The Hidden Fees No One Mentions in Media Plans
A veteran’s guide to spotting the markup before it bites your budget
In 40 years of agency life, one rule has never changed: if you don’t know how your money moves, someone else is profiting from your blind spot.
For small advertisers, “media transparency” can feel like a buzzword reserved for global brands with auditors and procurement teams. But the questions that keep the big players honest are the same ones small businesses should be asking — just simpler, sharper, and more human.
Principal Media Buying: Who Really Wins?
The term “principal media buying” might sound harmless—even efficient. But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find a practice that’s quietly reshaping the client-agency relationship, often to the detriment of transparency, trust, and long-term media performance.
At Whirr Media, we think it’s time to call it what it is: a conflict of interest masquerading as scale.