Media Trading and Investing: Is It Right for You? With Media Tradesman Jonathan Sorkenn
Up Arrow Podcast
· with Jonathan Sorkenn
· March 26, 2024
· 56 min
Summary
This episode reveals how e-commerce brands can leverage "media trading" or corporate barter to turn excess inventory and depreciating assets into valuable media credits. Instead of liquidating at a loss, brands can optimize their supply chain and significantly reduce advertising costs, enhancing profitability in challenging economic times. This strategy is critical for brands looking to maintain ad spend efficiency and maximize asset value.
Key takeaways
Explore media trading as an alternative to liquidating excess inventory, especially for slow-moving products or returned merchandise, to preserve asset value and unlock new working capital for advertising.
Identify "soft assets" within your business, such as underutilized corporate real estate or even future manufacturing capacity, that could be repurposed for media trade to generate incremental value.
Partner with independent trade agencies rather than relying solely on traditional media buyers to navigate complex trade transactions and ensure optimal value realization from your assets.
Proactively assess your inventory and assets for trade potential before they become liabilities, integrating media trading into your financial and marketing strategy for continuous optimization.
Implement a robust internal communication strategy between finance, marketing, and operations teams to identify suitable assets for trade and align on media objectives, ensuring a win-win scenario for all departments.
Jonathan Sorkenn is the Senior Vice President of Evergreen Trading, a media investment agency powered by trade. In his role, he originates, executes, and manages corporate trade partnerships and oversees the company's real estate practice. With over 10 years of corporate trading transactional experience, Jonathan has been involved in numerous pioneering trade transactions, creating innovative structures for the corporate trade industry. As a licensed real estate broker, he has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, having served as the Director of Real Estate Capital Markets and Investment Banking at PricewatershouseCoopers Securities LLC. In this episode… Inflation and other economic pressures are building up, and e-commerce brands are facing supply chain disruptions, forcing them to liquidate excess inventory and other assets. Rather than relinquishing merchandise and confronting major financial losses, brands can trade their assets for media. So what's involved in this process, and how can brands maximize asset value? Media trading and investing involves selling unusable assets to media buyers who exchange additional ad spend for a discounted cost. Through this method, brands receive media credits of equal value to their unused inventory, eliminating the loss that occurs from wholesaling those assets. While this seems like a straightforward option, many brands are hesitant since they often outsource media buying to an ad agency. Yet this presents a greater risk and yields less of a return, so trade partnership facilitator Jonathan Sorkenn recommends partnering with independent trade agencies to optimize your supply chain and save money on media ads. These corporations collaborate with marketing and finance departments to enhance value. In this Up Arrow Podcast episode, William Harris sits down with Jonathan Sorkenn, the Senior Vice President of Evergreen Trading, to talk about how to conv
Frequently asked about this episode
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Explore media trading as an alternative to liquidating excess inventory, especially for slow-moving products or returned merchandise, to preserve asset value and unlock new working capital for advertising.
What does this episode say about finance & fundraising?
Identify "soft assets" within your business, such as underutilized corporate real estate or even future manufacturing capacity, that could be repurposed for media trade to generate incremental value.
What does this episode say about supply chain & operations?
Partner with independent trade agencies rather than relying solely on traditional media buyers to navigate complex trade transactions and ensure optimal value realization from your assets.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Proactively assess your inventory and assets for trade potential before they become liabilities, integrating media trading into your financial and marketing strategy for continuous optimization.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Implement a robust internal communication strategy between finance, marketing, and operations teams to identify suitable assets for trade and align on media objectives, ensuring a win-win scenario for all departments.
