Device and method for allocating a plurality of material used in TVCM, and program therefor

Abstract

To provide a method capable of improving material allocation within a prescribed period by streamlining allocation of a plurality of materials used for TVCM in the period.SOLUTION: A device 100 receives, from a user terminal 110, material data representing a plurality of materials, advertising space data for every one or more television stations and allocation rules of the plurality of materials (S201 to S202). The device 100 allocates, with regard to each i (1≤i≤n (n is an integer of 2 or greater)), any of the plurality of materials to each set of advertising spaces, and executes a process of calculating a total GRP for every material, for an i-th set of allocations including Mi (Mi is an integer of 2 or greater) allocations. Then, the device 100 selects one or a plurality of allocations suitable for an allocation ratio from the i-th set of allocations, and generates i+1 set of allocations including Mi+1 allocations based on the selected one or the plurality of allocations (S203 to S204).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, and program for allocating a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial. [Background technology]

[0002] Although the market size of Internet advertising (in Japan) has grown to far exceed the market size of television commercials (hereafter referred to as "TV commercials"), which is just under 2 trillion yen, television remains the most influential medium. By conveying a message repeatedly through audio and video, it is possible to leave a strong impression on viewers.

[0003] TV commercials are usually distributed through media slot transactions, where advertising agencies sell advertising slots provided by TV stations, which are media companies, to advertisers. Advertisers who want to air TV commercials communicate their budget or goals to their advertising agencies, and receive from the advertising agency a table called a demarcation table, which specifies a set of advertising slots for each TV station. The advertiser or advertising agency then allocates which materials will be aired in these media slots, and communicates this to each TV station.

[0004] For example, consider the case where a TV commercial is aired for one month with a target of 1000GRP (Gross Rating Point).The advertiser or an advertising agency commissioned by the advertiser determines the allocation ratio of GRP units for multiple materials based on some criteria, and allocates each material to a media slot so that it is as close to that allocation ratio as possible.If there are four materials and the allocation ratios in GRP units are uniform, the materials are allocated so that the total GRP is as close to 250GRP as possible. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6953643 [Patent Document 2] Patent No. 6792694 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] Up until now, material allocation has been done manually and subjectively based on past experience, and it can take several days. As an example, if the average GRP of an ad slot is 5GRP and the number of materials is 4, materials will be allocated to 200 slots to reach 1000GRP, and the number of patterns is 4 to the 200th power. Since 4 to the 20th power is about 1 trillion, it can be seen that the number of patterns is astronomical. Even if an experienced person can make an intuitive judgment and narrow down the patterns to those that are close to the specified allocation ratio to a certain extent, it is still a time-consuming task.

[0007] For this reason, although there are services available that measure the effectiveness of TV commercials and visualize them (see Patent Documents 1 and 2), updating material allocation based on the results of effectiveness measurement within the broadcast period and going through the cycle of improving effectiveness is an extremely heavy burden, and has not been commonly done.

[0008] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned points, and its object is to provide an apparatus, method, or program therefor that can improve the efficiency of the allocation of multiple materials used in TV commercials within a specified period of time, thereby enabling improvement of material allocation within that period. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] In order to achieve such an object, a first aspect of the present invention is a method for allocating a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring an allocation rule including an allocation ratio of a predetermined unit of the plurality of materials; and for each i (1≦i≦n (n is an integer of 2 or more)), (a) allocating one of the plurality of materials to each of a set of advertisement frames defined for the TV commercial, and calculating a total value for each material using the value of the predetermined unit defined for each advertisement frame, i (M i(b) selecting one or more allocations that conform to the allocation rule from among the allocations in the i-th set; and (c) calculating M based on the selected one or more allocations. i+1 The method includes the steps of generating an i+1th set of allocations including allocations, calculating a total value for each material for each of the n+1th set of allocations using the predetermined unit value determined for each advertising space, and determining an allocation from the n+1th set of allocations that complies with the allocation rules.

[0010] A second aspect of the present invention is the method of the first aspect, i is less than or equal to 100,000 for each i.

[0011] A third aspect of the present invention is the method according to the first or second aspect, i is less than 2000 for at least some i.

[0012] A fourth aspect of the present invention is the method according to the first or second aspect, i is greater than or equal to 5 and less than 800 for at least any i.

[0013] Furthermore, the fifth aspect of the present invention is the method according to the first aspect, wherein said n is 11 or more.

[0014] Further, a sixth aspect of the present invention is a method of the first aspect, wherein the acquiring step includes a step of reading out an allocation ratio generated for a second period after a first period based on a result of an effectiveness measurement for a broadcast of the first period within the specified period.

[0015] A seventh aspect of the present invention is the method of the first aspect, wherein the acquiring step includes a step of generating an allocation ratio for a second period following a first period within the predetermined period based on a result of an effectiveness measurement for the broadcast of the first period and transmitting the generated allocation ratio as a proposal to a user terminal; a step of setting an allocation ratio for the second period in response to receiving approval of the proposal from the user terminal or in response to receiving an allocation ratio that has changed the proposal or a part of it; and a step of reading out the set allocation ratio for the second period. Includes.

[0016] Moreover, an eighth aspect of the present invention is the method according to the first aspect, wherein the allocation ratio is determined for each of a plurality of attributes assigned to the set of advertisement spaces.

