MediaTel Group Launches DELTA
Guests representing a number of agencies and sales points attended MediaTel Group’s launch of DELTA, its new booking and trading system for online media, at the Century Club in London this morning.
After a lively panel session focused on the structure of agencies and media owners in the digital world, Alison Chadwick, DELTA’s business director, gave a brief demonstration of DELTA’s phase one technology – which is now in trial with OMD, PHD, Manning Gottlieb OMD, Profero, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, Bauer Advertising and Guardian News and Media.
It was clear from panel and audience that DELTA can play a large part in online’s future. The system will remove faxing – which had featured at the top of a list of process inefficiencies in the panel debate – and in doing so will help quell the rising headcount (another panel point). If sales points and agencies can find additional efficiencies then the net value of booking online will increase for agencies, and online revenues should rise further on the back of this.
Chadwick also gave an early view of the agency planning screen which will ultimately replace Excel for planners. This seemed to be very well received by many in the room.
DELTA will add other companies to the trial over the next few weeks, and collate and act on feedback before going live in late June/early July.
Annual subscription fees are paid by users on a tiered basis, linked to revenues and billings.
MediaTel’s MD, Derek Jones, drew a number of parallels with J-ET, the radio industry’s trading system which MediaTel pitched for and won against the likes of DDS and Reuters in the late nineties. J-ET came to the aid of a section of the industry which was battling against reams of faxes and process difficulties.
J-ET now carries around 90% of all national radio advertising and is a fixture in any serious radio-buying agency or sales point. J-ET has flourished over the years on the back of collaborative support and vision from agencies and sales points; and on the highly regarded and vital customer service skills of the J-ET team at MediaTel. DELTA will be aiming to emulate this, and has named Chontal Angus, a former member of the J-ET team, as its customer service manager.
MediaTel Group: 0207 439 7575 www.mediatelgroup.co.uk