types of advertisers.

Media agencies ensure that the marketers truly understand the behaviour of their consumers; they make sure messages are targeted correctly and the marketers see the potential of the latest technology. Media agencies work with social networks, brands that produce their own content or communicate regularly with customers as well as the traditional media; newspapers, TV and radio. 

Research is the most crucial element of understanding how different countries behave in media. Each country have their own cultural behaviour, humour and ways of communicating etc.

Statistics show that of the entire marketing budget, on average 25% is spent for online advertising and 75% for offline advertising like print media. In B2B advertisement, business events are the most important channels. According to Mediacom.com 67% of companies consider event marketing to be the most effective marketing strategy. Also newsletters are important within the same industry. 

Media can be divided in three different sections, paid, owned and earned media. Owned media is the content the company creates themselves, their websites or social media profiles, for example. Earned media is word of mouth, articles written about the company or campaign, social media posts and shares. This type is considered to be more credible in the consumers’ eyes. As the name suggests, paid media is bought, which raises suspicion in consumers’ minds. Volume wise, paid media reaches a bigger audience. Not every company invests in paid media, for example Atria relies and invests more on earned media, which as worked for their benefit. 


Sources

Media.com. 2014. What is a media agency. 

Media.com. 2014. How does a media agency work.  

Media.com. 2014. What expertise do media agencies have. 

Media.com. 2014. What benefits does a media agency deliver. 



Prospects. 4/2014. Media planner job description.