What’s a Media Buyer, and Why Do I Care?

If you’re creating online video, and hoping to make money… there’s someone holding your fate in her hands. She’s the media buyer. She decides what online sites (and possibly what online videos) a marketer uses to advertise.

The media buyer role, reports B to B, used to be reserved for “newcomers or hangers-on.” Now it’s becoming more complicated with the web. “The proliferation of Internet options has helped broaden the definition of what exactly qualifies as media.”

Favorite quote of the article (by Sean Callahan and titled “Media Strategists Plan on a Complicated Future”)

“Once upon a time… the job of the media buyer required two key tools — the knife and the fork — because going out to lunch with trade publication sales reps was a critical part of the job.”

Hey ad reps for online video sites… get a big expense budget.