We live in the golden age of media. Today, it's not a question of whether businesses have a media presence or not – it's a question of having the right strategy to ensure that presence is compelling and profitable.
It is why marketing and advertising agencies are on the rise. Businesses depend on these agencies to ensure their media presence is up to par. It means displaying the right message on the right platform at the right time.
Agencies must efficiently manage all these factors to get the most out of each campaign. This is where media management steps in.
What is Media Management?
Media management involves managing media companies' strategic planning, procurement, production, organisational planning, and marketing.
Who’s involved in the process?
Media planners and media buyers. When media buyers make bookings with media planners, the media manager's job is to ensure all the project pieces fit together. Therefore, it is necessary to organise everything, from bookings to timelines.
It's a complex and time-consuming task that can be aided by the right media management software tools and process automation.
What is Media Management Software?
Media management software is a tool that helps agencies automate the process of media management by streamlining the workflow; making it easier for them to handle projects and allowing them to store and manage bookings. It can assist in the purchase of media ads, managing buys, invoicing clients, paying suppliers accurately, and reporting on profitability.
Other features of Media Management Software include:
Coordinating Projects:
When an entire team of marketing geniuses and creatives is working on a project everyone must be kept in the loop so that all tasks are completed within the deadline. These tools allow media planners to allocate budgets to campaigns and get the signoff from clients, and media buyers to keep track of progress.
Evaluating Media Campaigns:
Media management systems can help you assess campaign performance based by distilling raw data down into consumable, reportable metrics.
Media management systems allow you to evaluate campaigns quickly and accurately so that you can make informed decisions on how to improve them helping you to make better decisions about your media strategies.
Managing Bookings:
When an advertising and media agency has multiple media buyers, each buyer may have a different set of requirements for bookings. For instance, one buyer may book for a billboard, whereas another may book for radio advertisements.
Sample Tax Invoice for Media - Pegasus Systems
In this scenario, media management software makes it easier to manage buyers and their requirements by segmenting audiences so you can easily track bookings and make changes to them.
Invoicing and Reporting:
Manually creating invoices for each buyer is a tedious and time-consuming task. Not to mention that it could also cause errors. What if your accountant forgets to add a fee or miscalculates the total amount?
Media management software allows you to record all invoices, payments, and reports and add or delete fees as needed in one place. Staying organises and keeping on top of your finances is now possible.
Why is a Media Management System Important for a Media Agency?
Media management is one of the most important aspects of any advertising or media agency. Without careful and effective media management, an agency will lose its clients.
Here are some of the reasons why a media management system is so necessary for these agencies:
Organisation:
There are too many moving parts in an agency, from designing ad campaigns to producing content. If one thing is out of place, it can throw the whole operation off balance. Therefore, agencies need a tool that can help them keep everything organised. It includes managing all bookings under one platform, setting up a central database for media, and creating an archive for past projects.
Scheduling:
A media agency works on promoting brands and businesses on various marketing platforms. From traditional television to digital Twitter, they post content (like videos and images) in between specific times. Media management software can create a schedule for all content so agencies can plan their campaigns accordingly. It'll ensure zero missed deadlines and allocate the resources as needed.
Timesaving:
Media management software can automate mundane tasks such as creating invoices, tracking payments, and filing reports. This feature will not only save you time but also helps agencies focus on what matters – delivering quality work for their clients.
Efficiency:
Deadlines and client expectations are always looming over a media agency. There is no room for error. In such circumstances, anything that streamlines the workflow and makes the team more efficient is a godsend. Media management software does just that.
Accountability:
A media agency is only as good as its last project. To maintain a good reputation, delivering quality work on time is crucial. It includes promising results to clients and being able to back up those results with data. With the help of reporting and analytics features, agencies can show their clients that they are meeting their expectations.
Example of a Forecast Report, Media Module - Pegasus Edge
How Does Job Management Software Differ from Media Management Software?
Let’s get the semantics out of the way.
Job management software keeps track of tasks and projects within a business. It is mainly for internal use to help teams collaborate, set deadlines, and plan resources.
With this software, you can also take care of billing and invoicing. It's safe to say that job management software simplifies operational business processes. When integrating with third-party resource managing solutions like Float you will ensure that workloads are manageable and profitable and remote teams work together.
With products such as Float.com, TVMap, and Symphony, Pegasus Systems can offer job and media management solutions.
