We were lucky to catch up with Shelley Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shelley, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about making remote work effective.
Advertising, and particularly our specialty of media buying, is a business that can be managed remotely very well. We work with teams of people in different locations to accomplish projects and campaigns locally and beyond. Online meetings and collaboration tools make this possible. Benefits are that we can bring in specialists as needed, without incurring the additional overhead we’d have if they were on staff. That enables us to do the work in the most cost-effective manner for clients. Plus most of our team members are still somewhat accessible even when on vacation.
Shelley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Shelley Anderson founded Pro Media in 1988 after more than a decade of working for some of the largest advertising agencies in San Diego. The company stays continually at the forefront in employing the most sophisticated marketing and media analysis tools, and has top capabilities in executing comprehensive digital media strategies as well as traditional media.
Pro Media has extensive experience with all media including trade advertising, specialty publications and newsletters, outdoor advertising, television, radio, print and more. Our team members have broad media experience handling large, multi-million campaigns and multiple campaigns simultaneously for clients.
Pro Media has worked with many government entities, including local, state and federal, as a Prime and Subcontractor, for many years. Our experience with government organizations has given us excellent understanding of reporting, billing and accountability procedures, not to mention ethical considerations.
We also have had deep involvement serving clients in health care and restaurants.
Pro Media is DBE Certified.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I was in an Oceanside Chamber of Commerce meeting today and shared that staying in business was one of my greatest accomplishments!! I have been in business for over 3 decades and have lasted through quite a few recessions and downturns, a couple of them fairly major.
My success is due to diversifying rather than only specializing in one business category. For example, while we have done a lot of work for the health care and hospitality industries, in recent years have been developing more work for government entities, both as a prime contractor and as a sub-contractor. This has provided stability when other business categories cut back on advertising, such as during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Another example was during the 2008 Great Recession, we were able to stay afloat due to subcontracting to a creative/branding ad agency that did not have its own media buying department. This allowed us to gain work for clients we may not have been able to land on our own.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
We have always practiced ethical behavior, transparency in billing/fees, fair but firm negotiation with the media and honesty in our relationships. We have never not paid a media bill that we owed, even when a client went bankrupt.
Our negotiation style, fair but firm, has benefited our clients in many ways. The media is more willing to provide bonus opportunities to clients of firms that operate in this manner instead of grinding rates down to the point where there is no wiggle room.
The media have places where they can bend a little and we take advantage of that, giving on our end to ultimately get the best deals for our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.promediasd.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProMediaSD
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleyanderson1/
- Twitter: Shelley Anderson @Shelley50281456