Have you ever wondered if you are really getting all the media exposure you pay for? Do you know where the hidden costs are if your staff or your ad agency is not skilled at forecasting rating points? Do you know how often the stations on your buy run the wrong traffic or fail to deliver the planned GRPs?
Do your customers allow YOU to charge for products and services that weren't delivered as ordered? Do you know many ad agencies and advertisers do exactly that? You shouldn't pay for media that doesn't run as projected, negotiated and ordered; but you probably do if you aren't conducting media performance audits.
One client hired MPA to conduct a sample audit of their in-house media department. They selected three markets- Dallas, Charlotte and Pittsburgh. We audited their entire process – from plans to buys, from invoices to payment vouchers.They advertised weekly entertainment events so it was important that spots run as ordered. Most radio stations demanded payment in advance because entertainment clients are considered "transient" advertisers.To our client's surprise (but not ours) the media performance audit revealed that not one single radio station ran their schedules as ordered. Traffic was wrong, critical days were missed, the number of spots varied, but the client was paying 100% for the advertising as ordered.
I thought we were running a pretty tight operation until MPA conducted a performance audit. The annual impact of this slippage easily cost our company over $250,000 per year. We believe in the MPA way of guarding our money.