The new breed of media buyer is not at a disadvantage if they did not study at uni. They are not left waiting tables if they did not get that internship at one of the large agencies. The only 'trading' they may be expected to have experience with can be limited to eBay.
In fact, the new generation of media buyer who might end up spending thousands of dollars every day on behalf of his or her employer won't need to know the difference between a DSP and a SSP.
I am not saying that to detract from them or their abilities, in fact quite the opposite. These disruptive professionals speak directly and expertly with their audience everyday, they know exactly who that audience is, who that audience is not and most importantly they know how to leverage technology to find other customers that fit into their community with an alacrity never before seen in the industry.
These talented people are 'social media community managers' (CMs) and have only existed within brands and digital agencies for the last few years.
As Facebook and other platforms have changed their business models and algorithms for more control of commercial messages on their platform, these CMs have had to expand their remit to now building paid marketing campaigns using the powerful internal data points (which were once available for free) to target their 'community' easily and very effectively.
The CM's are part of a rapid and profound shift born out of necessity, not by design.
To them, Facebook is not a 'publisher' with a large 'share of voice' and an 'inventory' to 'sell' but a means to a measurable, accountable and lucrative end.
What does this mean going forwards? No one can be sure, but as an evangelist for the emerging programmatic media paradigm, I find the possibilities exciting. Audience buying has swept in as the new norm in an area outside the control of the media agency model. The proverbial cat is out of the bag.
In my role as a sales director for an ad tech company, finding businesses for whom our platform can solve a problem is my number one priority. And while I started with the very conventional view that my ideal customer would be the digital guru within media agencies large and small, I have been surprised to discover this new breed of 'media buyers' existed.
The enormous capability that Facebook possesses as arbiters of both the buy and supply side makes them the go-to solution for these innovative early adopters. Very quickly though, as the majority of programmatic platforms develop data solutions themselves, the wider industry is fast approaching parity.
Consider too that, if you as a larger company or brand, choose to play outside the limitations of Facebook's walled gardens, you can leverage your own proprietary data and insights in much more creative ways than social media platforms will allow you.
So while the intuitive UI and ease of targeting are attractive to more and more CMs, the cost to reach a brand's community and target market on Facebook is increasing as more money pours in. The more sophisticated CMs are actively looking elsewhere to get their message to their community and consumers.
And that just might help all our sales bonuses this year.