• by Lisa Seward , March 13, 2003

Lisa Seward does not hate media. As media director of Fallon Minneapolis she is among the industry’s smartest and most innovative media thinkers. But she does have her peeves and things she wants to change. So she will kick off a new feature in the Friday MediaDailyNews -- the MDN Top Ten List of the Week.

10 Things I Hate About Media

1. Impressions.The entire notion that our job as media professionals is to collect scads of “eyeballs” is, at best, out of date. (At worst it’s an insult.) Seems to me that our job should be about generating business results for our clients. Call me crazy.

2. Demographic targets. In 2003 (hell, even in 1993!) demographics are a lousy predictor of behavior – certainly of brand choices. And the claim that “they’re all we can measure” is a cop-out.

3. “But that’s what the creatives want to do.” More than ever before, brilliance in advertising has to come from a partnership between creative and media people. Ordering us to buy :30s on network TV because that’s what the creative idea is, period, just won’t cut it.

4. Clout. Admittedly this isn’t an entirely original question, but still too few people in the industry ask it: how can all the mega buyers buy below the market when they are the market?

5. Media as num-whacking. A low point early in my career was when a high-ranking account person looked me straight in the eye and said, “Now that we [others] have figured out what to do, why don’t you go whack the nums on it?” Media people can, and in today’s times must, be key contributors to strategic and creative direction as well as media plans and buys.

6. The upfront. What more can be said? It’s antiquated, archaic and patently biased toward sellers’ interests over buyers.’ Yet no one seems to object! It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

7. Tonnage buys. No one admits it, but many, many players buy truckloads of haystacks in order to get their hands on the rare needle. It hurts every participant (except the vendors, of course), and it especially hurts the little brands.

8. Bleed charges. Explain to me, amidst all of today’s heightened technological advances, why we’re still paying this? (This line of thought extends to myriad other conventions that make no sense anymore – premiums for :15s, commissions, etc.)

9. Reps that can’t sell their product. There are still media sales people whose skills are limited to quoting the MRI and circulation numbers. I can look those up, thanks. What I want is to know what’s special, what’s uniquely compelling, about your vehicle. And I want you to listen.

10. Inertia. We inarguably are at the most dynamic time in the history of media. Our response? Droves of advertisers running to “tried and true” network TV. Mega media shops selling themselves (still!) on their low CPMs. Marketers and agencies hoping that if they ignore PVRs long enough, they’ll go away. No one getting their heads around CRM. And on and on…

Got your own Top Ten List? Send your entries to john@mediapost.com.