Frustration, The Mother of Invention

By Michael Massey

Frustration is truly the mother of invention. Humans are pretty good about being inventive when the frustration level becomes too much. And wit is just that kind of frustration that was the impetus for designing and launching the Your Ad Here media calculator which is now available as a mobile app on the Android Marketplace. Here’s the story on how it all started.

We are media strategists. It’s what we love. We couple it with creativity to achieve results for clients by placing billboards, digital, broadcast TV, cable and radio. In order to make that happen, we also have to be number crunchers. My business partner Chrissie and our employee Chris will tell anyone that I personally hate all the spreadsheets and formulas involved in getting the best placements for our clients. And in our business, these spreadsheets can be very, very confusing since each type of media uses a unique benchmark for qualitative results.

To plan outdoor (billboards, etc.), we use the DEC count. For digital placements we use Cost Per Thousand (CPM) or Cost Per Click (CPC). In television it’s all about CPP (cost per point). For radio we’re using Cume rating or average quarter hour (AQH). For print publications it’s about number of subscribers. Even thinking about all of this makes my head spin.

To make it worse, we’ve had no central place for formulas. Oh sure, we could use an online media calculator or scratch it out on a piece of paper, but there was never any portability and certainly no ease of use. Beyond that there was nothing for both buyers and sellers to use seamlessly. Frustrating.

One day we sat in a brainstorm session discussing this challenge. There had to be a way. Somebody must have thought of something to overcome this challenge. We tapped our pencils, scribbled notes scratched our head then suddenly, I think we heard the angels sing. The concept of the Your Ad Here Media Calculator was born that day.

The really nice thing about the calculator is that there is absolutely no need to be a media math wiz. You can download the $1.29 app to your Android device (the Itunes version coming soon) and you're in business. The screens prompt you to enter your starting data to get your final media number whether it’s Cost Per Point, Cost Per Thousand, Gross Impressions, Reach, or Frequency. Everything you need is there at your fingertips. And if you’re not quite sure you understand the terms I’m throwing around, you should really have a copy of our book, Your Ad Here: De-mystifying the Business of Media and Advertising. And we’re going to make it easy for you. We are offering both the book and the media calculator for $16.24. That’s a great discount. But please hurry; the offer expires on February 28, 2012.