At BluHorn, we know that ours is not the only option for media buying and media planning software. We also know that choosing a software can be a big decision for your business. Choosing to make a switch after years with a retired software (such as SmartPlus) or jumping in to your company’s yet unchartered world of media buying software can be daunting. That’s where BluHorn comes in to play.
We often get asked how we compare to the other players in the business. To make your lives easier, we have compiled a list that includes a few of our biggest competitors. While this may seem like a waste of resources on our part, it is important to our team that you pick the right software for your company. Over the past 8 years, we have learned that it is a better use of our time if BluHorn is right for you. That is why we offer a 14-day RISK FREE trial. This allows you to see how BluHorn really works before making a financial commitment. As a service to you, let’s take a look at some of the media buying software options that are available currently.
Let’s start with the biggest and brightest star in this business…
BluHorn Media Solutions
BluHorn is 100% web-based media buying and planning software. You can create, analyze and send orders from any device with an internet connection. We integrate directly with Nielsen and comScore, and even with Quickbooks Online for billing. What makes us great? We take each and every feature request very seriously and incorporate them as quickly as digitally possible. Our super responsive support team monitors our support ticket feature nearly 24 hours a day (including weekends) to accommodate all of our users in various time zones along with our favorite night owls.
BluHorn is also the most affordable and flexible of the options out there. We don’t charge you for things you don’t need. Also, with our month-to-month subscriptions, you can pick the plan that is right for you and have no long term contract to sign. What to save several hundred bucks a year? Sign up for an annual subscription and use that money on a tropical vacation!
After all that, do you really need to know how our competitors stack up? “No” you say. Great! The End.
Just kidding. Here goes:
Strata
This is the proverbial elephant in the room. This firm has been the industry leader longer than some of our users have been alive. Pros: They have a vendor portal, a lot of bells and whistles with reporting and additional features beyond media buying and planning. Cons: All of this comes with a price. Strata has the reputation of being very expensive and a bit clunky. If you need all Strata has to offer and have thousands of dollars to spend on software alone, then this may be a good option for you. Just keep in mind that you’ll be locked in to a contract for at least a year, possibly more.
Bionic
This firm is known for generating pretty reporting, graphs, charts, etc. They are a “media buying software and project management tool”. The lowest cost option for Bionic is $125 per month per person with a 3 person minimum. They do offer a 14 day free trial and unlimited support…sound familiar? They do not allow for flexibility with cost and feature needs. However, if you need a pie chart, Bionic may be the software for you.
Advantage
This company began as an advertising agency workflow and billing software. Typically used by account management and billing departments, they have recently entered the world of media planning to become a relatively new competitor to BluHorn. Due to this factor in the equation, we don’t have a lot of information on their capabilities or limitations. They have not been fully tested by users to have much internet feedback or buzz either.
Excel
Run away as fast as you can from employing excel spreadsheets for your media buying. While this is very old school and not necessarily broken, manual entry of data opens your company up to a lot of user error. It also does not allow for any integrations, creating even more room for error as you manually transfer data to invoices or post buy reports. Miss one click or one formula and you potentially run an entire buy or client budget off the rails, and it’s up to you to come up with emergency resuscitation.
Now, that’s enough about “them”.
We find that most users considering these other competing products are mainly concerned with access to their ratings data in a simple format with readable reports for internal and external purposes. BluHorn provides just that. With just a few clicks you can upload an avail, access your data within a user friendly worksheet format, create program searches and rankers, AND have complete transparency in the data as we receive it. BluHorn has the formulas you need to calculate CPP, CPM, Reach and Frequency all built in to the software.
Our orders can be created and sent from within the platform, just like the other guys. You can even send traffic orders from within the worksheet system as well. And if you want to store creative, we offer a data expansion feature so literally everything you do can be in one place…BluHorn.
What the competing softwares don’t have that BluHorn does is our team. We value each and every user. We truly care about the success of each agency and do whatever it takes to help you get the most out of our system. Our support ticketing system is state-of-the-art and gets you a response you can use all within the time it takes you to explain your issue to one of our friendly cohorts.
So, why not? Start your BluHorn 14-day free trial today as you have nothing to lose. You can begin using the platform literally the moment you subscribe. We offer training and support resources immediately, and we keep you up to speed on all our new developments.
Amaze your friends with our professional insertion orders, reports and analyses. Okay, maybe your friends won’t care, but you and your clients will love it!