DOC-009: HOW TO USE PLANNING IN INFOSYS+
Kantar Media Spain
09/03/2011
INDEX
1
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 3
2
planning report ..................................................................................................................................... 4
3
4
5
2.1
how to set up a planning report. ................................................................................................ 4
2.2
PARAMETERS OF THE PLANNING REPORT .................................................................................. 9
2.3
ANALYSIS OF THE PLANNING REPORT ...................................................................................... 11
2.4
options to divide and group vehicles ........................................................................................ 14
2.5
applying ratecards to planning ................................................................................................. 21
2.6
weekly planning ........................................................................................................................ 25
2.7
planning timeband ingredient .................................................................................................. 25
2.8
creating planning vehicles from programs reports ................................................................... 27
2.9
vehicle creation report.............................................................................................................. 30
2.10
other planning functionalities ................................................................................................... 37
coverguide report ............................................................................................................................... 39
3.1
introduction to the coverguide report ...................................................................................... 39
3.2
PARAMETERS OF THE COVERGUIDE REPORT............................................................................ 39
optimization report ............................................................................................................................ 41
4.1
introduction to the optimization report ................................................................................... 41
4.2
how to use optimization report ................................................................................................ 41
4.3
parameters of the optimization report ..................................................................................... 43
appendix A: algorithms ....................................................................................................................... 45
5.1
differences between planning algorithm in infosystv and infosys+ .......................................... 45
5.2
MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM ........................................................ 48
6
appendix B: Restrictions RELATED TO PLANNING .............................................................................. 50
7
HISTORY .............................................................................................................................................. 51
1
INTRODUCTION
This document explains how to use the planning and optimization modules in InfoSys+, and the
associated functionalities. The functionalities described herein refer to the status as of InfoSys+
1.5.1.110221.
InfoSys+ has 4 reports associated to the planning module:
These reports can be combined in the same template with other reports such as programs, or crosstabs,
which gives the user a lot of power, for instance for creating vehicles from programs analyses (programs
ranking) to be used in planning.
2
PLANNING REPORT
A planning report calculates the probabilities that individuals have to contact a specific spot placed on a
specific vehicle (combination of channel, date and timeband), based on past ratings. Then, based on
that, a probability calculation is carried out in order to calculate the expected coverage and R&F.
The planning algorithm in InfoSys+ is different from InfoSysTV, and much faster. InfoSys+ planning
results should match InfoSysTV for individual events, although totals could be slightly different because
a more accurate approach has been implemented in InfoSys+. Check the Appendix for more details.
2.1
HOW TO SET UP A PLANNING REPORT.
In order to do a planning report we need:




target which we wish to evaluate
region on which we wish to evaluate
dates on which we wish to calculate the rating.
units: by default, if none is selected, InfoSy+ will calculate Insertions, %Insert, GRP, %GRPs,
Cov(000), Cov%, Cov(000)[Ac], Cov%[Ac]. Other units which can be used in planning:

planning supports on which the user wishes to plan: a support or vehicle is a combination of
channel and timeband. There are several ways to create these vehicles:
a)
by choosing channels and timebands in the template, and ticking the parameter “Simple
timeband” of the Planning report. InfoSys+ will create the combinations between these
channels and timebands:
b) by creating planning timebands: in this case we don’t need to select any item in the
Channels ingredients, and we don’t need to select the “Simple timebands” checkbox
These planning timebands are equivalent to the ones in the a)
It can be seen that the same results are obtained:
Check section for more details on “Planning timebands”.
c)
Creating vehicles from a programs analysis
InfoSys+ allows the user to create planning vehicles from a programs analysis o from a crosstab.
Just right-click on the event or crosstab’s category, New-> New vehicle:
Check section for more details on how to create planning vehicles from programs.
d) Use vehicle creation report. Check the corresponding section for more info.
2.2
PARAMETERS OF THE PLANNING REPORT
A planning report has the following parameters:

“Simple timebands”: if ticked, InfoSys+ will generate planning timebands as combinations of
the channels and simple timebands selected in the template.

