TRA Unveils the Media TRAnalytics ‘Optimizer’ to Further Improve Advertising Accountability and ROI on Ad Spending

Web-Based Solution Recommends TV Campaigns Based on Matching of The Advertising Households Receive With Products They Actually Buy

TRA Continues its Innovation by Becoming the First Media Research Company to Provide a Built-In Recommendation Feature for Purchaser Targeting

New York, NY – TRA, Inc., unveiled today that the Media TRAnalytics® media research system now includes an Optimizer, a fully customizable web-based media planning solution designed to further improve advertising accountability and ROI on ad spending by automatically recommending TV campaigns based on matching of TV program audiences with the products and brands these audiences actually buy.

The Optimizer enables users to find the best mix of networks, dayparts and programs to reach their target audience as determined by TRA’s Media TRAnalytics®, which merges second-by-second measurement of TV tuning from set-top box data with verified offline purchasing behavior from shopper card data. The Optimizer then compares users’ original plans with a new optimal plan, ensuring that advertisements effectively and efficiently reach their intended purchaser targets.

This automation of planning and buying scenarios for media planning by buyers and sellers builds upon TRA’s single-source measurement position to provide true insight and accountability for advertisers, agencies and networks.

Mark Lieberman, the CEO of TRA, Inc. said: “Partnering with our clients in the development of our product roadmap and our development and release of the Media TRAnalytics® Optimizer furthers TRA’s commitment to create new forms of research and innovative products that improve advertising accountability and increase ROI on ad spending.”

TRA is the first company in the world to match set top box data with purchase data on the same exact households and is the only company that combines set top box data from multiple software platforms (Navic and TiVo) into a single seamless weighted representative national sample with high correlation to ratings and brand share currency.

Now, with the release of the Optimizer, TRA becomes the first media research company to provide a built-in recommendation feature for purchaser targeting. TRA has begun training its customers to use the Media TRAnalytics® Optimizer which:

– Offers Scenario Planning which allows users to collaborate and optimize the impact of the media buy

– Recommends a media schedule for the users selected target and compares and quantifies differences to original media buy
–  Targets can be based on variations of category and/or brand purchasing as well as a wide range of demographic filters.
–  Users can define certain constraints or goals based on brand business practices (e.g., commitments made in the upfront market).

– Reduces time and resources required and increases efficiency in the media planning process

Planners can spend most time on high-level strategic thinking and insightful manual over-rides of the optimized plan, instead of on assembling information.

About TRA, Inc.

TRA, Inc. (True ROI Accountability for Media — http://www.traglobal.com ) is a media and marketing research company whose proprietary patent pending platform, Media TRAnalytics®, cost effectively matches the ads that people actually receive with the products people actually buy, giving advertisers, agencies and media transparency, accountable measurement, media planning and improved return-on-investment for their advertising spend. TRA has 1.5 million households of TV set top box data from multiple software platforms, 54 million households of purchase data and the largest single source database ever – 370,000 households. TRA employs proprietary measurement technologies and proven algorithms developed and refined over a 10-year period with 40,000 man-hours invested into developing TRA’s Media TRAnalytics® platform over the past 2 years. TRA’s clients include television networks, consumer packaged goods companies and media agencies. Investors include Kodiak Venture Partners, WPP and Arbitron, Inc. TRA is ISO 27001 certified, the information security management system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designed to ensure security controls to protect information assets.