Wednesday Morning Meeting for November 18, 2009:

What’s Grosser than Gross?

I really don’t understand why about 15% of sellers seem to forget to add the 15% agency commission to agency buys. Let’s face it, agencies never deal in net costs unless they’ve opted for a significant upfront fee or retainer from a client.  Keep the numbers consistent and you’ll stay on the buyer’s good side.

The only exception to this rule is online advertising.  Somebody, somewhere decided that InterNET and net rates should go hand-in-hand just to screw everything up for everyone.  Feel free to quote online ads as net, but you’d be helping the process if you just worked with gross numbers. 

When it comes to billing, I recommend clearly indicating both the net and gross costs to eliminate any confusion when invoicing.  In today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, sloppy billing costs both the agency and the station time, which could ultimately cost the station future business.  So to paraphrase my favorite clown: “Homie don’t do net.” 

As always, I welcome your thoughts.  Please e-mail me: bknight@harrison-edwardspr.com or follow me on Twitter @BobKnightAdMan 

Next week:  Want to sell cars? Buy Country Radio.

Bob Knight is Vice President, Advertising and Digital Media with Harrison Edwards PR & Marketing in New York and oversees the company’s advertising and HEdigital divisions, which include podcasting, webcasting, blogging; and print, electronic, and broadcast advertising and media buying. Prior to joining Harrison Edwards in 2005, Bob worked for some of the nation’s largest broadcasting companies, successfully developing programming in some of the most competitive markets including Chicago and San Francisco; his stations and shows were consistently top-rated.  In addition to Bob’s work as program director and on-air personality at AMFM, Inc., Clear Channel Communications, Citadel Broadcasting, Entercom, and NextMedia Group, he served as a consultant to Internet radio stations during the dot com boom. Bob’s national and regional radio commercials have won a Gold Clarion Award (AWC) and Gold “Big W” Awards (Ad Club) for commercials he produced. In 2008, Bob was named a “Rising Star Forty Under Forty” by the Business Council of Westchester and is a graduate of Leadership Westchester (Class of 2009).

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