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Reprinted from:
Pittsburgh Business Times

February 25, 2002

See Spot Run
By Christopher Davis

Advertising time is money, and Management Science Associates Inc. of Point Breeze is marketing new software that's aimed at helping cable television networks make more of both.

The software, called Stewardship, tracks the number of viewers, or so-called "impressions," during certain time slots and allows networks to adjust their advertising schedules to achieve better results.

Most important, it gives them the ability to predict when they'll deliver the number of viewers they've guaranteed for specific ads.

When networks meet these guarantees, they can stop running certain ads and sell those slots to other clients -- boosting revenue and ensuring that clients don't get less, or more, than they're paying for.

Cable networks, including Comedy Central, A&E Entertainment Networks and Oxygen Media are implementing MSA's new software.

Lifetime Television likely will be added to the client list by the end of the month, according to MSA.

Phil Antonson, director of sales and business development for MSA's North Side-based media division, said without software such as Stewardship, cable networks often can't obtain accurate assessments of whether their advertising schedules have met their guarantees until after the fact, which can be costly.

Mr. Antonson said networks often use "post-buy" reports, which include Nielsen ratings and other data, to determine whether they've met their impressions obligations. MSA offers post-buy reports, which it sells to about 49 cable television networks.

Those reports give a final snapshot of a specific period, but do not provide networks the ability to predict when they'll meet their obligations ahead of schedule.

"When they overcredit, there's no extra money that goes into the pockets of the A&Es of the world," Mr. Antonson said. "That's money left on the table."

In addition to its Stewardship and other software geared toward the media, Management Science provides information management services to the automobile, steel, medical, retail and consumer packaged goods industries. In August, MSA also bought pioneering online metals marketplace, MetalSite Inc. The e-business had suspended operations earlier last summer to reorganize and look for new investors. MSA restarted it in November.

DELIVERING ON TIME

When advertisers buy time on cable television, the spots are often tied to bigger campaigns running in various media.

And in many instances, they're time-sensitive spots. For instance, clothing retailers might be pushing a new spring line.

If networks fall short of their guaranteed impressions in one quarter and have to make them up later, the campaigns suffer.

"That can start to diminish the relationship with the agency (representing an advertiser)," Mr. Antonson said. "The agency and the advertisers want to get the impressions in the quarter they bought them."

Previously, some networks, including A&E, used a DOS-based ad-tracking software developed by MSA, called M-Track, Mr. Antonson said.

PC-based Stewardship is a more automated version of M-Track, which was introduced in the early 1990s. Stewardship was unveiled in the spring of 2000 and rolled out for sale late last year. There are also other manual methods for tracking impressions.

Mr. Antonson said Management Science spent about 18 months and "six figures" developing Stewardship. The software eventually will account for about 10 percent of the MSA media division's overall revenue, he said.

A&E started using Stewardship in December.

Rob Edney, vice president of ad sales for A&E's eastern region, said Stewardship has "given us the ability to handle our business with much greater efficiency.

"It has enhanced our capability to deliver our advertisers' deals on time," Mr. Edney said. "It gives us on-demand information. We literally can see exactly where we stand, as a network, at any time."

While Mr. Edney declined to say how Stewardship would affect the network's bottom line, he said it definitely "will result in significant efficiencies for our network over time."

LOOKING TO EXPAND

Mr. Antonson said MSA's goal is to attract three or more national cable networks to Stewardship by year-end. For 2003, the company hopes to garner four to six more networks.

He said there are between 60 and 70 national networks currently broadcasting on cable. Many of those networks include subsidiary stations. For example, A&E includes the History Channel.

Mr. Antonson declined to disclose exactly how much the Stewardship software sells for, but said for most large cable networks it generally costs "six figures" annually. The cost covers Management Science's licensing fees and tech support provided for each client.

"We've made it affordable for both the small guys and the big guys," he said.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Stewardship software competes with similar software marketed by New York-based InVision Inc. and Denver-based Encoda Systems Inc.

Currently, MSA is marketing Stewardship only to cable networks because broadcast networks, such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, for the most part, do not offer advertising packages that contain guaranteed numbers of impressions.

"That's slowly changing," Mr. Antonson said. "They are starting to do more guaranteed deals, so there is a future market, I think, with the big four."

The larger and more established broadcast networks also often have in-house information technology staffs that develop proprietary ad-tracking systems.

Mr. Antonson said MSA is concentrating its marketing efforts on clients that already use its Gabriel software system, which handles "back office" duties for networks, including ad sales management, trafficking and billing.

About 15 to 20 cable networks, such as MTV, Lifetime, USA Network and the Sci Fi Channel, use Gabriel, Mr. Antonson said.

Management Science is banking on those networks and others being added soon to the Stewardship client roster.

"Everyone who we've sat down with and showed it to has made a commitment to using it," Mr. Antonson said.

Mr. Davis may be contacted at cdavis@bizjournals.com.