Audit
Media Auditing is a service to advertisers. It offers advertisers a totally independent and transparent evaluation of the way their media budget has been deployed and managed. Media Hub provides a range of media auditing services with the objectives of boosting ROI, and ensuring transparency and accountability in media budget management.
Media Audit
Media Audit involves two major stages: a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the media Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), followed by benchmarking these KPIs against a pool of reference.
The qualitative analysis encompasses the study of clients’ media KPIs (such as campaigns’ prime time/extra-prime share, premium position share, affinity indices, planned vs. actual weekly Target Rating Points (TRPs), etc.), and benchmarking them against a pool of reference.
The quantitative analysis deals with the benchmarking of an advertiser’s media buying costs against a Media Hub media prices pool. Please refer to the ‘Media Hub Cost Benchmark Analysis’ for more details on this topic.
For both qualitative and quantitative analysis, Media Hub quantifies monetary gain/loss compared to the advertiser’s media budget. This methodology aids client understanding of the situation, and allows a simple diagnosis – such as: ‘the added value generated by the agency was X euro, equivalent to Y% of (the client’s) media budget’ or ‘the media performance was weak, and this situation translates into a loss of media value equivalent to X euro’.
Media Hub utilises an all-embracing set of measurement tools to ensure independent and accurate media auditing that covers all media channels deployed by the advertisers: television, press, digital, radio, out-of-home (OOH).
Benefits to the client:
- It provides an integral diagnostic of the agency’s media management performance.
- It quantifies monetary gain/loss due to, or caused by, the agency’s media planning and buying performance.
- It identifies strengths and weaknesses of the media strategy and implementation.
- It provides insights for optimising media ROI.
Media Hub Cost Performance Analysis
One of Media Hub’s most effective services is a cost performance analysis of bought media space vs. auditor’s pool of prices. This service is also known as cost benchmark or price benchmark.
For each media vehicle from an advertiser’s media mix (i.e. TV channel X or the site Y) Media Hub benchmarks a client’s buying costs against its database of prices (known also as ‘pool of reference’). Media Hub pools are based only on real, actual buying prices – not published rate-card prices. Maintaining the confidentiality of advertisers in the pool is one of Media Hub’s top priorities.
The cost benchmark represents the fair price an advertiser has to pay considering the invested media budget for each support and the campaigns’ features (seasonality index, time slots usage, etc). The cost benchmark analysis outcome is a monetary quantification of client’s gain / loss versus the cost benchmark.
Media Hub provides clients with a complete solution for cost benchmarking – covering all the main media types currently used by Romanian advertisers: TV, print, digital, radio, Out-of-Home (OOH).
Benefits to the client:
- It quantifies gains/losses resulting from the media buying process.
- It provides to marketing and procurement professionals a reference regarding the efficiency of a media buying process.
- It allows accurate identification of buying performance per supplier/media vehicle.
- It helps to set media buying objectives in the media space buying process.
- It saves time and effort during negotiation – it is less likely that an advertiser will achieve significant cost improvements as long as prices provided by a specific supplier are already competitive.
Media Process Audit
This audit involves an analysis of each critical stage of the client-agency working process, and of resources and services provided by the agency to its client. The ultimate goal of the Media Process Audit is to optimise the working relationship and process between the client and the agency.
Media Hub analyses and evaluates the following processes: agency briefing, media planning, media buying, usage of media research, media competitive analysis, media reporting, quality of client services. For each stage/process, several performance key factors are scored and benchmarked vs. media market current practices. Clients get an accurate assessment of their media process performance level compared to market average.
Benefits to the client:
- It identifies weak links in the working chain between the client and its media agency – corrective measures may then be taken in order to improve and optimise the working process.
- It stimulates the implementation of best practice in the client-agency relationship.
Agency Guarantee Tracking
After a media pitch, or at the beginning of a contractual period, the media agency commits itself to deliver specific media KPIs ((Target Cost Per Point (TCPP), share of prime time, reach level, etc.).
Media Hub Tracker is a service which regularly monitors the degree of realization of the media planning and buying objectives. Deviations from contractual terms/objectives are identified promptly, and corrections can be applied immediately.
Benefits to the client:
- It identifies, in real time, deviations from contractual terms/objectives.
- Corrective measures can be taken promptly – avoiding media budget wastage.
Media Contract Compliance
At the end of a contractual period (calendar/fiscal year) we analyse to ascertain if the media agency has undertaken for the client the services contractually agreed to. We check that media performance KPIs, reports and specific analysis have been delivered by the agency.
If a performance incentive scheme is included in the client-agency contract, we provide clients support in the result’s evaluation process.
Benefits to the client:
- The evaluation process is undertaken in a highly professional, detailed, impartial and independent manner.
- Significant savings in time and resources are achieved.
Media Financial Control
Media financial control involves two aspects:
- Checking and validation of monitoring reports and associated costs received by an advertiser from their suppliers or media agency.
- Checking and validation of invoices related to these monitoring reports.
Benefits to the client:
- Confirmation that what was charged for was properly aired, calculated and invoiced by the supplier or agency.
- Avoidance of any invoicing errors
