Who Needs a Media Manager in Their Team? You Do (And Here's Why)

As the co-founder of a global media consultancy, I've seen firsthand the transformative impact media managers can have on advertising performance. Effective media management is now more crucial than ever for advertisers of all sizes, large and small.

For the biggest brands investing millions in media annually, having an in-house media team to oversee their media agency partnerships is non-negotiable.

LVMH, a top 30 global advertiser with a $1.4 billion annual media budget, maintains over 20 in-house media managers led by group media directors. As Alessandra Di Lorenzo, former Chief Commercial Officer at lastminute.com group once stated:

"Brands need to hire a media manager, and those without one are sacrificing power to media agencies."

Reports from various media consultancy firms confirm that advertisers with media managers hold their media investments to far higher levels of accountability by raising internal media capabilities.

Major brands like Tesco, Airbnb, and Procter & Gamble have all created their own variations of the media manager role in just the last year. As Digiday noted:

"Advertisers realised they've spent a lot on online media without regard to business effectiveness, and now they need to fix that. What was once seen as a functional role is now a game-changer in the age of media transparency."

While the top advertisers invest in dedicated in-house media teams headed by Chief Media Officers, smaller businesses often find themselves at a disadvantage due to limited resources.

This gap in media management capabilities between larger and smaller advertisers typically leads to inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and suboptimal campaign performance - highlighting the essential nature of elite media oversight for advertisers of all sizes.

For small-to-medium businesses, the challenge of achieving optimal media management has been daunting. With constrained budgets and personnel, these advertisers struggle to navigate the complex media landscape and gain accountability from their agency partners.

But securing world-class media leadership is no longer out of reach - we've pioneered a new subscription model to equip advertisers of any size with comprehensive media management capabilities.

What is a Media Manager?

A media manager is an indispensable strategic partner for advertisers seeking to maximise the impact of their media investments. This senior marketing role oversees the entire media management lifecycle - from strategic planning and optimisation, to day-to-day campaign execution and performance evaluation.

Key responsibilities include:

Strategic Media Leadership

Media managers serve as elite advisors, combining deep audience insights with a comprehensive understanding of the media landscape. They work closely with brand managers and media agency partners to craft omnichannel media strategies aligned to specific marketing objectives, whether building long-term equity or driving short-term customer acquisition.

Agency Partnership

As the central point of accountability, media managers own the relationship with media agency partners. They ensure strategic priorities are translated into actionable media plans, with continuous rigorous oversight of campaign execution, optimisation practices, and delivery against KPIs.

Media Neutrality & Innovation

With expertise spanning traditional and digital channels, media managers ensure channel mixes and innovative media tactics are generated from an unbiased, neutral perspective focused solely on their organisation's business goals. They inspire marketing and brand teams with new media thinking while serving as trusted navigators of the complex media landscape.

Financial Stewardship

Media managers relentlessly pursue investment optimisation and maximum efficiency. They lead agency compensation negotiations, benchmark pricing, track delivery vs. commitments, audit media buys, and reallocate budgets towards top performing tactics and partners through advanced measurement.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Media is the connective tissue between marketing disciplines. Media managers foster collaboration between creative, media, data/analytics, brand strategy and more to deliver seamless brand experiences that drive impact.

In essence, the media manager ensures media investment generates maximum return while elevating their organisation's media capabilities through expert governance and enablement.

The Importance of Dedicated Media Oversight

The simple truth is that when advertisers lack internal media expertise, their media agencies hold all the cards.

With no checks and balances, brands are at the mercy of their media agency partner's vested interests. Opaque pricing, lack of transparency around where investment is flowing, channel recommendations biased towards the agency's AVBs rather than true media neutrality - these inefficiencies run rampant without vigilant media oversight.

At Abintus, we've audited media campaigns for advertisers of all sizes across the globe. Time and again, we see a stark divide in outcomes between those with internal media managers versus those flying blind.

Brands with dedicated media leadership see upwards of 25% more efficient investment, with their media budget going towards effective, data-driven channel mixes tailored to their business goals.

Conversely, those without internal oversight pay inflated rates while their investment gets sprayed across sub-optimal channels and publishers.

The Fortune 500 get it - elite media management is marketing's force multiplier. It's how companies like P&G, Unilever and Coca-Cola consistently drive industry-leading return on their multi-billion dollar annual media investment.

But for small-medium sized advertisers, having permanent media staff on payroll has been prohibitively expensive...until now.

The Solution: Subscribing to a Media Management Team

Abintus has pioneered a new model that equips advertisers of any size with world-class media management capabilities.

Through a simple monthly subscription, brands now have access to a fully-resourced team of media experts and cutting-edge media auditing technology - the same calibre a top global advertiser would have in-house.

Each client is assigned a senior media leader like a Chief Media Officer, supported by media managers, data analysts and software engineers.

This experienced team provides the end-to-end oversight advertisers need, from strategic media planning aligned to marketing objectives, to day-to-day campaign management and optimisation across all channels, to comprehensive performance analysis illuminating where budget can be reallocated for maximum ROI.

We engage agencies with accountability in mind from day one, negotiating competitive rates and added-value while scrutinising delivery through transparent, real-time measurement.

Our expertise spans traditional media like TV, radio, print, OOH as well as digital channels including paid search, programmatic, social, CTV and more.

No more suspicions of conflict of interests - our recommendations are truly neutral, designed to equip our clients' businesses for sustainable growth.

Perhaps most importantly, subscribing to a dedicated media team costs a fraction of hiring that same level of expertise permanently.

Clients gain access to multi-million pound media technology and decades of consulting experience for a straightforward monthly fee.

Conclusion & Next Steps

In today's complex media landscape, vigilant oversight and adaptable strategy are prerequisites for sustainable success. As emerging digital media platforms and disruptive technologies redefine the playing field, no advertiser can afford to stand still.

The brands achieving transformative results don't simply react - they proactively reshape their operations around the opportunities ahead. They double down on first-party data strategies, rethink KPIs to emphasise business outcomes, and diversify their media mix for greater agility. Most crucially, they secure media management expertise, empowering marketing leaders to pilot these changes.

As the digital revolution continues accelerating, the competitive gap between advertisers with and without dedicated media expertise will only widen. The question for brands today is not whether to invest in strategic media leadership, but how soon. Our consultancy makes this level of insight and accountability attainable for any ambitious advertiser.

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About the Author

Philippe Dominois is co-founder and CEO of Abintus Consulting, and Head Coach at the Abintus Academy. He has over 25 years of international media experience, having worked on the media agency side, client side, and media auditing side throughout his career. Philippe has authored hundreds of articles over the years that focus on media management best practices.