Christina Skirvin
Senior Media Strategist/Planner/Buyer at Freelancer
Each week on “Marketing Buzz,” our hosts talk to marketing experts from around the country. Today, Steve Strum talked to Christina Skirvin.
So tell us a little bit about the role of a media buyer.
Yeah, absolutely. So the media plan you’re putting together, you’re understanding what the target audience is, you’re kind of understanding how you’re going to reach that target audience, and then the media buyer takes the media plan and they’re working with media reps to negotiate the best buy for you. So what you’re trying to do is get the highest reaching frequency at the lowest cost.
So why is media planning essential before media buying?
Well the plan really is important because that helps you identify what you’re even going to buy. Depending on what your goals are, who you’re trying to reach, who your target audiences, it’s going to depend on the media mix. It’s also going to depend on what your budget is. So all of those factors are very important. And during the planning process, you put together what that best plan is and then pass it off to the buyer.
So why would an advertiser engage a media buyer?
Yeah, absolutely. Well the media buyer is the expert in the field. As a media buyer, you have a lot of times established relationships at all different levels of markets, local and national. And those relationships help. It also helps that you’ve been negotiating and doing this as an expert. And so in the long run, that’s really going to help you as an advertiser to get the best rates, to get the best positions.
So what are tips that you can share with us to know when buying media?
Well, as I’ve already kind of gone over, it’s really important to have a media plan. I’ve worked both client side and agency side as a media planner and buyer, and it’s really important to get that plan together, to sit down and get the strategy, identify the goals. A lot of times it’s easy to just jump in and say, “Hey I need to be on social; I need to do this” and instead it’s important to really just sit down and identify what your strategies are, your goals are, who the target audience is, and then develop a plan before you jump into the buy.
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