AOR (Agency-of-Record)

An AOR relationship formalises a brand's media partnership with a single agency. The AOR handles strategy, planning, buying, negotiating, and often creative across all the brand's media: a deeply embedded relationship that typically lasts multiple years and involves tens to hundreds of millions of ad spend. When a big brand switches AORs, it is a major industry event covered by trade press and closely watched by every competing agency.

For station sales teams, knowing the AOR matters because it determines who controls the media-buying decision. A local retailer with no agency can be pitched directly; a major national brand with an entrenched AOR requires working through the agency's planners and buyers, typically on the agency's schedule and to the agency's evaluation criteria. The rules of engagement differ sharply, and experienced reps learn to identify AOR structure before investing significant pitch time.