Pointlogic launches new generation of channel planning tool

Tuesday, 07 June 2011

Last month Pointlogic launched the latest instalment of its Compose USA research in a completely new software platform for channel planning called Chorus (Compose is Pointlogic’s syndicated research about communication channels, including paid for, owned and earned media).

A few weeks ago the USA TouchPoints study also became available in the shiny new system. “The coolest media planning software ever,” said Jim Spaeth of Pointlogic’s new system. Jim is the partner and co-founder of Sequent Partners, a brand and media metrics consultancy based in New York. We have asked several folks at Pointlogic why we needed to bother users with getting used to a completely new communication planning software.

"The coolest media planning software ever”,
Jim Spaeth, partner and co-founder of Sequent Partners

"All the customisation options our clients need", Marcel van der kooi

According to Marcel van der Kooi, business unit director, “None of our clients have exactly the same needs with respect to solutions for communication planning. Some of our clients want an ‘out-of-the-box’ solution and to be able to be up and running as soon as possible. Other clients have deep beliefs about how planning should work, what features are needed to derive results and how to present these. Some clients have their own touch point data and marketing mix models. Several of our clients even have very specific demands on the design of the user interface. Customisation is therefore key to delivering the best solutions in the market. The new software offers all the customisation options we need to cater for all our clients.”

"We don’t want to bother occasional users with advanced options", Hans Kroese

Hans Kroese, user experience expert, says, “From interviews with our users, we have realised that our software is used in very different ways. Users differ in how often they use the software and in the depth of usage. This understanding was crucial in the design of our new interface. We don’t want to bother occasional users with advanced options such as calibrating a user channel. Likewise, advanced ranking options should not confuse first-time users.

The other evolution is the incredible graphical and animation options that the WPF technology offers. (WPF stands for Windows Presentation Foundation and is a graphical platform that helps software developers create attractive and effective user interfaces in Windows-based applications.) We have been using these graphical options sparsely. It is hard to resist turning our software into a fancy video game, but we have tried to limit clutter as much as possible and only added these options when they really help users. It does offer extensive possibilities to customise the look and feel of the software.”

"Each data set has its own rules on how to interpret it", Robert Luksen

“Well, I was responsible for the development of the previous version of Chorus,” says Robert Luksen, technical manager, “so I have nothing bad to say about that! It worked fine for existing clients. The difference between the previous version and the new one is that Chorus is now being used for an increasingly wide range of applications. All the early Chorus versions were using a relatively simple database of survey data, if any. Today, some clients require us to work with multiple data sources at the same time. Some of these data sources can only be accessed using a web service. An application like Chorus with USA TouchPoints uses data structured in a completely different way than, for instance, Compose data. Every data set has its own rules on how to interpret it. We have built a piece of technology that can deal with these various data requirements.

Another important trend that we needed to deal with is tablet PCs. We don’t expect that Chorus users will want to create or review detailed media plans on a tablet, but possibly the strategic part of a media plan. The architecture of our new system is such that business logic and interface are separated (business logic means the functional algorithms that handle information exchange between a database and a user interface). This will allow us to build, for example, a dedicated iPad app that can access and use the intelligence from the new system. We don’t have to build it twice.”

"The old Chorus software compares to the new software as tables of data compare to Excel", Marieke de Koning

Marieke de Koning, intelligence director, adds, “The old Chorus software compares to the new software as tables of data compare to Excel. What I mean is that the way that data was used to enable communication planning was very rigid. In the new software, we have a much greater flexibility. The old software used to be hard-wired to our Compose survey. We have now done this in a flexible and dynamic way, which gives us much more freedom. As an example, we can now deal with missing data in survey results. This is important because it enables us to increase the number of media in Compose as we do not have to ask every respondent about every medium. We have not yet fully exploited the increased flexibility of the system, but we have lots of ideas to do so, which we will use in the next versions of Chorus!”

"It is now easier to create custom charts and ways to visualize the data", Giuseppe Gaviani

“The previous Chorus version did the job, however some clients thought it could look better graphically,’ says Giuseppe Gaviani, associate director, client services. “The new version looks a lot cooler and this is something that agencies, particularly creative ones, and clients alike will appreciate, especially as gadgets such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad have set new graphical standards and expectations for people when using an electronic device.

Besides the usual charts such as channel ranking, channel map and budget allocation, there are some new functionalities that make it easier to understand and analyse the survey data underlying the tool. For example, the reach curve, showing how a channel’s reach varies depending on budget, the reach overlap between channels and the survey analyser, which shows in graphical form the breakdown of respondents in relation to any survey statement, e.g. age groups, regions, attitudinal statements, etc.

Finally, some agency clients will appreciate that it is now easier to create custom charts and ways to visualise the data, which can capture the different ways in which agencies look at the world and helps them maintain a point of difference versus their competitors.”

To find out more contact Harald Hoogstrate ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Figure 1: screenshot of Pointlogic’s new channel planning tool Chorus