“Net value”: it indicates whether the planning will be based on the normal rating (Normal), the
net ratings (Net), the commercial rating (Commercial, equivalent to “only publicity” option in
InfoSysTV), or the default net value selection in the Unit section of the template (Default)

“Maximum number of contacts”: number of contacts to be used in the distribution of contacts
which I+ calculates in the planning module if N+/N units are selected. The absolute maximum is
30.

“Effective reach: memorization rate”: parameter used for the effective reach units (EffReach
and Neff). It conveys the idea that the degree of awareness is higher when the individual is
exposed to more contacts.
If no memorization rate is set, Neff = N
Otherwise, if a memorization rate is set, the results differ:
Memorizing rate: the Neff = N * memorizing rate. Ex, Eff 1(000) = 0.80 * 1(000). However, InfoSys+
does not have the exact Neff units (2Eff), only the accumulated ones (2+Eff, for instance)
N and more: only the contacts N or more count for the effective coverage. For instance, if N=3 it
means that 1+ Eff (000) = 2+Eff = 3+Eff = 3+ (000).
Contact by contact: it’s similar to the “memorizing rate” option, but customized contact by contact.
More information in the document “How Effective Reach and Memorization Rate works”

“Accumulated”: if ticked, the reach & frequency will be accumulated
This means that the highlighted cell gives the result of people who contact 1 or more times
with any of the 4 vehicles. Apart from that, accumulated coverage units will be added by
default to the plan.
If not ticked, the reach & frequency is not accumulated (only the TOTAL is):
This means that the highlighted cell gives out the number of people who contacted 1 or more
times with the vehicle number 4.

“Previous definition of GRPs and insertions”: by default InfoSys+ calculates the plan based on
100 GRPs. Later the plan can be changed and manipulated, but if the user wishes to calculate
the natural delivery based on a specific number of GRPs/insertions, he can do it before
calculating anything.
Currently, if predefinition is used, InfoSys+ shares the total GRPs in equal amounts between the
different vehicles, and it calculates the plan based on that.
2.3
ANALYSIS OF THE PLANNING REPORT
When planning is run, InfoSys+ creates a plan with the template’s vehicles, based on the natural
delivery.
The user can manipulate this plan, rename it, delete it, or create new plans and then manipulate them.
The user can rename it by right-clicking on the plan, “Rename Plan”:
The user can add a new plan by right-clicking on the original plan, then “Add Plan”
If the user wishes to manipulate the plan, he can modify any value of the following cells: Insertions,
%Insert, GRPs or %GRPs. The action of modifying any of these cells will invalidate the results of the
Coverage and Frequency figures. Check the following buttons in the upper toolbar:
If pressed, InfoSys+ will calculate the invalidated cells automatically. If the plan is too big, this
can be slow, so the user has the option to untick this button. In that case, after manipulation the
coverage cells will be invalidated and the user will have to recalculate the coverage manually.
This button recalculates the delivery (Rtg, insertions and GRPs) only (not the coverage and
frequency units). It can be useful when using the option to divide or crosstab vehicles, in order to have a
quick understanding of how the plan looks like and how the GRPs are distributed.
It recalculates the coverage and frequency units based on the current plan delivery.
