Paid
- TV and streaming
- Radio and podcasts
- Print and outdoor
- Search, social and retargeting
- Affiliates and direct mail
Media
Spending money on marketing is easy. Spending it well is a craft.
I started my career as a media buyer and planner at Chiat/Day and BBH. Planning and buying media is a skill you learn by doing, and it's where most marketing budgets are won or lost.
Volume and efficiency
Find the dials that give you both.
When a company raises money, the board wants growth that is fast and efficient. Most channels give you one or the other: efficient but small, or big but expensive. The trick is finding the dials that deliver both volume and efficiency, and doing it consistently, quarter after quarter.
Great advertising can fail when it reaches the wrong people at the wrong time. And plenty of companies drop a channel as inefficient when the real problem was that they bought the wrong media, or bought it badly.
Paid, owned, earned
One plan, not three departments.
Owned
- Website and app
- Email, newsletters and CRM
- Original content and video
- Sales materials
- Promotions and contests
Earned
- PR and press coverage
- Reviews and reputation
- Word of mouth and community
- Partners and co-marketing
- Mentions in AI answers
The channels
How I think about each one.
Television
Builds the brand story, credibility and demand. Streaming and addressable TV now let you target it far more precisely.
Radio
Still powerful, cheap to produce, easy to track and good for specific markets and audiences.
Podcasts
Targeted, inexpensive and personal. The host's voice carries trust that an ad can't buy on its own.
The right ad in the right publication still drives users and sales leads, especially trade titles with a narrow, valuable readership.
Outdoor
Efficient awareness and credibility in the markets that matter most to you.
Events and PR
A few chosen events reach your audience and the press in the same room. Consistent coverage builds credibility, and it takes real strategy.
Search and social
Measurable, flexible and the backbone of most plans. Now largely run by the platforms’ own automation, so feed it clear creative and clean data.
AI answers
The newest place buyers meet you. Earned mentions, clear proof and consistent positioning decide whether you get named.
Offline still works
When offline is the right call.
Digital is easier to measure, but that doesn't make it the right answer for every business. Offline cuts through a noisy media world and gets remembered. It tells a story, builds credibility and shows up in daily life. As part of one coordinated plan, it can be as cost efficient as digital.
It also feeds everything else. TV drives people to search for you by name. Podcasts leave transcripts. Press gets quoted and linked. Those are the same signals that help a brand get named in AI answers.
Geography
Your customers are concentrated in a few markets.
Competition
You need to stand out in a crowded category, fast.
Seasonality
Your business has peak moments, like HotJobs had with New Year's resolutions.
Big launches
A new product or a new brand deserves a stage.
Sales support
Offline credibility makes the sales call warmer.
Trust
Money, health and anything people are nervous to buy.
New channels
Be early, then be disciplined.
I've been early more than once: Facebook at Manilla, podcasts at Betterment, streaming TV. New channels are usually most efficient before everyone piles in. Ads inside AI assistants are the newest example; ChatGPT began showing ads in 2026.
Early doesn't mean reckless. Run a real test with real creative and an agreed target, then scale what works and cut what doesn't.
Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.
You can have marketing that is good and fast, good and cheap, or fast and cheap. Never all three.
Leave enough lead time.
Allow time to buy the media and to create and produce the ads. Rushed media is expensive media.