By John Brabender
Over the years I have been involved in hundreds of pitches to perspective new clients. The scenario is really quite consistent. Typically about five media firms will be invited to present to the candidate and key staff. Although I believe twenty five is the record. Each firm will be allotted about an hour for their presentation where it is expected they will show samples of their work, discuss their unique capabilities for winning the race, and offer an appropriate amount of ego stroking of the candidate. At the conclusion of the day the campaign team meets in jury fashion, discusses what they remember about each firm, and finally arrives at a consensus decision because the donuts are long gone and sitting in this stuffy room is no longer tolerable.
Later, when you are notified that you have either won or lost the business, you try to find out how they made their decision. Clearly when you win the business you are remarkably impressed with their good judgment and perceptive ability to identify the truly talented from the truly creatively challenged. Upon losing, you immediately remind yourself that you never really wanted to work for that candidate, and convince yourself that the campaign manager had the process wired on behalf of one of his friends from the start. But you push on to try to find out more about their decision.
Most of the time you find out that the entire decision came down some single point. It could be they saw an ad that they just fell in love with. It could be that they think their race is identical to another one the consultant won. It could even be the false belief that by hiring a specific consultant all the big Committees and donors are going to immediately jump on board.
The truth is that most media firms have a much better idea as to how hire the right media firm than most campaigns. We know what matters and what doesn't. We can see through the smoke and mirrors of a slick presentation. We know what can be truly delivered and what is nothing more than the puffery of a firm desperate to get hired. We also know what a fair compensation is, and what compensation plans should send a campaign running for the hills.
I respectfully offer the following recommendations to any campaign going through the process of hiring a media consultant.
1. How to judge good creative work from bad.
The main thing about judging creative work is that you must review a large enough body of work to ensure that the firm is consistently creative. Any firm that does not
have four or five killer spots that they can show at any presentation should not have been invited to pitch in the first place. I would also keep a close eye on the style of the creative. Are they simply running the same ads over and over again and just changing the name of the candidate, or are they creating fresh work uniquely developed for each of their clients. And finally, find out what the ads cost to produce. You should be particularly interested in reviewing work that is in your production budget price range.
2. What is the strategic thinking behind the ads?
Creating a great ad is certainly not easy. But it is a heck of a lot easier than creating a great ad that also happens to be strategically sound. Too often ads get produced because they are creatively fun, or hard-hitting, or attention getting, but have little to do with the strategic direction needed for the campaign. A top tiered media firm will be able to immediately tell you what the strategic thought process was in creating every ad they've ever done.
3. Media Buying is not a Commodity.
I cannot begin to tell you how many pitches I have left completely stunned at a campaigns lack of interest in talking about the mechanics and strategic process as it relates to media buying. This is even true for campaigns that expect to spend in excess of 10 million dollars.
Yet if truth be told, by far the biggest area of difference between the top media firms and the second tier firms is in the area of media planning and placement. The problem is that so few people understand the nuances of media buying that they don't really know what questions to ask a perspective firm. They also start with a general assumption that a media buy of 1000 GRP's from one firm must be the same as 1,000 GRP's from another firm. Unfortunately, this is far from accurate.
First, you should find out if the media buying and planning will be done in house. If the answer is yes, find out how big their internal media operation really is. Is it a part-time intern, or someone that has real experience? What media buying resources do they invest in? Do they have up –to- date Arbitron and Nielsen ratings? What reports do they supply the campaign to monitor and review their buys? What is their strategic thinking on broadcast versus cable?
Go ahead and grill them. I mean really grill them. It will become quite clear which firms will effectively spend your hard-raised campaign funds, and which ones will receive very large holiday gifts from the station reps.
4. Find out the Process to Produce Your Ads
Every campaign worries about how much attention they will get during the busy
vote deciding season of September and October. But simply hiring a firm because they have little work, thus ensuring that you will get their full attention, leads one to wonder why this firm has so little work? It's a bit like selecting a restaurant simply because they have so many empty tables, and you are quite sure you can get their poor food served to you quickly.
The best firms know well in advance that they are going to be busy, and take appropriate steps to handle the high volume of work. One trend is investing heavily in an in-house production operation that provides their clients full access to editing on a 24/7 basis. This can be a lifesaver in event of the need for a critical response ad, but can also mean better quality ads.
Instead of being tossed out of someone else's production house because your booked time is up, you can actually stay at your own facility until the ad is done to full satisfaction. Also, because you are not just simply marking up the cost of someone else's work, the campaign is actually paying wholesale editing rates.
Another approach practiced by some firms is to arrange an exclusive deal with a production house to have full use of an edit suite and an editor for the final weeks of a campaign. This way they and their clients have the peace of mind of knowing they will be able to get into an edit facility on a moment's notice.
A campaign should also ask any perspective media firm about the filming process. Do they shoot on film or video? How big is the crew? Do they use the same crew or is it different every time? Who from the media firm will be at the shoots? What does a typical day of shooting cost? If these questions aren't asked ahead of hiring a firm, there are many problems that could be waiting ahead.
5. Chemistry matters.
Hiring the best media consultant for your campaign is not just about hiring the most talented. It's also about hiring someone you trust, someone you personally like, and someone who you believe will worry about the race at three in the morning just like you will. Consultants are just like any employee in the sense that if they are working for a candidate and campaign staff that that they get along with and respect, they will work very hard. If they simply feel like a vendor, it can be a challenge to keep them motivated, and chances are they won't be doing their best work. You need to take the time to get to know your consultant personally.
I highly recommend that you narrow your search down to two finalists, and invite each consultant to spend a day with you on the campaign trail. I believe after you do this, it will become quite clear which is the right consultant for you.