It recalculates the whole planning report. It’s different from using the “Run” button of the
template, because that one recalculates the whole template, whereas this button only recalculates the
planning report.
In the lower part of the screen InfoSys+ shows a chart based on the units that the user selects.
Sometimes the chart area is collapsed and the user must enlarge it manually
The following buttons in the toolbar control the properties of this chart:
Unit to show in the chart.
Type of chart (pie, stacked rows, etc…)
Activate 3D
Choose the palette.
Select the transparency.
Show the legend or not.
Select the chart’s contour thicknes.
Select the position of the labels.
It lets the user decide whether to show only the vehicle groups, only the individual
vehicles, only the divisions, or all the items
The button
launches a coverguide report (check COVERGUIDE section), whereas the button
launches an optimization report (check OPTIMIZATION section).
2.4
OPTIONS TO DIVIDE AND GROUP VEHICLES
InfoSys+ includes a very powerful function: the possibility to group/divide supports by channel, divide by
timeband or divide/group by weekday, and the possibility to use real date divisions:
The lower part of the screen shows a preview of how the plan will result, without any need to calculate
anything. Any of the three sections can be hidden or restored by clicking the buttons “Crosstab”,
“Dates” or “Show preview” in the upper part of the window.
The window can be detached and resized by double-clicking on the area between the three buttons and
the upper edge (red area in the previous picture):
It can then be reattached with the current size by double-clicking on the area next to the “Planning”
label of the previous picture.
Let’s show an example of several vehicles, in a plan based on 1 month:
Crosstab
channel:
by
Divide
channel:
by
It is used for vehicles made up of compound channels.
Divide
by
timeband (the
división can be
defined
thru
the
rightbutton option
“Define”
Group
weekday
by
Divide
weekday
by
Date division
Thanks to the preview option, it’s not necessary to run the resulting plan till the user is satisfied with the
result. Once satisfied, the user can click at the probability button
or the planning calc button
in order to calculate the whole plan, which of course can be further manipulated.
The groups of vehicles can be collapsed and expanded by double-clicking on the TOTAL. It’s also possible
to expand and collapse all the groups by highlighting the whole plan, right-button, “Expand all” or
“Collapse all”.
2.5
APPLYING RATECARDS TO PLANNING
Ratecards convey the information of cost. Ratecard is an ingredient in InfoSys+
It’s easy to create ratecards, just select the combination of region and channel, and then introduce a
cost in the desired timeband:
Through the pop-up menu when right-click on the cell, the user can copy cells, fill downwards, or apply
operations such as addition, substractions, percentages, etc…
Ratecards can be exported into a TRX file, and imported then into a different installation, or by a
different user.
Once created, the ratecard can be applied to the plan if cost unit has been added
Just right-click on the plan, click Assign ratecard, and choose the desired ratecard:
There is a unit “Type of cost” which shows the type of cost by which the ratecard was generated
(ratecard, Cost of thousands, Cost GRP). Check an example of a cost of thousands ratecard:
Types of ratecards
There can be up to 12 types of ratecards, depending on the restrictions. The 3 basic ones are:

