What are the key qualities needed to be a good media buyer/planner?
First of all, ‘to be good is no longer good enough’! Five years ago, when media as a function was just coming out of the closets, everyone in the industry believed that a good media planner had to be good in mathematics or statistics. Similarly, people also felt that the most experienced operations executives would eventually become the best media buyers. In hindsight, many of this stereotypical thinking seems outright childish and over-simplistic. It is amazing as to how some of our fundamental assumptions about ‘what makes an effective media professional’ have completely changed. The fact is that Media is not Mathematics just as Creative is not Fine Art! Media must move a tube of toothpaste off the shelf and it must ensure that the increasingly cynical consumer heads towards that car showroom! While recruiting people for our company today, we put a lot of emphasis on qualities such as idea sensitiveness; willingness to question the known; to break the rules; ability to handle ambigui
