Tuesday, August 30, 2005
40 Markets
Our agency is engaged in a crash program that requires targeted media lists for 40 US markets in short order. It has given us a chance to see how MediaMap can sing and dance. For the most part, it has done well, but there are flaws that madden anyone who uses the software database. I wish Bacons would get around to fixing them.
The worst feature is MediaMap's speed -- rather, the lack of it. The program crawls on a good day and is a slug every afternoon. The company apologizes, but so far speed has not approached anything acceptable. That leaves users like myself muttering when I have to watch the damn thing trundle for a minute until it shows me a reporter's name.
The second annoying feature is an interface that is anything but intuitive. One has to learn the system over time, and it isn't easy. Most of my colleagues won't touch MediaMap for that reason. I don't blame them. It shouldn't be so hard to build lists.
The third feature that needs changing are sudden interrupts. For some reason, MediaMap will start glitching and doing odd things at inconvenient times. Fortunately, we haven't had much of that in this job, but it has happened to me often enough in the past.
Even with these annoyances, I don't see how we could get this job done in the time allowed without MediaMap. And, once we got a search system down, it has moved smartly. An administrative assistant figured how to approach this job, and her solution proved to be the right one. Kudos to her. She taught me things I didn't know about MediaMap in the process of doing individual TV, radio and print lists.
My feelings about MediaMap are more positive than not, but one shouldn't acquire the system as a perfect solution. It isn't.
The worst feature is MediaMap's speed -- rather, the lack of it. The program crawls on a good day and is a slug every afternoon. The company apologizes, but so far speed has not approached anything acceptable. That leaves users like myself muttering when I have to watch the damn thing trundle for a minute until it shows me a reporter's name.
The second annoying feature is an interface that is anything but intuitive. One has to learn the system over time, and it isn't easy. Most of my colleagues won't touch MediaMap for that reason. I don't blame them. It shouldn't be so hard to build lists.
The third feature that needs changing are sudden interrupts. For some reason, MediaMap will start glitching and doing odd things at inconvenient times. Fortunately, we haven't had much of that in this job, but it has happened to me often enough in the past.
Even with these annoyances, I don't see how we could get this job done in the time allowed without MediaMap. And, once we got a search system down, it has moved smartly. An administrative assistant figured how to approach this job, and her solution proved to be the right one. Kudos to her. She taught me things I didn't know about MediaMap in the process of doing individual TV, radio and print lists.
My feelings about MediaMap are more positive than not, but one shouldn't acquire the system as a perfect solution. It isn't.
Comments:
Jim - All of your comments apply, particularly how unintuitive the interface is. My other issue is how if you type in "new york times" and it's been set up as The New York Times, it will come back with NO RESULTS. wtf?!
It is the only game in town for the most part which is why everyone continues to use them. When Bacon's bought them the information may have improved, but that's it.
It is the only game in town for the most part which is why everyone continues to use them. When Bacon's bought them the information may have improved, but that's it.
# posted by 
: 6:08 AM
: 6:08 AM
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