In collaboration with comScore

Jul 30, 2009 14:58 GMT  ·  By

The Reach and Frequency Planner is a solution developed in collaboration by Microsoft and comScore, designed to allow brand advertisers to take advantage of similar front-to-end media buying and planning benefits for the digital world as they do for traditional media. Reach forecasting, frequency and audience composition predictions at the ad placement level will all be possible through the new Microsoft and comScore digital media planning solution. The Redmond company noted that the planner was capable of delivering brand advertisers with ad serving information in combination with demographic data.

“The perception that traditional branding metrics are not possible or meaningful for digital media is misguided,” noted Scott Howe, corporate vice president of the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group at Microsoft. “We believe online advertising won’t maximize its appeal to brand marketers until the basic metrics they’ve relied on for years are available in digital media plans. This requires the cooperation of digital publishers and panel measurement organizations, which our collaboration with comScore will accomplish.”

Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman and co-founder, emphasized the necessity of analyzing both reach and frequency taking into consideration audience composition for brand advertisers. Furthermore, Fulgoni indicated that an actionable and accountable model needed to be set in place in this regard. The Reach and Frequency Planner (RF Planner) can be used to forecast the reach and frequency associated with online advertising campaigns, while also producing post-buy reporting. With the RF planner Microsoft hopes to attract more money from brand advertisers that, despite spending two-thirds of $186 billion in the U.S. advertising market, manage to limit Internet-related expenses only to 5%.

“Current online reach and frequency metrics are typically computed at the site level,” Fulgoni stated. “Measuring reach and frequency at the ad placement level is more precise because it shows the reach of the ad campaign that can actually be achieved, the true potential frequency and the specific demos of that audience. Campaigns planned at a total site level can overstate reach and understate frequency, and may not deliver the desired demographic mix. This new hybrid approach to digital media planning offers the granular campaign-level analysis and streamlined planning capabilities upon which brand advertisers have long relied in the traditional media environment.”