Mediacom TV department contacted us with an idea to make TV planning template more automated, so that the planning phase would be faster. They had the knowledge, how all the calculations should work but not enough knowledge about Excel. 

Project started with TV department showing us, how they are using the old template and pointing out areas, where they spent the most time. Same time sharing all the logics behind calculations.

First part for us was to make the formatting part easier in TV template file. It meant mainly that correct number of rows and fields were showing depended on what was picked previous section. 

Second part was to making calculations to work. As there are client specific cases, then this part took the longest to work out. The solution had to works for everyone. It meant that we had meetings 2-3 times a month with TV department. We had to work together because we didn’t have the knowledge, how to plan.

Third part is testing and using it for everyday. This part is still ongoing.

End result is TV template file, where formatting has been done automatically, very little manual calculations are required and clean client file is generated, where aren’t any formulas or extra fields.

If you too want to update your media plan templates – do click on the button below.