5 Ways to Enhance Your Media Procurement Strategy

When it comes to media buying, collaboration between marketing and procurement teams has never been more critical. With brands investing heavily to humanize their messaging and leverage advanced technology, aligning these two departments is essential to optimize media buys and drive superior outcomes.

So how can enterprises ensure these two functions work together effectively?

The Convergence of Marketing and Procurement Objectives

Marketing's Focus

Today’s marketing teams are under pressure to deliver personalized and omnichannel customer experiences – at scale. Achieving these goals requires marketing leaders to invest in data quality, advanced audience segmentation, and integrated technology stacks that unify data across channels. Marketers should be aiming to humanize their brand's voice and leverage data to create high-propensity audiences, thus driving engagement and conversion.

Procurement's Role

Procurement teams, traditionally focused on cost efficiency and supplier management, now need to evolve to support these sophisticated marketing objectives. They must learn to strategically source capabilities that enhance data quality, audience targeting and cross-channel measurement. Procurement can add value by advocating for diverse media publishers and ensuring transparency and compliance in all media buys.

Strategies for Effective Collaboration

1. Open Communication and Shared Goals

The first step in bridging the gap between marketing and procurement is establishing open lines of communication. Both teams should have a clear understanding of each other's goals and challenges. Regular meetings and integrated planning sessions can help align strategies and expectations.

2. Joint Ownership of Technology and Data

With the growing importance of integrated tech stacks and unified data, both marketing and procurement must collaborate on technology decisions. This joint ownership ensures that the chosen solutions meet marketing's needs for advanced targeting and measurement while adhering to procurement's standards for cost-effectiveness and vendor compliance.

3. Leveraging Data Clean Rooms

As cookie deprecation reduces the availability of addressable inventory, data clean rooms offer a privacy-compliant solution for enriching customer profiles. Both marketing and procurement should be involved in selecting and managing these solutions to ensure they align with broader data privacy and security policies.

4. Diverse and Inclusive Media Buying

Incorporating diversity into media plans is gaining traction. Marketing teams should identify opportunities to invest in diverse-owned media companies, while procurement can play a crucial role in holding media agencies accountable to these commitments. This not only aligns with corporate social responsibility goals but also enhances brand reputation and resonance with diverse audiences.

Potential Pitfalls of Misalignment

1. Inefficiency and Increased Costs

Without alignment, marketing and procurement may pursue conflicting strategies, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. Procurement might prioritize cost savings over the quality and relevance of media placements, undermining marketing's efforts to reach targeted audiences.

2. Compromised Data Integrity

Disjointed efforts can result in fragmented data and inconsistent measurement approaches, compromising the integrity of data-driven insights and leading to suboptimal decision-making and a diminished return on investment (ROI).

3. Missed Opportunities for Innovation

Without collaboration, marketing and procurement may miss opportunities to innovate and leverage new technologies. Integrated approaches to audience building, campaign management and measurement are essential for success in a rapidly changing media environment.

Actionable Recommendations

1. Foster a Culture of Collaboration

Encourage a culture where both marketing and procurement see themselves as partners working towards a common goal. This can be achieved through cross-functional training and joint performance metrics that emphasize shared success.

2. Invest in Integrated Technology

Procurement should prioritize sourcing technology solutions that facilitate data integration and cross-channel measurement. This includes audience-first platforms, customer data platforms (CDPs) and advanced attribution models that provide a holistic view of media performance.

3. Advocate for Transparency

While transparency in media buying is no longer the hot-button issue it once was, it remains crucial. Procurement should understand the implications of various deal types and advocate for transparent practices that align with the brand's values and strategic objectives.

4. Develop a Risk Management Framework for Influencer Marketing

With influencer marketing becoming a standard line item in media plans, procurement must work with marketing and legal teams to develop robust risk management frameworks. This includes clear guidelines for influencer selection, contract terms and performance metrics to mitigate potential risks.

5. Embrace Diversity and Inclusion

Procurement can lead the charge in ensuring that diverse media publishers and vendors are included in media plans. This not only supports broader corporate social responsibility goals but also enriches the brand's engagement with diverse consumer segments.

By fostering open communication, joint ownership of technology and data and a commitment to diversity and transparency, brands can achieve more effective and efficient media buys. Ensuring effective collaboration between these two critical functions will help enterprises drive better business outcomes and position their brand for sustained success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.