The Features Needed By Today’s Agencies
Using the most common media planning software still on the market today is like traveling back in time with Marty McFly. If it isn’t one network-based software with all the sex appeal of a DOS prompt, then it’s probably another 30 year old program that only recently transcended the astral plane to a web-based version. Many modern agencies, perhaps even yours, have been forced to adapt some features of these antiquated systems in order to accommodate today’s media buying requirements.
One major concern for agencies is being able to produce and account for digital media in their media planning software. Buyers want to be able to build orders with either the budget, cost-per-thousand, or numbers of impressions ordered as the fixed commodity while they massage the other details. Most legacy media planners have yet to adapt to this need, requiring users to jury-rig a worksheet to accommodate for digital media. With digital media spending finally catching up to television budgets, it is crucial for planners and buyers to be able to account for their digital media allocations alongside their traditional media spends.
It’s not just about buying digital.
Beyond the complexity of just what kind of media needs to be placed by today’s modern agency is where the media needs to be placed. Most traditional media planning software require users open a new worksheet for every market they are planning and buying. However, with agencies having to contend with coordinated multi-market campaigns, today’s planners and buyers need to be able to manage plans for multiple markets on a single worksheet. Agencies want the freedom to manage a single budget across several markets or see how moving ad budgets across markets can impact their delivery and their overall campaign planning.
One thing anyone working at an advertising agency today would likely concede is that they are doing more work than they have ever done before. Being able to replicate repetitive tasks quickly is vital because manpower, and brainpower, is better spent on efforts that create and add value. This is another area where legacy media planning software falls woefully short because the user experience simply has not evolved. Navigating the software often requires moving from module to module in order to create campaigns, build worksheets, and assess programming, and duplicating lines or orders requires many more steps than should be needed. A streamlined workflow would allow planners and buyers to work more quickly, so they can turn their attention to more strategic efforts.
Media planning software that can take your agency into the future.
Despite the challenges posed by traditional media planning software, there is a solution for the modern agency. You can have the robust features of a legacy media planner with the flexibility and user experience of a modern platform. In other words, you can have your cake and eat it, too. GaleForce Digital has developed GaleForceMedia to tackle these challenges head on. GaleForceMedia is a web-based media planning and buying platform that gives agencies the power of a locally based media software but with the versatility of a web application. Access GaleForceMedia anywhere there is an internet connection, and plan and buy more quickly and efficiently with a modern interface designed with user experience in mind.
Contact GaleForce Digital to learn how you can access the media planner of the future with GaleForceMedia.