Part 6 of a multi-part series on “Going Behind the Media Curtain” 
We told you that it’s all about the calls. We showed you what we do when calls are low.
Rewind for a second. We keep mentioning making revisions to help your calls, but to revise something, you need an original. Where does the original come from?
Oh, we have a process for that.
Every July, your media team starts work on the following year’s media buys. We are currently on step 6 (of 26) in the Annual Buy Process. We will be working on this for the next few months with the goal of all schedules being placed by the first week of December.
The “Science” of Next Year’s Media Buys
Many of the steps in the Annual Buy Process are organizational. I won’t bore you with the details, but we have checklists, naming conventions, and systems in place to make sure that all of our t’s are crossed and i’s dotted. After 20 years, we have this down to a science.
Despite it being a long process, it’s an efficient process. While we work on annuals, we still have to make sure that current schedules are generating calls, invoices are being reconciled, spots are running correctly, and that we are keeping up with industry news. We work on annual buys for 4 1/2 months every year, but you shouldn’t notice because there is no drop in service from your media team.
More relevant to you, during the annual buy process we also make sure we’re getting the most out of your budget by negotiating with TV stations to get the best possible rates. It’s also another time when we make sure that your spots are running in the most efficient and effective programs.
Even though we place “new” schedules for you every year, we look at your schedules as one long, continuous campaign. We make changes to budget, traffic, and placement as necessary year-round. We use our annual buying process as another opportunity to make sure that we are getting the most bang for your media buck.
Just one more example of what is going on behind the media curtain.
