Katz Media Group (KMG) and Marketron Broadcast Solutions announced a significant expansion in delivering electronic orders for radio ad schedules from national agencies. In January, KMG and Marketron will enable the processing of electronic sales orders for KMG’s nationally represented business for distribution to all participating Marketron Traffic, Visual Traffic, and DeltaFlex radio clients. Station managers will then be able to accept or reject orders, confirm them electronically and move them directly into the radio station’s business system, leading to a more efficient operation while eliminating the manual re-entry and discrepancies associated with current processes.
In addition to electronic order delivery, KMG and Marketron also plan to provide timely proof-of-performance reports for all radio spot campaigns placed by KMG.
“One of the industry’s most important objectives is to make radio easier to buy,” said Pete D’Acosta, Marketron CEO. “To achieve this we need to work toward an industry-wide electronic system that facilitates the electronic exchange of orders and invoices. Our partnership with Katz represents a cornerstone of this project and a giant step forward for radio. Buyers and sellers now have a new, efficient process that will eliminate discrepancies, reduce operational costs and open the door to buyers of all traditional and emerging non-traditional radio inventory.”
For the past several years, KMG has been providing electronic connectivity between major agency radio buying systems and station business systems used by many of its station clients to receive and run national orders. During the same period, Marketron has been advancing the capabilities of its radio systems to receive and interact with orders received electronically.
The announcement reflects recent cooperative development by both Katz and Marketron to speed the process of connecting all major agency systems to all Marketron client stations to provide an industry-wide solution.
