MediaCore is a secure online marketplace for buying and selling premium advertising inventory in real time. MediaCore automates existing Australian trading practices, creating huge cost and time savings.

Landsberry & James – Australia’s leading independent media software provider – has spent the past two years developing MediaCore in association with Avanade, the joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture. Landsberry & James has 30 years of media industry experience and the company’s software is already in use in every Australian media agency.

Landsberry & James studied the interactions between Australian media buyers and owners and created the MediaCore solution to streamline and automate the entire trading process. The network is special because it’s delivered by an independent organisation and offers an open, industry-standard interface. This common platform means every media owner and buyer can "speak the same language" and access MediaCore using systems and software they already have in place. MediaCore’s secure and managed network enables real time trading through an industry-wide (rather than proprietary) approach.

MediaCore provides a direct and secure online route to every media owner and agency in Australia. Its defined interface will become industry standard and can be integrated into all systems already in use in Australian media organisations.

Media owners gain even finer control than they have now, and in real time, to streamline existing processes and provide real time metrics, so they can more efficiently manage their inventory. Businesses approve with whom they transact and also the criteria by which they do so; it is not open trading between any party, such as the stock market.

For buyers, MediaCore’s trading mechanism is much more efficient, making their jobs faster and easier. The ultimate benefit for advertisers is their agencies will be buying more efficiently.

At the heart of MediaCore is an inventory management server (IMS) that mirrors the internal system of each individual media owner. The IMS loads the advertising that the media owner would like to make available to each buyer or direct advertiser. The IMS sits at the media owner’s premises and is highly secure. MediaCore does not store inventory; the media owner retains control.

Media agencies create campaigns in their normal manner because their existing software can seamlessly interface with MediaCore. Once parameters are set, MediaCore directs the relevant campaign elements to the respective media owners. Within seconds the current program guides, rates, estimated ratings and – if the media owner chooses – the “avails” specifically for this advertiser appear on the buyer’s screen. The buyer’s display is constantly updated so he or she is always working with the latest information.

Each time an ad is booked, it goes to the relevant media owner and into an automated booking rules module. This considers the avails that have been released for this particular client and booking, including: the rate and any applicable discount rules; the requested program’s current fill and revenue levels; any sponsorship or in-break conflicts; position-in-break requests; and any other criteria that the media owner may specify.

MediaCore generates an immediate response informing the buyer whether the booking has been accepted, rejected or queued for further consideration by the media owner. In cases where a booking is rejected, the owner can automatically provide alternatives that offer similar cost and performance.

MediaCore also has an optional ‘offer’ component that allows buyers to browse availability and click to accept packages media owners offer at any time, giving buyers a wider variety of ways of doing business. This is particularly relevant given the increasing interest in cross platform selling, and MediaCore can accommodate packages that span various media (i.e., internet, TV, radio, print, out-of-home).

MediaCore processes transactions in milliseconds and can accommodate the booking volume of 100 TV stations across a seven-day period in just two hours. It can also load a 365-day program schedule – every timeslot, every day for a year on a specific TV network – in seconds. Underscoring its capacity to be a sector-wide solution, MediaCore can easily accommodate the entire annual billings of the Australian media industry.

While most television networks have introduced, or are looking to introduce, varying degrees of automation, e-trading does not yet exist in its true form; individual booking requests still require manual responses from the networks, which is very labour intensive.

Online cost-per-thousand and cost-per-click auctioning commoditises the market and is not the way the Australian media industry wants to operate. MediaCore has been developed for premium inventory and to automate and streamline current Australian buying and selling practices.

MediaCore is an open system with an open interface so that all parties can use the network and its associated services. It will initially be available for television – and, soon after, radio – but the system is open and written to accommodate print, online and other media.

The main factors preventing an open e-trading system in the past have been technology, costs, the lack of a common coding system, proprietors’ fears of losing control of their inventory, media buyers’ concerns that prices would be driven higher, and worries that it would commoditise the industry. These are all very important factors and MediaCore addresses every one.

Landsberry & James has absorbed the technology development costs and developed common coding. Media owners will have more control and the industry maintains existing business practices. The whole system is geared towards premium inventory and the way people trade now.

MediaCore will work because it provides benefits that the industry has consistently said are important – such as yield management and cost savings – while not forcing media buyers or owners to change their existing practices.

Considering all the efficiencies and benefits MediaCore brings, Landsberry & James has devised a pricing structure that also ensures value. The costs of the MediaCore network and all related services and software will be based on a modest percentage of revenue generated by bookings. This is the most equitable arrangement as it accommodates small and large users and also directly relates to the value of transactions processed.

Landsberry & James will handle all software set up costs and work with owners and buyers to implement the interface to the inventory management server (IMS). The only cost to media owners will be the hardware that hosts the IMS.

At this stage, Landsberry & James is asking the metro free-to-air and the subscription television networks to work with the company to interface their current systems with the IMS and to participate in the trial. Landsberry & James also understands that media agencies and direct advertisers use a variety of software solutions, and during the lead-up to MediaCore’s go-live date Landsberry & James hopes to work with relevant third-party software suppliers to ensure they are MediaCore-enabled.

With TV network and agency cooperation, MediaCore can go live in the first half of calendar 2010.