Recently, the Media Department was challenged by upper management to know more about our markets. This had your humble blogger wondering, "What don't I know about my markets?" The answer was not what I had assumed.

For the last three and a half years, I've bought upwards of 30 markets, six or seven of those at a time. Everyday, I dig into the gutters of my markets, figuring out what TV station generated the most leads in Omaha last week (KXVO) or what weekday we can expect the least amount of lead flow in Toronto (Sunday) or even, what the best methods are to woo traffic managers into not preempting our spots (lots and lots of thank-you's).

What I didn't know about my markets, however, is exactly what our management challenged us to know. They want us to know more about our markets than our normal CPL and CPS knowledge base. We were challenged to know the markets as if we lived in them, knowing what's the biggest high school in the market? Or who is the largest employer? Or even, how long does it take to get to the campus from the most popular mall?

This challenge added an exciting twist to my normal day-to-day buying routine. The data that we analyze daily isn't just numbers and decimals and formulas. This data reflects the choices real people living real lives in these real cities have made. They have much labored upon decisions to focus on education to better themselves and their family.

Striving to know what our target knows (the best movie theatre to spend a Friday night or which Interstate is currently under construction, perhaps?) can only help us in our mission to connect with them on a daily basis, helping them realize there are options when it comes to furthering their educational and career opportunities. With this new challenge, I can now help to keep important CPLs stay forever low and add a new and satisfying dimension to my account load.