Product Demo

Introduction

Hi, I’m Sonia, and I’m part of a great marketing team.

Together, we are responsible for promoting the brand and products of Sport Goodies, a retail store chain that sells sporting goods in 36 stores throughout Canada.

Every year we buy thousands of ads throughout the country in radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and online.

Like many marketing teams, we used to manage our media buys using spreadsheets and emails.

In the beginning, everything ran smoothly, but as we expanded the number of stores, it quickly became chaos.

Now we use MediaPlanHQ, a cloud-based media planning software that helps us collaborate together to define and execute our media strategy through an integrated workflow.

Let’s see how it works.

First we login to our account from anywhere using a web browser. No I.T. required. No software to install.

Media Planning

Then, once a year, I create a media plan for our fiscal year which includes the campaigns we want to do and the budget allocated to each store. This serves as a baseline with which we will monitor our media activities throughout the year.

During the year, the marketing managers schedule the media insertions for the campaigns. Each media insertion details the stores who requested the ad, the media that will run the ad, the format, the run dates, the cost, the PO#, and the status.

We can quickly access a summary of our spending and remaining budget in real time. When the remaining budget is green, we’re on target - when it becomes red, we’re in trouble.

We can view our media buys in different ways at a click of a button... In a blocking chart... and in a calendar...

We can also analyze our media buys in every angle in seconds... by media... by media category... by campaigns... and by stores...

Finally, to book the media, we can generate a professional insertion order PDF that we send to our media rep. The insertion order contains all the information to run the ad.

Creative Project Management

Now, when booking a media insertion that requires production and delivery of material, a project is automatically created and routed to the creative team with the specs and deadline.

The creative director receives the new projects. He reviews the brief and deadlines, estimates the effort to produce the material, sets the priority, assigns the project to a team member, and sets the status to “to do”.

Every morning, each team member knows exactly what projects they need to work on during the day and they have all the information they need in one place to design the creative material.

When the project is ready, he submits the material for review. The marketing manager can add comments or ask for corrections.

When all corrections are done, the marketing manager approves the material and it can be sent to the media outlet using the delivery procedure.

Marketing Request Forms

At any moment, the store managers can use the marketing request system to request media placements or creative materials for local events or sponsorships.

They select the type of request, fill in the required information, and submit their request.

Once the request is submitted, they get a confirmation number.

At any time, the store manager can use the confirmation number to consult the status of the request.

On our side, we receive all the requests in a single location and in a structured way.

We review the request, make adjustments if needed, and either add it to the media plan or route it directly to the creative team for production.

Marketing Invoice Validation

Finally, when we receive the invoices from the media suppliers, we will need to validate and approve them for accounting.

We search for the expected invoice using the P.O. #, validate that the ad and cost are accurate, and approve it.

Then, we generate a monthly report to the accounting department for due payments of the invoices.

Conclusion

There you have it.

Empower YOUR marketing team TODAY !

Give them all the tools they need to get organized and be productive and professional.

Join MediaPlanHQ today for a free trial.