Optimizers - Ephron On Media Article Archive - off-center thinking about the advertising business by Erwin Ephron


	Optimizers
	Optimizers show advertisers how to buy more reach for less money, something especially welcome in a weak or strong economy. But Optimizers are not without critics. Andrew Ehrenberg, the Dean of advertising research, argues “Optimize” is a bald over-claim. “Make it better,” he says, will do quite nicely . . .

	WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ROBOBUYER? Those attending the Cable television advertising bureau conference in March were polled on the importance of optimizers. Seventy-four percent thought optimizers had not lived up to their anticipated importance, raising the question, ``Whatever Happened To Robobuyer?''

	A SOPHOMORE SLUMP? Optimizers Rattle Cages, But Haven’t Opened Doors. It’s been a remarkable few years. No one in the US thought much about optimization until 1997 when P&G made it the ticket-to-ride on its $1.2 billion search for a television AOR. No surprise our first optimizer agencies were all P&G and with strong overseas connections.

	OPTIMIZERS REDEFINE BUYING AND PLANNING New Approach Could Unleash a Whirlwind of Changes. Optimization is a simple idea which grows in complication as soon as we think through its effects on the total TV planning and buying process. This paper answers the root question "What should we optimize?"