Ever wish you knew better what exactly happens to your media ad spend? Which vendors does the money go without waiting 2 weeks for an answer that is no longer valid or accurate? When I was running media procurement for a global FMCG company, I often felt like I was trying to track a herd of invisible apples. I spent a lot of time and energy chasing data, trying to understand what was actually happening with my media spend, especially when dealing with multiple markets and agencies.
Since then, I’ve been working on designing and implementing media governance processes, and I wanted to share my recipe for success. After all, we in procurement love an apple-to-apple comparison, so let’s run with that analogy!
The Key Ingredients
We’ll start with three ingredients related to media itself and three to agency management. Let’s dive in.
1. Media Cost Tracking
This is our basic hygiene factor. It checks if the price paid for media placements matches the prices promised during the pitch and what’s in the contract. It doesn’t tell us if what we bought was right or wrong. It just tells us if we paid the agreed price. In apple terms: did we pay for an apple what the price tag said?
2. Assessing Media Quality
This tells us the quality of our buys but not necessarily whether we bought the right things. Media placements can be good or bad: they can build brand awareness, convert effectively, or, on the flip side, can be placed in dodgy environment or not be visible to actual humans—sometimes they’re only “seen” by bots. It’s like buying an apple that can either be juicy and delicious, or bitter, bruised, or worse—already half-eaten by a worm.
3. Aligning with Media Strategy
This step checks whether our plans and campaigns follow the approved media strategy. It tells us if we’re buying the right things—assuming our strategy was solid in the first place. This is where we figure out if someone’s been sneaking pineapples into our apple basket!
So, with these three ingredients—cost tracking, quality assessment, and strategy alignment—we cover the media side of things.
Agency Management: Keeping the Orchard in Check
Once you’ve got your apples accounted for on the media side, it’s time to check on the orchard staff: your agency. Here’s how to ensure they’re delivering fresh, juicy results.
4. Agency Team and Scope of Work
The agency team (how many FTEs, what capabilities, and their seniority), scope of work (specific deliverables), and fees are all detailed in the contract. Any shortcomings here will directly impact media KPI delivery. It’s like checking whether the apples were delivered on time, washed, and placed properly in the basket—and that you haven’t been charged twice for the same shipment.
5. Financial Controls Compliance
This deals with the value pots beyond the media price that the agency generates and should pass back to the advertiser. This includes benefits like free and unbilled media, payment terms, and other bonuses. Think of it as making sure the people hired to pick your apples are bringing back all the apples they’ve gathered, not just the ones they feel like sharing.
6. Performance Fee Scheme
Finally, the performance fee scheme evaluates the agency’s work, drives future action plans, and calculates any reward they’ve earned. This is where we check if we really “liked them apples.”
But That’s Not All…
For all of these elements to work, there are three key requirements:
- Access to the Right Data: It sounds obvious, but in cases where agencies act as gatekeepers to the data, it’s not always guaranteed. Moreover, the data set needs to be timely, correct, and complete. If you don’t know the status of your apple supply, how can you know what you’re able to do with them?
- Actionable Insights: Just having the data is not enough. You need to process it and understand the “so what”—the implications and what to do next. For example, the right insights will tell you if you have enough apples (and the right kind) to make a batch of jam, or if a single apple pie is the best you can do.
- Readiness to Act: Finally, we need to be able and willing to act on the information we get. This is vital because if we don’t care, no one else will. There are many organizations with all the data and insights at their disposal, yet they fail to take action, resulting in sizable value losses.
To Sum It Up…
Effective media governance means:
- Measuring and tracking media cost, quality, and strategy alignment
- Ensuring broad agency service compliance with contractual terms
But to achieve this, you need to:
- Get the right data
- Understand it
- Take action
It’s not rocket science, yet many organizations still struggle to implement it. Getting the right processes and systems will tighten the value well and prevent leaks.