Traditional Media Buyer & Negotiator

M J Brunner Inc•Pittsburgh, PA

13d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Traditional Media Buyer & Negotiator is responsible for the strategic planning, negotiation, placement, and stewardship of traditional media investments including broadcast television, cable, radio, out-of-home (OOH), local sponsorships, and select experiential media opportunities. This role serves as the agency's primary expert in traditional media channels, ensuring clients achieve maximum reach, frequency, and brand impact while securing the most favorable rates, value-added opportunities, and premium inventory. The ideal candidate combines strong media buying expertise with exceptional negotiation skills, deep market knowledge, vendor relationship management, and an understanding of how traditional media integrates with modern digital and programmatic campaigns.

Requirements

5-7+ years of media buying experience.
Proven expertise in television, radio, OOH, and sponsorship buying.
Strong rate negotiation and contract negotiation skills.
Experience working across multiple DMAs and regional markets.
Understanding of Nielsen ratings, media math, and audience measurement.
Ability to manage budgets ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million dollars annually.
Strong organizational and project management skills

Nice To Haves

Agency experience.
Experience within gaming, hospitality, retail, healthcare, or regional consumer brands.
Familiarity with Strata, Mediaocean, Nielsen, Scarborough, SQAD, and related media tools.
Understanding of traditional and digital media integration

Responsibilities

Develop traditional media recommendations aligned with client business objectives and campaign goals.
Build market-specific media plans across television, cable, radio, OOH, sponsorships, and other traditional channels.
Evaluate audience delivery, reach, frequency, ratings, CPP, CPM, and cost efficiencies.
Identify optimal media environments to maximize awareness, consideration, and visitation.
Collaborate with digital, analytics, account service, and strategy teams to create integrated media solutions.
Negotiate rates, inventory, and value-added opportunities with television stations, cable providers, radio groups, OOH operators, and sponsorship partners.
Secure premium placements including: News programming, Live sports, High-profile local events, Prime-time programming, High-traffic OOH locations.
Leverage market relationships to obtain favorable pricing and enhanced added-value packages.
Evaluate proposals and make recommendations based on efficiency, audience quality, and strategic fit.
Develop and maintain strong relationships with media vendors and station representatives.
Serve as the primary point of contact for traditional media partners.
Stay informed of market trends, programming changes, political impacts, rate fluctuations, and emerging opportunities.
Conduct regular vendor meetings and market reviews.
Manage all aspects of order placement, traffic coordination, and billing reconciliation.
Ensure campaigns launch accurately and run as intended.
Monitor delivery throughout campaigns and secure makegoods when necessary.
Track and document negotiated value-added placements and bonus inventory.
Reconcile invoices against contracted rates and delivery commitments.
Provide post-buy analysis and campaign recaps.
Monitor ratings delivery and audience performance.
Identify optimization opportunities for future buys.
Support attribution, visitation, and business outcome measurement initiatives.
Deliver media investments at or below budget.
Maximize negotiated savings and added value.
Improve overall media efficiency and effectiveness.
Secure premium placements that competitors cannot easily access.
Maintain strong relationships that create preferential treatment and first-look opportunities.
Ensure traditional media contributes meaningfully to overall campaign objectives.
Support awareness, consideration, traffic generation, and brand growth metrics.
Coordinate traditional media efforts with digital, programmatic, social, search, and CRM teams.
Ensure consistent messaging and audience coverage across channels.