Ratecard (by minute): it assigns the planning support with the cost according to the timebands
that it spans. In this case, Budget = Insertions * Cost

C. Thousands (by minute): it assigns the planning support with the cost according to the
timebands that it spans. In this case, Budget = Cont(000) * Cost

C. GRP (by minute): it assigns the planning support with the cost according to the timebands
that it spans. In this case, Budget = GRP * Cost
If the DE.STD (program’s raw file) reports the program’s price, and if the proper restriction is set in the
Country.rst (Ratecard from program grid), it’s possible to import them into the ratecard ingredient.
In that case 3 new options appear in the combo in the ratecard dialogue creation: Grid (ratecard), Grid
(C.Thousands) and Grid (C.GRP), which are the equivalent ones to the 3 basic ones. These types of
ratecards don’t allow multiselection of pair Area-Channel.
If any of these three choices is selected, a new button Extraction appears:
After pressing the button, the user needs to select a date and the grid will be filled in with the
information for the programs information for that week.
NOTE: the button
expands the ratecard dialogue for a better visibility.
Of course, the costs can be modified manually in the grid, and the same operations as in normal
ratecards can be applied.
There is a third set of ratecards, called compound cost ratecards (by GRP), which will be available if the
proper restriction files are enabled in RST files. In that case, a new combo appears: Expected GRP (Rusia)
2.6
WEEKLY PLANNING
Weekly planning in InfoSys+ is a development which is still in progress, and it will be ready in 1.6.
2.7
PLANNING TIMEBAND INGREDIENT
The dialogue of planning timeband ingredients looks like this:
The possible combinations of channels and regions are set up in SysIngredients database, table
PlanSectorChannels. This region is used to filter out individuals which don’t belong to that region; for
instance, the vehicle could be created based on Oltenia, and so the individuals picked up for the
calculations of planning would be the individuals from OLT; however, the universe would still be the
universe of the target/region selected in the templates (this is especially useful when the channel has
regional disconnections)
The user can set up the timeband by the “Unique timeband” option, which assigns the same start time
and end time for all the weekdays, or the “Multiple timeband”, if he wishes to have different start
time/end times for different weekday.
The user can set the resolution and grid start time:
The buttons
“Defined vehicles” window:
are used to create, modify and delete the vehicles defined in the
When the user presses “Create and exit” or “apply”, I+ will create an ingredient for each of the rows in
this dialogue. In this example:
As any other ingredient, the planning timebands can be created as temporary or permanent ingredients.
2.8
CREATING PLANNING VEHICLES FROM PROGRAMS REPORTS
As mentioned somewhere else in the document, InfoSys+ allows the user to create planning vehicles (in
fact it will be advanced timebands) from programs/spots reports or crosstabs.
From programs/spots
If the user right-clicks on the event, and chooses the option New-> New vehicle:
In this case, the option chosen in the “Composition” is indifferent because only one program is
highlighted. If the user highlights more than one event, then “Create a single vehicle” will create a single
vehicle for the two events, whereas the option “Create one vehicle” will create one advanced timeband
per program.
InfoSys+ will create the vehicle based on dates or weekdays, according to the selection in the “Days”
section.
The first one is based on dates, whereas the second one is based on weekdays (Monday)
These vehicles can be used in Vehicles reports, or in planning.
If the vehicle is created based on dates, the dates selected in the planning template must have some
days in common with the ones from which the vehicle was created, otherwise I+ will raise an error:
From crosstabs
In the case of crosstabs the “Composition” has the following options:
2.9

Create a single vehicle: a single vehicle for all the events of all the categories.

Create vehicles per categories: it creates as many vehicles as categories were highlighted.

Create vehicles per events: it creates as many vehicles as events belong to the categories that
were highlighted.
VEHICLE CREATION REP ORT
The vehicle creation report, selected from the list of outputs, is an alternative way to create planning
vehicles. It’s a mixture of programs and timebands reports, and it lets the user create vehicles from both
places:
The grid on the left shows a timeband analysis for the selected dates, and the grid on the right show the
programs extraction for those dates.
If the user clicks on a cell on the left, I+ will highlight the programs broadcast during that timeband; the
other way round, if a program is highlighted, I+ will show the timebands with which it overlaps on the
left. Dark blue means that the cell/program has been clicked, whereas light blue means that the cell is
affected by the selection on the other grid. The grids can be cleared by right-clicking-> Delete Grid
Contents. A light blue cell can be turned dark by right-clicking-> Select marked.
The user can right-click -> New Vehicle on a cell in the timebands grid, and it will be presented with the
following dialogue:
Most of the options are identical to the ones described in section 2.8. The new ones:

Create from timebands: it will create the vehicle based on the selected timebands cell (check
previous image)

Create from programs; it will create the vehicles based on the programs associated to the
selected timebands cell.
If the user right-clicks on a group of programs instead of clicking a timebands cell:
He will only have the option “Create from programs”
If there is a mix of selections of timeband cells and programs, two new options appear:

Timebands and programs union: it will create the vehicles based on the union (OR operation) of
the timebands and programs selection:

