Future of Marketing Briefing: The mental gymnastics of principal media

There’s a very specific facial expression CMOs make when “principal media” enters the conversation — composure holding, skepticism setting in. They understand the mechanics: an agency buys inventory, resells it and keeps the margin. What’s changed is the expectation that they take a side.

For some, the model nudges decisions toward the agency’s balance sheet, not their objectives. For others, it’s a tradeoff to be structured and contained with the right guardrails.

This is a member-exclusive article from Digiday. Continue reading it on digiday.com and subscribe to continue reading content like this.