LAS VEGAS — Principal-based media buying can best be seen as a not just an update of traditional “media barter” arrangements, but as a way to solve the problems associated with that old form of agency/publisher deals. As Incon International’s Reid Steinberg notes, principal-based buys can help advertisers unlock additional budgetary spending. On top of that, it can also fund alternative media types by converting traditional expense line items into value generators through capital investments in media companies.
“Media is always an expense item on a client’s budget sheet. They’re paying for fees for an agency, they might be paying data fees, whatever,” Steinberg, EVP Media Director at Icon, told Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein at CES. “If I can allocate 10-15% more to extend my media budget or to fund other types of media, we become more of a profit maker for media versus it just being an expense item.”
Icon developed this approach from 40 years in barter, Steinberg said. As a result, Icon’s helping companies solve inventory issues and marketing budget challenges by investing capital into media companies.
Easing expenses
Icon investments are designed to address media company needs including quarter-end revenue demands, marketing expense assistance, and promotional event funding, gaining principal positions that create client value.
“We took our capital and we went to media companies and helped them solve problems on their side,” Steinberg said. “All of this allowed us to gain a principal position within media. And we use that to solve barter problems.”
Over the past decade, Icon recognized its leadership position in using these capital investments to provide economic value back to clients by purchasing the same media they would acquire otherwise.
Quality can’t be compromised
Brands and agencies evaluating principal-based options must ensure transparency and that media quality matches original buying plans without compromise.
“We want to make sure we’re delivering the exact same media that they’re planning on purchasing,,” Steinberg said. “That should involve existing benchmarks, guidelines, and the quality of the inventory that they’re getting. None of that should be compromised at all.”
The benefit structure should layer on top of baseline media expectations rather than requiring quality trade-offs that undermine the model’s value proposition.
Keeping agency relationships intact
Principal-based buying operates outside agency-client relationships rather than disrupting them. The idea is to ensure it fits seamlessly into existing guidance covering strategy, insights, and cost structure development roles.
“Your agency is there to make sure that they’re stewarding your account,” Steinberg said. “You pay them to do that. You pay them to come up with strategy. Principal-based buying should fit into that as part of a seamless integration.”
Companies like Icon help generate value through principal investments that deliver pure incremental benefit without derailing agency functions.
Holding companies now compete
The principal-based media buying landscape has evolved from a few specialized companies to include every major holding company incorporating the model into their ecosystems for client value delivery and revenue generation.
“Before, we were maybe one of a few companies in the space,” Steinberg said. “Now every major holding company does principle-based media buying.”
Icon partners with smaller agencies lacking holding company scale to help them tap similar value, expanding the ecosystem as margin shifts from media providers back to clients through real economic benefits.
“It used to be that all of the margin was really on the media provider side of the business,” Steinberg said. “Now, what principle-based media buying has done is it’s taken that margin and it’s given it back to the clients in terms of real value.”
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