Should You Buy Your Own TV Media Time or Use an Advertising Agency?
It may seem like a good idea. You can save the 15% advertising agency commission and you can save a lot more than that if you end up with an unscrupulous advertising agency that substantially marks up the media time and then charges a commission on top of that.
The truth is that buying your own TV media time is a huge mistake, unless your law firm is large enough for an in-house professional media buyer. Buying your own TV media time is equivalent to your client being his or her own lawyer. Not only does it require experience, knowledge and services you don’t have, but it is much more work than you think, requiring time you don’t have.
An advertising agency will have access to expensive research and monitoring services such as Nielsen Media Research or CMR. An advertising agency will periodically research all lawyers advertising on TV in your market to determine which TV stations and programs competing lawyers advertise on; how many commercials they air per month on each TV station; and the amount they spend for each commercial. You probably thought that you should advertise where there is less competition, but a good advertising agency knows that you want to be where the competition is.
A good advertising agency will not only have the knowledge and experience to choose the right stations, TV shows, days and times for your particular advertising goals, but will also do all of the scheduling work in a changing environment. TV stations periodically change TV shows and times; ratings and prices are always changing; elections and large short-term advertising campaigns can significantly increase costs. A media buyer must constantly stay on top of scheduling.
An advertising agency will monitor your advertising campaign to make sure that your TV spots are run when they are supposed to. The advertising agency will periodically analyze results to determine if expectations are being met and whether scheduling changes need to be made.
If you choose to buy your own TV media time for your law firm, assuming you had the experience and knowledge, you will have to do all of this work yourself. It’s hard to imagine many lawyers who have the extra time to do all this.
When you call a TV station directly, your account will be given to a salesperson whose job is to sell media time on only one TV station. The salesperson at a TV station will not provide you with advertising agency services, except producing an inexpensive and ineffective TV commercial to get you on the air. You may get a good and experienced salesperson or you may end up with a salesperson that is not experienced or is more interested in commissions. In either case, it is unlikely that the salesperson is interested in increasing commissions.
When you call a TV station to purchase your own media time, you will be quoted a retail rate while an advertising agency will be quoted a wholesale rate. Any advertising agency should be able to purchase media time at least 15% less than you can. A good advertising agency will be able to do even better. Consequently, you will get advertising agency services for free. With a good advertising agency, not only will you get the services for free, but you will pay even less for the media time.
When negotiating the price for TV spots, you are at a substantial disadvantage because you do not purchase media time every day. As a lawyer, you do not know how much you should pay for different TV spots; whether you are entitled to free bonus spots; or how many. A 30 second spot is not the same as any other 30 second spot. There are many differences affecting the value, too many to mention here. Imagine allowing a personal injury client to negotiate a settlement for his or her own case.
Hopefully, you have decided to have an advertising agency create a TV advertising campaign for your law firm and do your media buying. Should you call the TV stations first so you know what you should be paying before you call an advertising agency?
Again, that would be a mistake. When you call a TV station, you will be assigned to a sales representative who will quote you a retail rate. When you later call an advertising agency, the media buyer at the advertising agency will call the TV station and be assigned to a different sales representative who will be quoting a wholesale rate. Now, the TV station has a problem. There are two sales representatives fighting for the same account and one quoted a retail rate, while the other quoted a wholesale rate. Which sales representative do you think will get the account?
I have even seen a situation where a law firm called a TV station and six months later called an advertising agency. The TV station had a record of the lawyer calling six months earlier and told the advertising agency that they would not sell TV media time to the advertising agency. They told the advertising agency to tell the lawyer to call the station. The lawyer was forced to deal directly with the TV station.
5/5/2006 
2 Comments
An attorney, armed with the right knowledge, should absolutely buy his or her own TV Air Time! Many thousands of dollars will be saved! Plus, ROI will increase.
Comment by Brian Baumann — 8/13/2008 @ 8:22 am
This was quite an article, and I would LOVE to know who wrote such an article.
Let’s dispell the myths of agencies once and for all. No agency works for free. You don’t work for free and neither do they.
There are some wonderful agencies out there most of whom handle Tier 1 advertising (ie National) and some who handle Tier 2 (regional), many of whom I have had the pleasure of working with over the years.
However, here’s what local agencies don’t want you to know:
The 15% discount isn’t really a discount. Stations expect them to take the “discount” and often gross rates up for spots, ad space, banners, or promotions to compensate for the loss of income.
You are given an invoice from the agency. The agencies make their money from their monthly fees (although some do not practice this) plus grossing back up the invoice so they make their commission.
Every TV media has access to Neilson. It’s how they are graded, how they can tell who is watching when, and what the individual shows are doing. Most every TV station has CMR. This tells us precisely where each advertiser spends, how much, what times, and even on radio, print and outdoors. It is imperative to us.
CMR is also often too costly for local agencies. Again, the agencies rely on the information the account executive gives them!!
Many local agencies cannot afford to subscribe to Neilson, Circulation Bureau or Arbitron. A good way to find out is to ask things like, can you post? If they can’t, the ONLY way they can tell how anything is doing is from what the account executive gives them!!!!
What local TV stations have that many local agencies cannot afford is research groups who are nationally known and recognized by people such as McDonald’s, Carmax, car manufacturers, etc. The top two leading groups are Marshall Marketing and Scarborough.
They also have national consultants such as Jim Doyle and access to almost every market to find out what has worked and what hasn’t.
The reason local agencies do not have access for this information is lack of funds. Their income is substantially less than a broadcasting group (someone who owns multiple TV stations, radio networks, and newspapers).
The broadcasting groups KNOW their only success is dependent upon those who advertise on their TV stations, websites, radio stations and newspapers. If your business doesn’t increase or improve, then you will cancel and they lose profits.
They equip the people that work with them with the best of the best tools so that they will do nothing but succeed with tangible evidence and clear plans.
Stations also prefer to do business, especially now with automotive drastically down, to work and partner even more so with local businesses. Now is your chance to get the best rates and added value. Agencies, that they already are taking a revenue cut from, will be held to rates. They know that the agencies may choose to do what is easier to make revenue in the short term than help the client, make a little less for now, and everyone do well in the long term.
There’s a reason why their is so much churning with agencies. People often last a few years with an agency. With local direct buying, you are open to more opportunities to promote yourself more effectively and rare is the advertiser who feels he needs an agency after being direct for a number of years.
Going back to revenue and lack of opportunites, local agencies more often than not can’t afford the millions of dollars of equipment or the personnel to handle quality and captivating production. They can’t hire someone from Hollywood who worked on movies. They can hire Bobby fresh out of college to work with a production group, rent out space, scan your office and your location. Often these commercials are in effective because they have the wrong message and do not emotionally compell your potential client.
Lastly, in my long long comment: The people you work with for TV, radio, print, online, and outdoors, want to help you. This is their job. Their success is directly dependent on you being very successful. They would love just as much to get to know your business as to help you understand why it works, how it works and what is best for you.
Attorney’s aren’t stupid. They know that. They know you can grasp ideas and how it works and make good decisions without paying someone who doesn’t have the true resources to help you.
If you have more questions, or would like some research studies feel free to email me.
Comment by jessica_s — 1/8/2009 @ 1:32 pm