The goal of Bionic’s latest upgrade to its media planning software can be summed up by a quote from Tom Clancy:

“A field commander never has the information he needs. He has to go with his best hunch. The more information he has, the easier it is for him to win the battle.”

As the field commander of their advertising regiment, information is of the utmost importance to media planners. Success on the advertising battlefield relies on first identifying the correct audience and then determining the most cost-effective methods for reaching them. Both factors depend on being able to rapidly reference and analyze data. Traditionally the process has been tedious, often done either on cumbersome internally managed spreadsheets or across multiple platforms. Not only is this inefficient, but it also leads to errors due to the sheer volume of work.

Bionic’s upgrade remedies this by storing and automatically calculating more of the key metrics media planners rely on. Planners can now eliminate the shuffle between multiple programs, eradicate hours of robotic work, and rest assured that their data is accurate and up-to-date.

The upgrade is one that our clients have been salivating over with many of the features coming as a result of their feedback. We gave one of the first people to suggest these integrations, Terrill Herbig, president at The BA Group, a sneak peek to see what he thought.

Terrill Herbig, The BA Group“I can’t wait to get my hands on this upgrade. The increased support for metrics makes it easier to create a holistic picture and better examine campaigns. Of all the software I’ve used Bionic is the one that most effectively helps me do my job. Their ability to react to our needs is why it has become my go-to software.”

Ratings are here

For broadcast media planning, such as radio and television, ratings — the percentage of the market reached by advertising through the product — are a determining factor when allocating the budget. Bionic now enables planners to view and edit ratings, along with a host of other important metrics, directly in the platform.

More information at your fingertips

In addition to ratings, 2.29 includes increased data fields and calculations revolving around markets, populations, demographics, reach, and frequency.

New Editable Fields

advertising-ratings-edit-fields

  • Market: Defines the set of people that are reached by advertising through the specified product. Users can select from a list of markets, but since we know there are many different ways to define markets and market definitions change around the world this section can also be edited to fit user needs. For example, in the United States, Nielsen is the predominant market scheme is the radio markets. In the UK, there’s a service called Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR).
  • Gender: Specifies whether the advertisement is trying to reach all persons, males, or females.
  • Age Range: Specifies the age range of the advertisement’s targeted audience based on pre-defined age break points.
  • Population: The number of people in the Market who match the demographic criteria. For example, the number of males (Gender) in New York (Market) between 18 and 64 (Age Range).

New Calculated Fields: Put that calculator down and close that Excel sheet because Bionic automatically provides the following calculations based on available data.

advertising-ratings-calculated-fields

  • Average Persons: Number of people in the Population that will be exposed to a single advertisement, on average.
  • Gross Rating Points (GRP): Measures advertising impact by calculating the cumulative percentage of the population the campaign will reach as a whole.
  • Cost Per Point (CPP): Measures media efficiency by calculating how much it costs to buy one rating point. Campaigns with lower CPP are generally more efficient.
  • Impressions: The total number of interactions the audience has with an advertisement.
  • Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Similar to CPP, CPM measures efficiency by calculating how much it costs to have a thousand views of an advertisement. Campaigns with lower CPM are generally more efficient.
  • Reach: Total number of individuals who will see the advertisement at least once during the campaign.
  • Reach %: Percentage of people touched by the advertisement at least once during the campaign.
  • Frequency: Number of times that a person is exposed to the advertisement. Too low and the advertising may not make a lasting impact. Too high could mean overexposing an audience and wasted media dollars.  

How To Get These Upgrades

If you’re already using Bionic media planning software, your account has already been upgraded with the new functionality. For training and assistance, don’t hesitate to contact our customer care group. You get unlimited training and support with your Bionic subscription.

If you don’t yet have Bionic, you can learn more on the media planning software page. Click the red “see a demo” button to access a self-paced online product demonstration. You can also request your own account directly our website. Your subscription includes a 60-day, money back satisfaction guarantee.

Thank you to our clients for their brilliance!

Many of the new features in this software upgrade were in response to the excellent ideas we’ve received from our clients. At Bionic, we pride ourselves on continually improving our offerings to stay ahead of industry needs. If you have any ideas on how we can improve, we’d love to hear it.

View the full release notes