Media Buying Briefing: Debating the pros and cons of principal media

Media agencies seem to find themselves in some sort of hot water with clients at any given time since they first started getting unbundled from creative agencies. (Although the argument could be made it’s better to be talked about than not at all, which seems to be the fate of most creative shops of late.)

The latest imbroglio concerns principal-based buying or principal media — a practice in which media agencies invest in media directly, mostly at steep discounts, and then re-sell that inventory to their clients. While in recent years it’s been largely the province of barter agencies in the holdcos, principal media has bled into mainstream agancet investment, given they’re looking for any way they can to get back to to profit and growth in in the age of procurement.

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