Timebands and programs intersection: it will create the vehicles based on the intersection
(AND operation) of the timebands and programs selection.
In the upper toolbar several buttons can be used:
Select the date division in the timeband grids.
Select the timeband division in the timeband grid.
These buttons alter the view of the grid: the first one shows/hides the empty timeband
cells (because the user has used a programs filter, for instance);
The second one toggles between the view of all events or showing the selected events only:
The last one enables the multiselection mode; if enabled, the user does not need to Ctrl + click on the
cells, he only needs to click multiple times on the grid.
Crosstab-related buttons: the first one toggles between extraction view and crosstab
view, the second one hides the crosstab definition, and the third one calculates the crosstab.
It toggles between showing all the events or only the selected (dark blue) ones.
2.10 OTHER PLANNING FUNCTIONALITIES
Weighting
The unit Weight, available in planning, lets the user give more importance to some vehicles over others,
by allocating them a larger weight.
It can be seen in the previous image how GRPs and Coverage are affected by the weighting.
Exclusive reach
This is a very useful unit, because it gives out the number of people who contact this vehicle only, and
not the others. Therefore, if we removed a given vehicle and recalculate the plan, the overall coverage
that we would get would be the same as before minus the ExcRch of the vehicle we deleted.
For instance:
If we remove the first vehicle, with an ExcRch of 82, and recalculate, we get an overall coverage of 52082=438.
Locking vehicles
It’s possible to lock vehicles with a certain value of insertions or GRPs (either the absolute value or the
percentage), so that the rest of vehicles of the plan adjust accordingly.
The user just needs to right-click on the vehicle, Lock vehicles.
If the user chooses absolute, GRPs and Insertions of the locked vehicle will remain unchanged when you
change the values of the TOTAL vehicle; if he uses percentage, %Insertions and %GRPs will remain
unchanged.
A good practice is trying to lock vehicles with high ExcRch, and let the other vehicles adjust accordingly.
This will optimize the plan.
3
COVERGUIDE REPORT
3.1
INTRODUCTION TO THE COVERGUIDE REPORT
Coverguide is a special report that informs about how coverage increases as more GRPs are added to
the plan.
Of course, as more GRPs added the Coverage increases, but there is a point when adding more GRPs
does not raise the coverage enough to make it worth. This can be appreciated in the chart, there is an
asymptotic limit.
The coverguide chart has a similar toolbar to the one in the planning chart (section 2.3)
InfoSys+ will calculate one coverguide per plan.
3.2
PARAMETERS OF THE COVERGUIDE REPORT
The user can set up several parameters in a coverguide report:




Minimum GRPs: the starting number of GRPs for the coverguide analysis.
Maximum GRPs: the final number of GRPs for the coverguide analysis.
GRPs each: the number of GRPs to increase in each step.
Coverguide: there are two possible values, which are “GRPs bound to the reference
target/region” and “GRPs set by target scale and liaised to reference region”. The behaviour of
these options is linked to a parameter in the RST files called “GRPs by area”:
o if “GRPs by area” is set to No (which is the default), in “GRPs bound to the reference
target/region“ the values of the coverguide will show the values obtained in the
plan if X GRPs are allocated to the first demo and region in the template; on the
contrary, in “GRPs set by target scale and liaised to reference region” the values of
the coverguide for a given target and any region will be the ones obtained in the
plan if X GRPs are allocated to that particular target in the first region of the
template.
o If “GRPs by area” is set to Yes, the “GRPs bound to the reference target/region“
remains unchanged, but in the “GRPs set by target scale and liaised to reference
region” the values of the coverguide for a given target and region will be the ones got
in the plan if X GRPs are allocated to that particular target and region
o If “GRPs by area” is set to Optional, a checkbox will appear in the template e template
so that the user can decide which behaviour to apply to “GRPs set by target scale and
liaised to reference region”.
4
4.1
OPTIMIZATION REPORT
INTRODUCTION TO THE OPTIMIZATION REPORT
The optimization report attempts to optimize the plan, in order to maximize a certain figure of the total
plan (usually the coverage or effective reach). The optimization module uses an iterative try-and-error
algorithm, which tries to allocate insertions to the different planning vehicles in each iteration in order
to get the optimal result.
Although the common sense would lead us to allocate the maximum number of GRPs to the planning
vehicles which have the higher rating, this is not always necessarily the most optimal way to do, since
there could be cases when doing this would not result in the highest coverage: for instance, imagine
that the two planning supports with the highest rating belong to the same channel and they are close in
time, it might be that many of the individuals which make part of the coverage of both vehicles are
common; it might make more sense to allocate some GRPs to other vehicles, but which have different
viewers, thus maximizing our reach.
The optimization algorithm is the same as in InfoSysTV.
4.2
HOW TO USE OPTIMIZATION REPORT
We can go to optimization by adding the report to our template or by pressing the button
planning report.
from a
The user must choose an optimization criterion and add the corresponding constraints (maximum or
minimum number of GRPs or insertions, for instance, in the individual vehicles or in the total).
Even though the plan can be based on several targets or regions, the optimization can only be done
based on one combination of region/target, which must be selected in the window:
After setting up everything, click
time with
)
and the optimization algorithm will start (it can be stopped at any
Once the optimization is over, the user is presented with the final results:
In the
section, InfoSys+ shows the resulting plan:
If the user agrees with this plan, it can accept it through the
planning report.
, and then InfoSys+ will add it to the
In the
, InfoSys+ shows the evolution of the optimization iterative process, as well as the
coverguides for each step:
The chart options can be modified by right-clicking on it, through the options in the pop-up menu.
4.3
PARAMETERS OF THE OPTIMIZATION REPORT
The optimization report can be set up with different parameters:







