Ask a media planner, “What's the biggest obstacle you face in your day-to-day job duties?” and chances are they’ll reply “too little time,” time and time again. 

“The entire programming process can steal countless hours from both sales and operations teams if not managed properly,” says Tiffany Troutman, Product Manager at ShowSeeker. “Shifts in live programming, combined with outdated file-sharing processes, traffic deadlines, and last-minute client adjustments, make each minute of the day crucial.” 

And a disjointed workflow affects the entire organization, it’s not just media planners who are in the trenches. 

“Having come from the ad sales world, I’ve seen firsthand the chain reaction that occurs,” explains Nikki Greeler, Programming Analyst at ShowSeeker. “Not only are planners frantic as they’re up against a deadline from traffic, but AEs risk losing commission. To top it off, company leaders may not become aware of this revenue loss until it’s reflected in monthly or quarterly reports.”

Nikki goes on to explain that “Clients do not care the game was cancelled or they were outbid by candidates during a political year. They paid for spots and want to reach a specific audience as promised.”

Unfortunately, this disjointed process has become the accepted norm over time, an “it is what it is” type mentality. 

But should it be? ShowSeeker emphatically answers: No. It should not. 

ShowSeeker's Solution

Through the years, ShowSeeker has delivered time savings for advertising sales teams with reliable, up-to-date programming found in our signature product: ShowSeeker Plus. And now, this tool has evolved, becoming part of a much larger ecosystem for ad sales.

“As our industry has changed, so has our place in it,” says Amanda Frey, ShowSeeker’s Director of Product Management. “ShowSeeker Plus started as a trusted programming search tool for sales teams and grew into much more as we identified that pre-built and custom packages would add efficiencies for ops teams as well. That was followed by adding proposal building capabilities to Plus, and in 2019 we stepped back to examine how our solutions could drive the future of advertising.”

As leaders and developers went through this process, they recognized that ShowSeeker’s original ‘why?’ did not change but the means to derive solutions did. As Dave Hardy, Founder and CEO of ShowSeeker explains:

“ShowSeeker was founded to steer efficiencies and time savings for those in the day-to-day ad sales world. That was, and still is, our core purpose.”

Dave continues, “Programming was the logical place to start, as I saw firsthand how crucial the need was during my time as an AE. However, we recognized that when our search product is planted into an entire ecosystem, it provides far more efficiencies than ever imagined.”

With this, ShowSeeker recently introduced Pilot^®, a cloud-based solutions suite which supports the entire lifecycle of an ad campaign, including the same programming search capabilities that the advertising industry has come to rely on. 

“Finding the best content for advertisers remains a vital part of the media planning process, even in the new streaming and digital advertising landscape” says Nick Anaclerio, VP of Product. “We are excited to bring this functionality to Pilot, ensuring that users can truly manage campaigns throughout their entire lifecycle in a single platform.”  

‍

New programming searches can be quickly imported into new or existing proposals, avoiding cumbersome file-sharing processes.

Program schedule changes can be pushed directly into existing proposals or live orders and are even reported to traffic and other third-party systems!

Custom packages with regional programming and dedicated rate cards can be created and shared with other team members.

Option to view programming results that are only on the insertable networks available in specific markets. 

Want to stay up-to-date with ShowSeeker's Advancements?

‍