Method and System for Auditing Advertising Agency Performance

Abstract

Computerized techniques are disclosed for automatically converting buy data from advertising agencies into a common format for storage in a database. The commonly formatted buy data can be automatically analyzed to assess advertising agency performance in executing advertising plans on behalf of their client companies. The buy data can be representative of original buys, final buys, and/or actual buys.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for auditing an advertising agency to evaluate how the agency performed in executing an advertising plan on behalf of a company, the system comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory; and   wherein the processor and memory are configured to:
 receive advertising plan data, the advertising plan data describing an advertising plan for a company; 
 receive buy data in a plurality of different formats, the received buy data comprising a plurality of buy items from a plurality of advertising agencies, each buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by an advertising agency with a media property on behalf of a company, wherein the received buy data comprises a member of the group consisting of (1) original buy data comprising a plurality of original buy items, (2) final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, and (3) actual buy data comprising a plurality of actual buy items; 
 generate commonly formatted data by converting the received buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of buy items; 
 compare the advertising plan data with the commonly formatted data representative of the buy items; and 
 generate report data indicative of an extent to which the buy items satisfy the advertising plan data based on the comparison operation. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the received buy data comprises actual buy data, wherein the advertising plan data comprises data representative of a target amount of exposure for an advertising campaign by the company, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 obtain exposure data for the actual buy items in the actual buy data; 
 perform the comparison operation by comparing the obtained exposure data with the target amount of exposure from the advertising plan data; and 
 perform the report data generation operation by generating the report data such that the report data is indicative of an extent to which the obtained exposure data for the actual buy items satisfied the target amount of exposure from the advertising plan data. 
 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein the exposure data comprises a member of the group consisting of Nielsen television ratings and Arbitron radio ratings. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  2  wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 associate the actual buy items with the obtained exposure data corresponding thereto; and 
 store the commonly formatted data representative of the actual buy items associated with the obtained exposure data in a database as posted buy data. 
 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4  wherein the received buy data further comprises final buy data, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 compare the commonly formatted final buy data with the posted buy data; 
 generate data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the posted buy data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted final buy data based on the comparison operation between the final buy data and the posted buy data; and 
 generate posted buy-to-final buy report data based on the generated data resulting from the comparison operation between the final buy data and the posted buy data, the generated posted buy-to-final buy report data being indicative of an extent to which the advertisement spots of the posted buy data correspond to the advertisement spots of the final buy data. 
 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5  wherein each of at least a plurality of the buy items present in the received buy data comprises a data field pertaining to an aspect of the buy item and populated with coded data, the buy data for at least two of the advertising agencies having coded data for the data field that are coded in different formats, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 convert the coded data for each of the received buy items to coded data of a standardized coding format. 
 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein each of at least a plurality of the buy items present in the received buy data comprises a data field pertaining to an aspect of the buy item and populated with coded data, the buy data for at least two of the advertising agencies having coded data for the data field that are coded in different formats, and wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 convert the coded data for each of the received buy items to coded data of a standardized coding format. 
 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:
 store a data table in the memory, the data table defining a mapping between coded data present in the data field of the received buy items and the coded data of the standardized coding format; and 
 perform the conversion operation by converting the coded data for each of the received buy items to the coded data of the standardized coding format based on the data table. 
 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein the data table comprises a plurality of mapping records, each mapping record comprising a plurality of data table fields, the data table fields comprising:
 a first field for data representative of an identifier for a software package used by an advertising agency to generate buy data; 
 a second field for data representative of a data value for the coded data in the data field of the received buy items; and 
 a third field for data representative of a data value for the coded data of the standardized coding format corresponding to the data value for the coded data in the data field of the received buy items for that mapping record; and 
 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to perform the conversion operation by, for each of a plurality of buy items in the received buy data:
 determining a software package used by the advertising agency to generate the data for that buy item; 
 searching the data table; 
 determining whether a mapping record corresponding to the determined software package and the coded data in the data field for that buy item is present in the data table based on the search operation; and 
 based at least in part on a determination that such a mapping record is present in the data table, replacing the coded data in the data field for that buy item with the data value from the third field of that mapping record. 
 
 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the processor and memory are further configured to perform the conversion operation by, based at least in part on a determination that a mapping record corresponding to the determined software package and the coded data in the data field for that buy item is not present in the data table:
 providing a user interface for display to a user; 
 receiving user input through the user interface corresponding to the data value to be used as the coded data of the standardized format for that buy item; 
 replacing the coded data in the data field for that buy item with the data value of the received user input; and 
 updating the data table with a new mapping record that associates the determined software package for that buy item with the coded data in the data field for that buy item and the data value of the received user input. 
 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the data field comprises a daypart code field. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the received buy data comprises original buy data. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the received buy data comprises final buy data. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the received buy data comprises actual buy data. 
     
