August 2007

Brand management has become a key issue for the marketing of media companies. Today, many media firms seek to build up and/or exploit “strong” brands, usually theoretically conceived as brand equity or value. The importance of brand equity in the relationship between media companies and their audiences has become recognized by both practitioners and researchers. So far however, little is known about the effects of this development on media’s other outlets for offerings – the advertising markets. Taking the perspective of media buyers, this paper explores the role of brand equity in the assessment of audience value on advertising markets’ demand side.