Television Optimizers: Did They Change the Way We Do Business?

Procter & Gamble's 1997 Agency of Record pitch spurred agencies to develop new tools for analyzing television audience data and to schedule advertising.

Television Optimizers: Did They Change the Way We Do Business?

Andrew GreenZenithOptimedia, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

In the spring of 1997, four U.S. advertising agencies started preparing for an important new business pitch. Procter & Gamble (P&G) had announced that it was putting its $1 billion television agency-of-record assignment up for review—one that would encompass not only traditional buying of airtime, but also what was termed “tactical” planning.

Tactical planning of television—a role traditionally played by the buyer in markets like the United Kingdom but by the planner in the United States—encompasses the discipline of determining the daypart, channel, and program...

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