Australia Digital Decisions Report - White Papers

It is easy to assume that roles like Media Head and CMO hold the most influence when it comes to media investment. However, reality is more complex. In our review of decision-making in digital media buy in Australia, we found that strong influencers included external and internal parties, and that their impact on the final decision is largely determined on when their involvement took place in the overall buying process.

Of all the stakeholders reviewed, media agencies remain the most important external influencer, but research & insights partners are becoming more influential due to the growing importance of data within the decision-making process. In our discussions with advertisers, we also discovered that they consider greater partnership with media owners part of ROI. They want media partners to play a more integral role when it comes to providing solutions for business challenges as opposed to selling them a suite of individual products. The current consensus is that media owners are still too focused on pushing their platforms and users and not giving advertisers the level of insights they need to optimize their spend.

There is no universal decision-making process that works for all companies. The companies we interviewed for this report range from CPGs to QSRs, with each having their own bespoke process that considers their capabilities and priorities. What can be extremely helpful in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the media buy process is to understand how each organization works, who is involved and when, and review it within a standardized framework. We illustrate some examples in this report and hope you find it useful when assessing the media buying process in your company.