Other features of job management software include:
Estimates Management and Orders Management
Timesheets
WIP Reports
The benefits of using job management software are manyfold. It enables better communication and collaboration across departments and improves productivity.
Pegasus Systems' media management software, when compared to job management software, is more task-specific and geared toward agencies dealing with media, advertising, and communications.
From budgeting to scheduling, agencies will manage their content and campaigns more effectively.
In addition, media management software helps keep track of every step of the media production process. Pegasus Systems integrates with third-party media type-specific planning software like TVMap and Symphony for digital/online media.
How to Use Media Management Software?
Generate Media Proformas:
Proformas are the "dummy" invoices sent to media owners before you make the actual bookings. It helps your agency estimate its media budget and plan campaigns accordingly.
Media management software has built-in proforma generators that allow agencies quickly create and edit these documents.
User interface to generate Media Proformas in Pegasus
You can select multiple fields like:
Client type
Client accounting level
Branch
Product
You can also exclude a specific client or product from the proforma at any time.
There are five steps involved in the process of successfully creating proformas and submitting them for billing. These include:
Create a proforma selection
Run and reviews the proformas
Make the required changes
Run proformas to verify
Submit for billing
Running Media Invoices:
Once the invoice is approved, you can send it to the media owners for payment. With media management software, you can quickly generate invoices and send them out for clearance. At the same time, you can also check the status of each invoice and follow up with clients for timely payments.
Pegasus offers to the New Zealand market invoice bookings that automatically generate accounts payable invoices for suppliers. Then they are matched against the actual invoices from the suppliers, and any discrepancies to dealt with.
In other countries, the invoiced bookings remain in a Media WIP account for reconciliation against the supplier invoices. They are then programmatically passed through to Accounts Payable as invoices for payment.
Media Invoice Report:
The bookings in Pegasus become the basis of the invoices to the clients and the reconciliation records for supplier payments. This feature displays the full invoice details for a specific time range. These details include fees and commissions, both billed and earned. It is a handy feature since it helps agencies to track their financials accurately.
Historical and future bookings are stored securely in the database and reported on at any level across the database, like at the agency, division, client group, client, media class, supplier or any combination of those for any period.
Easy selection to run your Media Invoice Report
Why is Pegasus Systems your Media Management alternative?
Let Pegasus manage your media production process. Our goal is to streamline workflows and simplify media operations thanks to our media management software. This software offers the following features that can enhance your experience:
Multi-Currency Compatibility:
The software allows you to work with multiple foreign currencies. With Pegasus, you can easily carry out billing and payments in different currencies thanks to our multi-currency inputs.
Seamless Integration:
Managing different clients and campaigns from one platform is a dream come true. Pegasus Systems offers a seamless integration feature that can help you manage all your clients and campaigns without difficulty. You can effortlessly review booking data from within the software.
Real-Time Functionality:
With Pegasus Systems, you can input bookings as scheduled and revise them if needed. In addition, you'll get live updates that will notify everyone using the system of any changes made - including your clients.
Commission Splits:
Do you work with other agencies like content creators? If yes, then the commission split feature of Pegasus Systems' media management software can be useful. It allows the automatic accrual of third-party revenue splits while formulating invoices. Flexible commission and client billing methods allow reporting on Gross, Net, Cost to Client, Cost to Agency and any other value derived from the booking details.
All-in-One Data Management:
You can manage all your media bookings in one place. You can also access your data at any stage of the process. It will help you when you work with media. As a result, you can lower costs, reduce effort, and optimise media production.
Comprehensive Inquiries:
Pegasus Systems allows you to make inquiries in a variety of ways. All is possible with the software's comprehensive search feature, from searching for clients and campaigns to viewing individual invoices. Pegasus archives data for as long as you need it but also provides real-time reporting so that you can easily handle current and past issues.
Media Invoice Output Report, PDF format - Pegasus Systems
Conclusion:
Media management software is essential for any agency which works in media, advertising, and communications. It helps streamline the processes associated with creating proformas, running media invoices, and generating invoice reports. Pegasus Systems' media management software provides all the features and tools required to manage the media department efficiently and cost-effectively, including many other qualities such as TV holdings transfer, media holding extracts, expenditure reports, and many more. It is the perfect tool for agencies looking to maximise their media budget and enhance their campaigns.
Contact Pegasus Systems today to learn more about the features and functions of media management software. You may be able to book a demo to get a better understanding of the entire process.