Most Planners are glorified nannies . They number crunch and are more interested in how they will earn their commission with cutting corners . Very seldom have I come across a planner who genuinely has their clients' needs at heart . If you can go client direct , then do it but TACTFULLY .
Slowly but surely agencies are losing their grip on clients as more and more marketing directors want to meet with media owners .

that if you do go direct to client you need to let the media planner know - keep him/her in the loop.

Also any media planner worth his/her salt will have a good enough relationship with the client for the client to refer you to the media planner.

In addition most clients are just too lazy/busy to evaluate a media opportunity so guess what?...........It gets passed on to the media planner to evaluate in any case! So my suggestion - send the proposals to the media planner - if you get absolutely no joy - no response be it yes or no (no with a reason why ofcourse), THEN you go to the client - letting the media planner know that that's what you are going to do.

Then it would be fine to always go through the agency. But unfortunately most planners are a few hundred pennies short of a piggy bank. When planners phone every two weeks for 3 months for a ratecard of a magazine that they are already advertising in then you have to wonder how they are going to cope with a proposal bigger then a hundred words. If the proposal is big and important then go to the client. Of course keep the agencies in the loop if you have a good relationship with them. FULL STOP

We started a magazine 5 years ago and it has become the most popular advertsing magazine in our region. Despite enough communication to fill a ship, the advertising agencies have yet to give us the time of day... even though their local clients specifically request that ads be placed with us. We have done everything to convince the ad agencies of our market share, but it's too much of an effort to look into it for them. We were once told that in order to get noticed, we should fly them here, wine and dine them and put them up in a hotel!! This whole advertising thing, is it about what the agency can get or how the client can benefit?

I know im a bit late on this one but the most affective way of getting business from an agency is by asking them how they would like their behinds kissed. Buy them stuff take them to lunch...

90% of planners and buyers are unprofesional and dont care about their clients.

You guys who have so much to say about Media Planners, are clearly bored and have nothing much to do with your day. Get a life, get a decent job, and stop writing crap.