• by Allan Hoving , June 7, 2002

The Internet’s golden ring was to make media buying and planning faster, easier, and cheaper. With the explosion of web-based planning and buying tools, one media planner was to do the work of an entire department. However, with the Internet bubble bursting early this year, many of the planning systems and ad exchange companies that were looking for their piece of billion-dollar ad pie disappeared. What remains after the promises are a handful of solid products that have become useful tools in the planning/buying process. Of these, we have selected the three best based on their deployment throughout the industry, their value in simplifying the media process, and their ability to actually do what they claim.

cmrTaylor Neilson Sofres CMRi is the dedicated Internet arm of Competitive Media Reporting (CMR), the leading provider of strategic advertising intelligence to advertisers, ad agencies, broadcasters, and publishers. Through its web application, AdNetTrackUS, CMRi delivers competitive web advertising expenditures that facilitate the planning, buying, prospecting and selling of Internet advertising. CMRi offers the capability to view Internet advertising from many valuable perspectives, including complete brand and parent company spending with drill down to websites; total ad spending by industry or a brand’s custom competitive set; new advertiser activity; and website revenue detail with drill down to brand activity.

@plan The @Plan Advertising System from Diameter provides Internet advertisers and advertising agencies a robust Internet market tool that aids in the online media planning process. Among the many functions it performs are enabling planners to define custom targets and calculating the size of the targets on the web, to cross-tab targets with dozens of demographic, lifestyle, and product preference profiles, and to search contact names and advertising rates on over 900 sites. Additionally, @Plan’s RFP Network helps planners quickly and easily create, customize, and distribute requests for proposals to hundreds of websites.

BuyMedia.com BuyMedia was the first company to offer a web-based, end-to-end, cross-media platform that streamlines the buying and selling of traditional media. Striving to deliver on the Internet’s “promise,” BuyMedia reduces paper-based processes and cuts the time needed to buy and sell advertising. Media buyers can use BuyMedia.com to purchase any advertising on virtually any radio station, TV station, or cable system in the country. Buyers can utilize BuyMedia.com to send avail requests, messages, traffic instructions, and competitive spending requests, in addition to receiving electronic invoicing. There is no charge for buyers, and all that is needed to use BuyMedia.com is a standard web browser.