Advice: What you should know and expect from your media partner
If you’re a multi-unit franchise owner or a co-op member, chances are that your hands are pretty full running your business. As you’ve learned throughout your career, an important part of excellent leadership is choosing excellent support to help your company move forward. When it comes to developing your media-buying strategy, it’s important to have media experts who are well-versed in helping franchises like yours grow.
Finding the right media buying agency to meet your needs is just as important as the messaging in your ads. Where should you start? What qualities do you need to look for? We’re here to offer some pointers to help you find an agency that works for best you!
TRANSPARENCY
Why this is important: Accountability
This is an absolute must. When looking for a reputable media partner to work with, it’s important to see how transparent their process is. Do they have a clear structure for your experience with them? Are you confident with what you can expect? How are they spending your money? Do you regularly receive a post-buy analysis after your campaigns have run?
It’s extremely important to track every media dollar placed and the results that they garnered. Additionally, it gives you (and your media agency) a better opportunity tweak things as needed. Leading us to our next point: metrics!
METRICS
Why this is important: It gives you a clear ROI
Creating a measurement system of what worked, how well, and compared to a clear baseline of results is essential for any campaign. You must define metrics that success will be evaluated upon.
Your media partner should be focused on creating a plan that will achieve the agreed upon, desired results. Now, media buyers aren’t magicians, but they should strive to work with you to make sure that you are getting the most out of your media dollars.
In order for a media agency to do its job, and be successful with your dollars, there’s also an expectation of transparency with your data as well. It’s important to have as much information as possible, from both sides, in order to make informed, data-driven decisions. Campaigns should always respond to changes in your needs, as well as changes in the market. It’s a system that is alive and dynamic.
PARTNERSHIP
Why this is important: Reliability and Availability
It’s incredibly important for a client to feel a sense of partnership with their media planning team. You need to know you can rely on them when you need them to be there.
For example, when Blue Onion works with a franchise owner or co-op, we take it to heart. This is a partnership – we’re here to help and we want to be involved in an impactful way.
Monthly co-op or franchisee meetings? We’re in! Need to make changes to your plan? We’re there to brainstorm with you.
We deem it important to stay in tune with and on the same page as those we are doing work for. We want to keep our fingers on the pulse of what is happening in your industry so we can efficiently tweak strategies and campaigns as needed.
BUDGETING SKILLS
Why this is important: Keeping strategies sustainable
Understanding budget recommendations and limitations is vital to a successful campaign. Seeing the big picture is just as important as understanding each individual process.
For example, say you have 20 stores in your co-op and a $100k budget for the year. With that, you are expecting that budget to cover a different promotion every month (12 total promotions for the year). It’s just simply not going to be enough as that ends up being less than $420 per store per promotion.
When you take into account the work that goes into identifying demographics, layering audiences, geo targeting to maximize response, and the impressions needed over the month to generate traction…. That budget just won’t cut it for 12 promotions over the course of the year.
With the help of your media agency, identify the most important ones to focus on – making the most out of the funds you have available. Don’t place unrealistic expectations on insufficient budgets, and don’t let a second-rate agency talk you into cutting important corners. Shoddy planning ultimately costs more than it saves.
EXPERIENCE
Why this is important: You can’t fake deep experience or relationships in the space
When looking for a media partner to help grow your franchise, it’s important to choose a team of expertly trained, seasoned professionals who will be with you every step of the way. An experienced team will be able to leverage strong relationships with media suppliers and professionals, as well their repertoire of proven results to help you achieve your goals.
At Blue Onion, we pride ourselves on being navigators of evolving media; our goal is to guide partners to success through wise media investment. With an average 10 years of tenure, our senior managers hold over 20 years of experiences in the industry. They provide the foundation upon which our younger energetic media planners and buyers—who average five to eight years media experience—build your campaigns.
With real love for the media business, our planners and buyers are intimately familiar with today’s media trends and usage. We’re agile, available when you need us, and always ready to offer the support you need for your company’s success. Contact us today and get started on a powerful, headache-free campaign! We put you first. Let us help you make an impact on your market – get in touch with one of our experts today!
Call: (303) 597-9661
Email: VP Business Development, Peter TenEyck PeterT@blueonionmedia.com
Email: VP Media, Eileen Weinert EileenW@blueonionmedia.com