Media Federation of Australia (MFA) has successfully completed the pilot run of its newest e-learning course, MFA How to Buy Television, gaining best-practice training for TV trading with a cohort of 41 participants.
The 10-week course was introduced for the Spring semester of the MFA’s e-learning program – which also includes MFA Digital Foundations Certification, MFA Digital Foundations Certificate II and MFA Television Foundations – with the aim of ensuring media buyers are equipped early in their careers with best practice skills and the practical knowledge to buy television at a high standard.
The content was developed collaboratively by more than 30 MFA media agency member experts in broadcast television trading, ensuring it is best practice, channel agnostic and sets an industry standard. The process was led by Initiative Perth head of partnerships Brianna Wells and took a total of 600 hours over 10 months.
All MFA member agencies agreed on the aligned standards and learning outcomes, ensuring the course is tailored to the industry’s requirements, workflows and tools. Students must complete a live TV buy assessment in addition to an exam requiring an 80% pass mark to complete certification.
In response to strong demand, in 2023 all e-learning courses will run across three semesters (up from two). The MFA e-learning program, which launched in 2017 with MFA Digital Foundations, has been completed by more than 4,200 people.
Linda Wong, MFA’s director of people, said skilled television buyers are one of the industry’s most in-demand skills.
“Television is a constantly evolving medium and it’s being traded in new and dynamic ways. From speaking to our members, we identified a need for a practical, deep training course that takes participants through the intricacies of preparing, creating, executing, and managing the performance delivery and reporting outcomes of a TV buy.
“We’re proud of the huge amount of work our member agencies put in to make this project a success for the collective benefit of the industry, with collaboration across the entire spectrum of agencies – large and small, independents and network agencies,” Wong added.
Zenith Sydney Head of Investment Thomas Macerola, who contributed to the course content, added: “Television remains the backbone of many marketers’ media strategies, so ensuring media buyers have access to a best-practice industry standard for trading television benefits our entire industry.
“This course is another great example of the MFA community coming together to ensure we become better at what we do in delivering results for clients.”
Brad Vickery, associate marketplace manager at Wavemaker, said completing the course accelerated his on-the-job learning. “The level of detail and information provided by the course is unparalleled to anything I’ve been exposed to, even with 18 months of TV buying under my belt.
“The live TV buy assessment was an excellent addition, really helping to solidify the learnings from this course that will no doubt help me deliver the best possible TV trading outcomes for our clients,” he added.
MFA How to Buy Television is supported by Think TV. At a glance: MFA e-learning program:
• Three comprehensive and highly regarded courses: MFA Digital Foundations, MFA Television Foundations, MFA How to Buy Television
• Developed by media agency experts
• Channel agnostic
• Sets an aligned industry knowledge standard and learning outcomes
• Industry certified
• Proof of knowledge (with a high pass hurdle)
• Flexible learning via video, study guides, quizzes and exam