Sky Media | Customer Success Story | Imagine Communications

Optimising airtime utilisation and linear TV ad revenue

Sky Media is the advertising sales arm of Sky, offering businesses of all shapes and sizes an exciting array of opportunities on TV, online and on the go.

Reaching over 93% of the UK population, Sky Media represents all of Sky’s channels and sites including Sky Sports, Sky News and Sky Arts, as well as a range of renowned broadcasters including Paramount (Channel 5, MTV, Comedy Central), Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports, Discover), GREAT!, A+E Networks and AMC Networks.

Efficiency: With broader runs, they now manage 130 channels more efficiently.

Automation: Audience shifts are seamlessly incorporated, stripping out inefficient spots.

Saves Time: Previously spent Fridays on a slew of runs; now done in 10-15 minutes.

The Challenge

In a rapidly changing and competitive market, media companies across the industry are looking to control costs and maximise profitability of ad placement in their core linear business. Sky Media’s specific challenge is to optimise their valuable inventory, including making effective use of their content, which spans around 130 channels. To help achieve this goal, Sky Media has deployed Imagine’s GamePlan optimiser and spot placement engine for linear TV.

“Linear TV is still incredibly important and in demand ― it’s instrumental to the Sky Media offering,” said Martin Leach, Director of Operations at Sky Media. “Even a small percentage change can make a massive difference in value and benefits. Our job is to continually work to get the most value out of our airtime ― and GamePlan is making it easy for us to do that.”

The Solution

Built on open APIs, Imagine’s GamePlan is an ultra-scalable, audience-based ad placement engine and optimisation tool that integrates seamlessly with Sky Media’s ad sales and scheduling solution, Landmark™ Sales, as well as with third-party campaign tools. It enables the sales operations team to dynamically model multiple what-if scenarios and easily find the optimal ad placement. With GamePlan, operators can “set it and forget it,” while the system recommends the best scenarios based on customer-defined weightings for each of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

GamePlan offers multiple business-enhancing features including AutoPilot, a one-click function that provides computer-generated optimisation scenarios — enabling users to model multiple scenarios and reach optimal results. This groundbreaking feature enables media companies to find the optimal balance between pure inventory efficiency and quality campaign effectiveness.

Sky Media also leverages the GamePlan optimiser’s Best Result Selector (BRS), which allows different KPIs to be weighted according to specific business imperatives, such as campaign completion or value delivered, and then used to produce an easy-to-interpret score.

“Our job is to continually work to get the most value out of our airtime ― and GamePlan is making it easy for us to do that.”

Martin Leach

Director of Operations at Sky Media

The Result

Together, Sky Media and Imagine have achieved a significant milestone in their collaborative efforts to transform the way television advertising is bought and sold.

Since deploying GamePlan, Sky Media has seen tangible improvements in operational efficiency and driven greater value from their airtime. The automated tool empowers Sky Media’s airtime management team to adapt effectively to shifting supply and demand conditions ― maximising revenue through constant re-optimisation.

business man giving a sales presintation

The adoption of GamePlan has yielded many benefits for Sky Media. By combining small independent runs into broader runs with granular controls, they now manage their 130 channels more efficiently. Ratings updates and audience shifts are seamlessly incorporated into the process, whereby GamePlan automatically strips out inefficient spots. Sky Media has experienced a consolidation of operations that saves precious time.

“Perhaps the most significant benefit we’ve realised with the Imagine optimiser ― at least from the perspective of our sales operations team ― is how much time it saves,” said Leach. “Where previously, Fridays would be spent doing a slew of runs for the month ahead, the team can now just stack four or five different runs on GamePlan and get their work done in 10-15 minutes.”

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