Abstract:

The United States trails most of the advertising world in the use of optimizers, the author believes, because of the complexity of its TV market with literally hundreds of suppliers and rapidly changing costs. But it is this very complexity that makes computerized media selection programs essential. Optimization is a simple idea which grows in complication as soon as we think through its effects on the total TV planning and buying process. This paper looks at the root question “What should we optimize?” and discusses optimization’s impending collisions with current practices in the United States, among them: CPM planning, dayparts, brand allocation, posting, guarantees and the functional separation of planning and buying.