The latest release of SpotPlan® puts, even more, control in the hands of radio buyers which is great news for advertisers. To demonstrate the power of SpotPlan 2.0, we would like to introduce you to an active user. Her name is Amber and she is a radio buyer for major advertisers at an agency based in the Pacific Northwest. Let’s dive in!
A Day in the Life of a Radio Buyer
Amber needed to buy radio for a healthcare provider client in Portland and Seattle. Once they provided her with buy specs, she realized that it would be difficult to achieve their goals because she only had one week available to negotiate. Given the limited time and the strict buy criteria, she ran the risk of disappointing her client. Let’s be honest, nothing is worse than delivering a less than perfect radio ad package to a client.
As a solution, Amber decided to use our programmatic software, SpotPlan. In minutes, our algorithm constructed an individually optimized package for the same budget and 20% more GRPs. Amber was amazed! How could this be if the costs per spot were the same as last quarter’s buy? Not to mention, the plan met the client’s criteria including daypart percentages, top-ranked stations, and spot counts.
How does it work?
SpotPlan works because it is buyer-centric. What does this mean? SpotPlan allows buyers to quickly create multiple variations of a plan, buy across different campaign types (i.e. network and spot), and evaluate complex buys using the same measurement framework (i.e. audience reach).
Generally, a radio buyer contacts their sales representatives with important specs from their client for potential buys. Each sales rep (yes, they work with many) then sends over a proposed package with recommended avails and prices. Media buyers don’t have the ability to loosen up their requirements and it’s time-consuming to manually mix and match the proposals and go back to the sales reps to negotiate multiple times. This is where the algorithm comes in. Our Mint® algorithm builds packages that are optimized to maximize GRPs or impressions per dollar spent.
Humans are pretty great, but we aren’t capable of making these calculations and negotiations quickly without a little help from technology. SpotPlan 2.0 is a tool that agencies can use in combination with their skills and knowledge to create the best buy possible across multiple marketplaces in minutes rather than weeks. This is where your art meets our science.
What do art and science have to do with anything?
The new generation of SpotPlan has more than 250 new features that help buyers use their creative thinking to create the best buys possible. That’s a lot of features so let’s stick with Amber for a moment and use her story to introduce a couple of the new benefits.
Produce the best buy:
When Amber wants to plan a spot buy in Seattle, she creates multiple versions of the buy and tweaks factors such as dayparts to produce multiple variations. These various plans allow her to find the perfect buy that will meet and exceed her client’s goals.
Art: Plan and replan using one tool with live inventory (rather than spending hours building spreadsheets) and compare multiple buy variations to find the best buy to meet client goals.
Science: SpotPlan crunches the numbers faster and more efficiently than humanly possible while saving you time and improving ROI.
Create the best campaign:
For the sake of our example, let’s stick with Amber’s story and say that she needs to buy radio in Seattle, Chicago, and New York City as well as a large national buy. Not only can she compare the individual buys along the way, but she is also able to combine the national and spot buys into a single tool. This allows her to see how her new spot fill campaign compares across both national and spot components.
Art: Generate multiple complex buy types (i.e. spot fill scenario) and evaluate them using unified data before settling on the campaign that best achieves client goals.
Science: SpotPlan allows you to bundle up different buy types and compare them using the same measurement framework (i.e. comparing apples to apples rather than apples to oranges).
SpotPlan 2.0 Takes Radio Buying to the Next Level
When Amber shared the plan she created using SpotPlan with her client, they were thrilled! Amber’s plan resulted in 20% more ROI and she was able to do all of this in just 30 minutes. Keep in mind, buyers are used to spending weeks on a single plan. It's unheard of to achieve maximum ROI in such a short time. Not only did her client approve the plan, but they were eager to invest in more radio advertising.
Our ad buying technology is crucial for achieving advertiser goals and simplifying the buying process. If you would like to learn more about SpotPlan, download our data sheet. Ask your agency about using SpotPlan 2.0 to improve your radio advertising experience.