     
         15 . A computer-implemented method of auditing an advertising agency to evaluate how the agency performed in executing an advertising plan on behalf of a company, the method comprising:
 receiving advertising plan data, the advertising plan data describing an advertising plan for a company;   receiving buy data in a plurality of different formats, the received buy data comprising a plurality of buy items from a plurality of advertising agencies, each buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by an advertising agency with a media property on behalf of a company, wherein the received buy data comprises a member of the group consisting of (1) original buy data comprising a plurality of original buy items, (2) final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, and (3) actual buy data comprising a plurality of actual buy items;   generating commonly formatted data by converting the received buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of buy items;   comparing the advertising plan data with the commonly formatted data representative of the buy items; and   generating report data indicative of an extent to which the buy items satisfy the advertising plan data based on the comparing step; and   wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the received buy data comprises actual buy data, wherein the advertising plan data comprises data representative of a target amount of exposure for an advertising campaign by the company, the method further comprising:
 the processor obtaining exposure data for the actual buy items in the actual buy data; and 
 wherein the comparing step comprises the processor comparing the obtained exposure data with the target amount of exposure from the advertising plan data; and 
 wherein the report data generating step comprises the processor generating the report data such that the report data is indicative of an extent to which the obtained exposure data for the actual buy items satisfied the target amount of exposure from the advertising plan data. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the exposure data comprises a member of the group consisting of Nielsen television ratings and Arbitron radio ratings. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  16  further comprising:
 the processor associating the actual buy items with the obtained exposure data corresponding thereto; and 
 the processor storing the commonly formatted data representative of the actual buy items associated with the obtained exposure data in a database as posted buy data. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the received buy data further comprises final buy data, the method further comprising:
 the processor comparing the commonly formatted final buy data with the posted buy data; 
 generating data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the posted buy data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted final buy data based on the step of comparing the commonly formatted final buy data with the posted buy data; and 
 generating report data based on the generated data resulting from the step of comparing the commonly formatted final buy data with the posted buy data, the generated report data being indicative of an extent to which the advertisement spots of the posted buy data correspond to the advertisement spots of the final buy data. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein each of at least a plurality of the buy items present in the received buy data comprises a data field pertaining to an aspect of the buy item and populated with coded data, the buy data for at least two of the advertising agencies having coded data for the data field that are coded in different formats, the method further comprising:
 the processor performing the converting step by converting the coded data for each of the received buy items to coded data of a standardized coding format. 
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15  wherein each of at least a plurality of the buy items present in the received buy data comprises a data field pertaining to an aspect of the buy item and populated with coded data, the buy data for at least two of the advertising agencies having coded data for the data field that are coded in different formats, the method further comprising:
 the processor performing the converting step by converting the coded data for each of the received buy items to coded data of a standardized coding format. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising:
 the processor storing a data table in a memory, the data table defining a mapping between coded data present in the data field of the received buy items and the coded data of the standardized coding format; and 
 wherein the converting step comprises the processor converting the coded data for each of the received buy items to the coded data of the standardized coding format based on the data table. 
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein the data table comprises a plurality of mapping records, each mapping record comprising a plurality of data table fields, the data table fields comprising:
 a first field for data representative of an identifier for a software package used by an advertising agency to generate buy data; 
 a second field for data representative of a data value for the coded data in the data field of the received buy items; and 
 a third field for data representative of a data value for the coded data of the standardized coding format corresponding to the data value for the coded data in the data field of the received buy items for that mapping record; and 
 wherein the converting step further comprises the processor, for each of a plurality of buy items in the received buy data:
 determining a software package used by the advertising agency to generate the data for that buy item; 
 searching the data table; 
 determining whether a mapping record corresponding to the determined software package and the coded data in the data field for that buy item is present in the data table based on the searching step; and 
 based at least in part on a determination that such a mapping record is present in the data table, replacing the coded data in the data field for that buy item with the data value from the third field of that mapping record. 
 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  wherein the converting step further comprises:
 the processor, based at least in part on a determination that a mapping record corresponding to the determined software package and the coded data in the data field for that buy item is not present in the data table:
 providing a user interface for display to a user; 
 receiving user input through the user interface corresponding to the data value to be used as the coded data of the standardized format for that buy item; 
 replacing the coded data in the data field for that buy item with the data value of the received user input; and 
 updating the data table with a new mapping record that associates the determined software package for that buy item with the coded data in the data field for that buy item and the data value of the received user input. 
 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the data field comprises a daypart code field. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the received buy data comprises original buy data. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the received buy data comprises final buy data. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the received buy data comprises actual buy data. 
     
     
         29 . A computer program product for auditing an advertising agency to evaluate how the agency performed in executing an advertising plan on behalf of a company, the computer program product comprising:
 executable program code resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the executable program code comprising a plurality of code segments executable by a processor, the code segments configured to:
 receive advertising plan data, the advertising plan data describing an advertising plan for a company; 
 receive buy data in a plurality of different formats, the received buy data comprising a plurality of buy items from a plurality of advertising agencies, each buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by an advertising agency with a media property on behalf of a company, wherein the received buy data comprises a member of the group consisting of (1) original buy data comprising a plurality of original buy items, (2) final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, and (3) actual buy data comprising a plurality of actual buy items; 
 generate commonly formatted data by converting the received buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of buy items; 
 compare the advertising plan data with the commonly formatted data representative of the buy items; and 
 generate report data indicative of an extent to which the buy items satisfy the advertising plan data based on the comparison operation.