Optimization criteria: the criterion by which I+ will try to optimize. Although there are 6 of
them, really only Reach, Reach/Budget, Effective Reach and Effective Reach/Budget are really
useful; GRP and GRP/Budget are a legacy from InfoSysTV.
Min insertions: InfoSys+ lets the user do the optimization from a blank plan, or from a plan that
has already been calculated in a planning report. If the user is an expert planning it makes
sense to start from an existing plan, otherwise it is advised to start from a blank one.
GRPs by iteration: number of GRPs to be allocated in each iteration (by default 1).
Minimum GRPs: minimum number of GRPs to show in the iterations’ coverguides.
Maximum GRPs: maximum number of GRPs to show in the iterations’ coverguides
GRPs each: step of GRPs to show in the iterations’ coverguides.
Max number of contacts: number of contacts to show in the iterations’ coverguides.



Exact contacts (Not Acum): show exact contacts 1, 2, etc.. instead of 1+,2+, etc…
Go-back level: to be implemented in future versions of InfoSys+. It will let I+ find more global
optimal values instead of iterative local optimal values.
Group criteria: InfoSys+ lets the user employ groupings in optimization different from the ones
in planning report. For instance, a planning report could be grouped by channel, but the user
might decide to optimize the plan grouped by weekeday.
5
5.1
APPENDIX A: ALGORITHMS
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLANNING ALGORITHM IN INFOSYSTV AND INFOSYS+
Planning calculation is divided in 2 parts: Single vehicles and Group vehicles.
Single vehicles
Infosys and Infosys+ calculate every individual probability to reach a vehicle and then sum all these
probabilities and give a coverguide.
ind
Insertions Sec.Viewed Sec.Support Probability Coverguide
Weight
Cov x
Weight
1
5
60
600
10.00%
0.40951
3.6
1.47424
2
5
300
600
50.00%
0.96875
5.2
5.0375
3
5
450
600
75.00%
0.999023438
4.8
4.79531
4
5
600
600
100.00%
1
1.7
1.7
5
5
150
600
25.00%
0.762695313
1.3
0.9915
cov.total
13.9986
In this kind of vehicles InfoSysTv and InfoSys+ should produce almost identical results.
Group (summary) vehicles
One of the most important problems in infosys is to calculate the coverguide for a group of vehicles.
InfoSysTV does the coverguide calculating the probability to reach for every individual. Every individual
calculate the probability to reach as a binomial distribution of the probability p, where p are the seconds
viewed by the individual divided for the duration of the vehicle.
n: Insertions
k: contacts
p: probability to contact = secs.viewed / duration
When we calculate the group vehicle coverguide things are more complicated. We want to add the
probability for every individual. If an individual have viewed only a single vehicle, we calculate his
probability calculation the binomial distribution of the probability p of that vehicle. If the individual have
reached more than one support we need to calculate the coverguide as a multinomial distribution:
Where:
n: Inertions
xi: insertions for support i
xi  n;  xi  n
p k : probability to contact = secs.viewed vehicle i / duration vehicle i
InfoSysTV doesn’t do this calculation for a multiple vehicles. It was too slow to calculate in a plan with
multiple vehicles and a large amount of people.
It was decided then to calculate this distribution as a binomial distribution with p as an average of the
probabilities for all the vehicles reached for the individual.
k
n k
nk
  p m 1  p m 
where p m 
k 
p
i 1
i
k
This way to calculate is good approximation to the multinomial distribution when the probabilities
pi
are similar, but works badly for probabilities with big differences. For example:
Seconds
Viewed
Duration
Vehicle 1
600
Prob
120
Prob to
reach
Insertion
20.00%
1
20.00%
Weight
Coverguide
5
1
Vehicle 2
600
600
