Five Ways Media Finance Leaders Can Upskill Talent and Drive Results
posted by Jason Kopeloff, CFO at Hudson MX and former CFO at Assembly, US | September 4, 2024
As true partners to our clients, helping them navigate the ever-changing landscape of the media industry, we frequently hear that talented media finance professionals are stuck in the weeds or the back office doing tedious work like re-keying information, collecting data, and manually matching invoices to orders. Too often this leaves no time to strategize, innovate, or drive real change. Unfortunately, it can also lead to staff turnover and underutilization of intelligent, motivated people—who are really our clients’ greatest assets.
As a former agency CFO, I identified foundational ways to solve this long-standing problem while enhancing cash flow management and the bottom line. When I joined Hudson MX, one thing was clear: For our mission to succeed, it had to be about more than just the software itself, but about the people who do the work. This is why I launched and led our Strategic Technology Advisory Group—a team of veterans with over 100 combined years of media industry experience who’ve been in the trenches where our clients sit. Together we worked directly with our product development and customer success teams to build tools and ways of working to finally eliminate the drudgery and lack of visibility involved with successful media buying and media finance.
Keys to upskilling media finance talent while enhancing cash flow management and results
Naturally, managing significant sums of media investment requires an extraordinarily high level of fiscal responsibility—even more so when managing clients’ money in addition to your own. Given the volume and complexity of media transactions, the risk is obviously enormous, making it crucial to have airtight systems in place to track this data as closely as possible in real time.
The problem is that such systems often rely too heavily on tedious error-prone work that burns out employees, threatens vendor relationships, and leaves no time for strategy or innovation. Here are some of the most effective ways our clients are rectifying this situation:
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1. Automating media vendor invoice reconciliation
It can take a dozen finance FTEs to reconcile media vendor invoices—and on top of that buyers tend to spend multiple days a month supporting this process. This heavy lift is especially problematic for in-house media brand teams, typically pressed for media finance expertise and resources. Furthermore, even with these herculean efforts unfortunate billing and paying delays, errors, and missed opportunities persist. Automation of reconciliation leads to faster billing and paying which helps your bottom line. For example, process delays should never jeopardize preferred pricing with large platform vendors. On the agency side, the relationship between media agencies and their partners is as meaningful as the relationship with the clients themselves. Media partners are servicing all your clients, creating a complex web of interactions that needs to be meticulously managed or the repercussions can be widespread, affecting not just one client but potentially many.
2. Getting brands, agencies, and vendors on the same page
One of the core challenges we help our clients address is the mismatch between how brands govern their budgets and how agencies track them. Brands may operate using purchase orders, while agencies often rely on estimates and media authorizations, with partner invoices forming a third metric. This can lead to inefficiencies and discrepancies, especially when invoices don’t align perfectly with the media purchased. Using a system like the MX Platform, designed to handle these complexities, ensures maximum transparency and accuracy.
3. Simplifying sequential liability workflows
There’s a delicate balance required in managing sequential liability (meaning paying your vendors only after being paid by clients). The need to bill clients, pay partners, reconcile, and then adjust based on actuals creates a circular and sometimes fragile workflow. Using tools that streamline this process and provide audit logs that track every change, who made it, and when make a dramatic difference. This level of detail is invaluable, particularly when it comes to maintaining compliance and minimizing risks.
4. Making it easy to track spend vs. plan in real time
Our clients are using modern, media-specific software that puts on-demand visibility and control at their fingertips without endless hours of manual labor. We intentionally built a system that allows teams to use their minds and analyze rather than just process. Gone are the days of needing to manually and constantly string together bits of disjointed information to see where you stand regarding budgets. Once you’re on modern media-specific software, teams can spend more time making data actionable and using it to garner insights rather than just living in the data aggregation stage.
5. Working with a true technology partner that invests in the future
What truly excites me about being at Hudson is our partnership approach with our clients. We don’t just drop software into your lap and leave you to figure it out. We bring years of media expertise to the table, working alongside you every step of the way. This isn’t just a vendor-client relationship—it’s a true partnership.
As we continue to innovate with our partners, one of the areas where we see tremendous potential is in the use of real-time data and AI. Our platform is dynamic, built to scale as the industry evolves, offering actionable insights in real-time. This capability allows senior executives to access the information they need when needed, whether through dashboards or infographics tailored to their specific needs throughout the workday. By connecting data across all transaction points and funneling it to those who need it most, we’re helping our clients make better, more informed decisions.
At Hudson MX, we’re not just responding to industry changes—we’re helping to shape them.
I’m incredibly excited about the role of our technology like the MX Platform's role in helping finance functions move beyond the traditional “back-office” paradigm. Our systems are designed to upskill finance teams, transforming them from data processors into strategic partners within their organizations. By leveraging software properly we are embedding finance teams with media and account teams, enabling users of our platform to operate as true extensions of their businesses, bringing finance into the strategic fold rather than keeping it siloed in the background. I am looking forward to expanding our partnerships with new and innovative brands and agencies, helping them close the gap between their media finance workflows and the strategic innovations they aim to achieve.
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About the Author
Jason Kopeloff
Chief Financial Officer, Hudson MX
Before joining the Hudson MX executive team in 2021, Jason was CFO at Assembly U.S. following significant advertising finance experience at other top industry firms. Jason has brought positive change to corporate infrastructure from an operational and financial perspective with 20 years of media and marketing agency experience. Connect with Jason here.
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