Faster, more precise ad pricing solution reduces costs, improves time-to-revenue for top US magazine
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Profile Client: One of th five most widely read US magazines, with three million paid buyers and readership of nearly Challenge: Deliver precise ad pricing quotes in less time, despite high volume and extremely complex pricing specification process Solution: Custom-built, automated rules-based system delivered by Fair Isaac Professional Services using Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor rules management software Results: Increased speed and efficiency of pricing quote process; improved response and customer satisfaction; used analysts' time more effectively * This case study is based on information from a Fair Isaac client that requested anonymity. |
Challenge
A top US magazine, with advertising revenues of more than $700 million, needed to streamline its ad pricing decisions. Due to enormous volume and ad pricing complexities, it was challenging for the magazine to provide customers with immediate ad pricing quoteseven with three fulltime analysts dedicated to the task.
Featuring an average of 70 ad pages per issue, with more than 3,600 pages per year, the magazine receives thousands of advertising pricing requests each year.
In addition to volume challenges, determining accurate pricing is an enormously complex process. The magazine must consider many factors, such as placement in the magazine, color usage, geographic coverage, creative development, size, display frequency, competitive considerations, space availability, layout requirements, time of year and special issue pricing.
Generating a quote involved people with specialized expertise and information. Advertising sales representatives did not have an automated, self-service system.
Spreadsheets held pricing data in a format that could not be easily automated and placed in an online, multi-user environment. Frequent corporate rate changes and discounts were difficult to incorporate in the process.
Solution
The magazine searched for a new system that could provide accurate, consistent quotes in less time and with less manual intervention from pricing specialists. It wanted a system that was not only easy to use, but easy for IT to implement and maintain.
Ideally, the solution would allow the sales team to enter relevant information about a customers request, and quickly receive a quote that was consistent with similar quotes and company guidelines. The quote could be presented to the customer with confidence.
The magazine looked at a number of organizations providing packaged software and custom solutions. It chose Fair Isaac to provide the software and services necessary to create a system tailored for its needs. Fair Isaac had the Professional Services expertise to implement a system that achieved the project goals, making use of Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor rules management software.
Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor provided advanced rules-based management for defining, executing and maintaining the magazines advertising pricing rules. In a matter of months, the Professional Services team helped technical and business personnel work together to create and deploy the rules in an operational ad pricing solution.
Once the basic structure was in place, the magazine staff was able to add and update pricing rules in Blaze Advisor on their own. Business users could understand and modify business rules without learning confusing, unfamiliar languages or interfaces.
Results
The magazine has reduced its response time to requests for advertising price quotes and is experiencing other significant improvements in efficiencies. Both internal users and the advertising sales organization are happier, and are taking advantage of the self-service capabilities of the new automated pricing solution.
The sales personnel can use the Blaze Advisor system directly, without having to go through an analyst for pricing. Sales representatives can, therefore, respond to ad inquiries in less time, helping them secure ad placements more quickly and improve ties with customers.
The magazines three full-time analysts now allocate their time more efficiently, spending only 70% of their time dealing with pricing. This frees up 30% of their time to perform other valuable financial analysis to benefit the organization.
Due to the success of this project, the magazines parent company is exploring where the ad pricing solution can be of use for other magazines in its publishing family.
