Tips for negotiating out of home buys: Part 5

By the editors of Media Life

This is one in Media Life’s ongoing series, “Swept by change: The new out of home.” Click here to read our previous stories.

If there is an art to buying out of home, or really any medium, it is the art of negotiation. It’s about getting the best deal for your client, obviously, but it goes beyond that. It’s about becoming a master of possibilities. By that we mean bringing imagination and knowledge–information–into the process. In the smartly negotiated deal, all the parts fit together perfectly, the campaign resonates with consumers, and everyone comes out ahead, the client, the vendors, the creative types and you, the media person who made it happen.

Just what goes into the art of negotiating OOH ad buys?

For answers, Media Life turned to some experienced out of home buyers we know. While they have different backgrounds, they all came back with very smart advice and insights. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing their tips with readers.

Our first interview was with Jack Sullivan, and you can find his answers here.

Our second interview was with Patrick West, and you can find his answers here.

Our third interview was with Kristin Upchurch, and you can find her answers here.

Our fourth interview was with  Tony Sweeney, and you can find his answers here.

We wrap up our five-part series with Erin Dunigan:

Erin Dunigan

Senior out of home specialist at Empower MediaMarketing

How she got into media: My story is very Ferris-Bueller-esque … Specifically, my Dad’s cousin’s wife’s sister worked in OOH in Chicago. She graciously got my foot in the door at her OOH agency, I was eventually hired, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What she wanted to be as a child: My childhood career aspirations hovered somewhere between becoming either a ballerina or a meteorologist. Obviously those are extremely related and choosing just one path was too hard, so the next most logical choice in a career was media and OOH.

Here is how Erin describes her work, writing of herself in the third person: “She operates much like a detective when it comes to discovering where an advertiser’s target might frequent. Is it driving the road? Taking public transportation? Flying into and out of airports? Visiting the doctor’s office? Daily sleuthing and evaluation of out-of-home spaces is what makes her job both mysterious and rewarding.”

Erin Dunigan’s tips on buying out of home

1. Start with market-specific planning rates, which can most easily be referenced via TAB ratings data. TAB planning scenarios, planning details and planning costs are based on market averages of rates submitted by vendors, so while TAB planning costs are not necessarily applicable to a specific location’s value, they can help serve as a guide for median rates by OOH tactic.

2. Reference historical spend. See what your agency/company has purchased by vendor within a specific market previously. The best-possible scenario is that considered locations were purchased in a past campaign. This means you can use those historical rates as a starting point for negotiations; if specific locations were not purchased in a past campaign, then use the plan’s average rates by tactic as a starting point for negotiations, alongside market averages provided by the TAB.

3. Work to adjust overall spend down based on the volume of a buy and length of a campaign. The more units purchased and the longer a campaign’s flight, the higher a discount should be. Also, if an OOH buy is purchased not by exact location but by target impressions, reach, target rating points, etc., there should be a discount for committing to packaged locations versus hand-selecting individual sites or destinations.

4. Look at spend beyond a single brand’s or campaign’s commitment. Is your agency/company working on buys with the seller for other accounts and campaigns? If so, position these other commitments as rationale for further price breaks.

5. Consider your agency/company’s payment process. Can it pay invoices with 30 days? Oftentimes, sellers are willing to cut additional deals knowing they’ll receive payment in a timely manner.

6. And don’t forget to leverage your buyer-seller partnerships. Both buyers and sellers are great at what they do because they excel at forging and maintaining respectable and balanced relationships. So rely on your vendor partners to help you in meeting campaign goals at fair, even better-than-fair, costs.

7. Other negotiation considerations to keep in mind:

a. Pending how the overall ad market is doing, anticipate minor price increases year-over-year. But always question these, especially if they exceed 5 percent. And keep in mind, working to maintain flat costs year-over-year is often a good negotiation goal.

b. Sometimes negotiations can translate into added value instead of heavy rate discounts, which in some cases can benefit a brand’s exposure in the marketplace more so than lowering bills.

c. Always recap all negotiations in writing.

Tags: ooh ads, ooh negotiating tips, out of home advertising, out of home negotiating tips