In a pursuit to modernize the processes that exist in the media planning and buying world, our lead industry association www.aaaa.org has formulated some recommendations.  At the forefront is the urging of the media buying side of the industry to switch from a CPP (cost per point) basis for negotiation to a CPM (cost per thousand).  The reasoning is to make the method of calculating efficiency the same as that of other areas of media planning and buying (IE: print and interactive negotiation).  Sounds a like a great idea.  In fact it was a great idea several decades ago.  Too bad these metrics are still tying our profession to stale and dated yard sticks.  What our industry and more so our clients need is a metric that ties directly to the business’ bottom line.  Maybe a hybrid formula tying sales or some action to a specific television schedule, holding the television campaign, stations and media buyers/agency accountable to parameters that actually show up on a business’ P&L.  I guess we’ll see some committee make those recommendations in a few decades.  I can’t wait.

Eric