100.00%
1
100.00%
5
5
60.00%
2
84.00%
5
4.2
Total
We have a higher coverguide in the 2nd vehicle than the total vehicle.
Infosys+ solves this problem because we calculate the multinomial coverguide and this problem
disappears.
In the example before using multinimoial distribution the real values are:
Seconds
Viewed
Duration
Prob
Prob to
reach
Insertion
Weight
Coverguide
Vehicle 1
600
120
20.00%
1
20.00%
5
1
Vehicle 2
600
600
100.00%
1
100.00%
5
5
60.00%
2
100.00%
5
5
Total
So, to summarize InfoSysTV has problems calculating coverguide for multiple supports when these two
things happen with the single vehicles:
1) Exclusive coverguide low => Most of people have reach more than one support
2) Total Seconds viewed average (=probability) are different for the different vehicles.
Previous versions of InfoSys+ were doing the multinomial calculation but still giving too high values in
the calculation because InfoSys+ was not considering the correlation between the vehicles. For example,
an individual will not have the same coverguide probability if he has reach 1,2 or more vehicles of the
group vehicles.
However, current versions of the software this correlation information is taken into account, so that
planning results are now more realiable and closer to post-campaign reach&frequency. Furthermore
adding this information makes the planning calculations faster because, although the planning
evaluation is slower, the planning probabilty calculation is much faster.
As a conclusion, in summary/group vehicles InfoSys+ will produce lower results than InfoSysTV, and
more correct ones due to the application of multinomial and correlation algorithms.
5.2
MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM
Optimization step by step
Available options according to the restrictions:
1- To get a plan with a better coverage using as less insertions as possible, no matter the GRPs
number.
2- To get a plan with a better coverage using as less GRPs as possible, no matter the insertions
number.
Option 1 will be calculated if the number of GRPs is restricted.
Option 2 will be calculated if there are no restrictions or using restricted insertions.
Optimization process details:
If we run a plan with the basic timebands of a channel (T5 in the example)
Why after optimizing, so many insertions are added on the timebands that show less audience and just a
few insertions on the timebands with higher audience?
When the applied method was option number 1 and each insertion was added to the timeband that
showed a higher coverage, the method was not working properly restricting a maximum of GRPs.
Usually the insertion that gives more coverage is the one with the highest audience and indeed, the one
with a higher GRP; when adding insertions the GRPs limit was reached very quickly and most of the
times the coverage was worse than the one from the original plan.
On the following column, we could see that the most expensive insertions in terms of GRPs are the ones
with the highest audience.
So option 1 works fine if we want to get a plan with a better coverage using as less insertions as
possible, no matter the GRPs number:
For example, if we want an optimization to get a better coverage than the original plan using fewer
insertions:
It works fine but expending more GRPs.
Then, option number 2 was implemented; to get a plan with a better coverage using as less GRPs as
possible, no matter the insertions number.
This method adds more insertions in the early morning timeband until it reaches one GRP. As we just
limit the GRPs number, more insertions are added to get a better coverage.
6
APPENDIX B: RESTRICTIONS RELATED TO PLANNING
To be added in later versions of the document.
7
HISTORY
Version Author
1.0
KMSpain
1.1
KMSpain
Date
09/03/2011
22/11/2013
Comments
Creation
Section 5.2 about algorithms is created.