[0017] A ninth aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a method for allocating a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period, the program comprising: a step of acquiring an allocation rule including an allocation ratio of a predetermined unit of the plurality of materials; and for each i (1≦i≦n (n is an integer of 2 or more)), a process of: (a) allocating one of the plurality of materials to each of a set of advertisement frames defined for the TV commercial, and calculating a total value for each material using a value of the predetermined unit defined for each advertisement frame, i (M i (b) selecting one or more allocations that conform to the allocation rule from among the allocations in the i-th set; and (c) calculating M based on the selected one or more allocations. i+1 The method includes the steps of generating an i+1th set of allocations including allocations, calculating a total value for each material for each of the n+1th set of allocations using the predetermined unit value determined for each advertising space, and determining an allocation from the n+1th set of allocations that complies with the allocation rules.

[0018] A tenth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for allocating a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period, wherein when at least one processor of the apparatus executes a command stored in a storage medium accessible to the apparatus, the apparatus acquires an allocation rule including an allocation ratio of a predetermined unit of the plurality of materials, and for each i (1≦i≦n (n is an integer of 2 or more)), (a) allocates one of the plurality of materials to each of a set of advertisement frames defined for the TV commercial, and calculates a total value for each material using the value of the predetermined unit defined for each advertisement frame, by: i (M i (b) selecting one or more allocations that conform to the allocation rule from among the allocations in the i-th set; and (c) calculating M based on the selected one or more allocations. i+1 A (i+1)th set of allocations including the number of allocations is generated, and for each of the (n+1)th set of allocations, a total value for each material is calculated using the predetermined unit value determined for each advertising space, and an allocation that complies with the allocation rule is determined from among the (n+1)th set of allocations. Effect of the Invention

[0019] According to one aspect of the present invention, in allocating multiple materials to an advertising space, the amount of calculations can be significantly reduced by repeatedly selecting an allocation that complies with an allocation rule from the (i+1)th set of allocations generated based on at least a portion of the ith set of allocations. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0020] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 shows an apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of a material allocation method according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an input screen for an allocation rule according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a result of material allocation according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 5]FIG. 1 is a diagram plotting the GRPs determined for each of the 200 advertising spaces used in the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0022] An apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in Fig. 1. The apparatus 100 communicates with a user terminal 110 used by a user company of the material allocation service provided by the apparatus 100 via an IP network such as the Internet, and transmits the allocation results of a plurality of materials to the user terminal 110.

[0023] The device 100 includes a communication unit 101 such as a communication interface, a processing unit 102 such as a processor or a CPU, and a storage unit 103 including a storage device or storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk, and can be configured by executing a program for performing each process or operation. The device 100 may include one or more devices, computers, or servers. The program may include one or more programs, and may be recorded in a computer-readable storage medium to form a non-transient program product. The program may be stored in a storage device or storage medium such as the storage unit 103 or a database 104 accessible from the device 100 via an IP network, and instructions included in the program may be executed in at least one processor of the processing unit 102. Data described below as being stored in the storage unit 103 may be stored in the database 104, and vice versa.

[0024] First, device 100 receives, from user terminal 110, material data representing a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period and advertisement space data for one or a plurality of television stations on which the TV commercial is to be aired (S201). For example, a case may be considered in which four materials are used, and the material data includes a code for identifying each material. Device 100 may also generate advertisement space data including advertisement spaces of all television stations on which the TV commercial is to be aired, using the received one or a plurality of advertisement space data. Here, it has been described that these data are received from user terminal 110, but it is sufficient that device 100 can read out from storage unit 103 advertisement space data including a plurality of material data to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period and a plurality of advertisement spaces to which any of the plurality of material data is to be allocated.

[0025] Next, the device 100 receives allocation rules for the plurality of materials from the user terminal 110 (S202). Fig. 3 is an example of an input screen for the allocation rules according to an embodiment of the present invention. The input screen 300 has a first input field 311, a second input field 312, a third input field 313, and a fourth input field 314 for inputting an allocation ratio for each of the four materials. In the example of Fig. 3, the materials are called "creatives", and a percentage of GRP units out of 100% is input for each creative.

[0026] Generally, TVCMs are broadcast in designated regions such as Kanto, Kinki, Chukyo, Fukuoka, and Hokkaido, and are broadcast on multiple television stations in the designated regions. In the example of FIG. 3, the commercials are broadcast on A broadcast, B broadcast, and C broadcast in Hokkaido, and the ratios input for each creative are set ratios to the total GRP value of broadcast on these television stations. As an alternative example, the ratios input for each creative may be set ratios to the GRP value of each television station. In addition, the advertising slot may be given attributes such as slot classifications of SB and PT, and time ranks of S, A, B, and C. An allocation ratio may be input for each attribute, and in the example of FIG. 3, it is possible to input for each slot classification. Other attributes of the advertising slot include the time slots of morning, afternoon, and night, the GRP value or width, the television station, and the number of seconds, such as 15 seconds or 30 seconds. In the above explanation, the allocation ratios were explained, but the allocation rules also include things other than the ratios. Examples of allocation rules include not allocating the same material consecutively at the same television station, highly evaluating allocations in which the attributes given to each material, such as morning orientation, match the attributes of the advertising slot to which the material is allocated, etc. Further examples include not allocating material involving alcohol, which does not match the morning, to an advertising slot in the morning time slot, and not allocating material involving a specific talent or talent that does not match the talent to an advertising slot with that talent.

[0027] The device 100 then allocates any of the above-mentioned multiple materials to each of the multiple advertising spaces included in the read advertising space data, and performs a process of calculating the total GRP for each material for the first set of allocations including the multiple allocations (S203).The device 100 selects one or more allocations whose total GRP of each of the multiple materials conforms to the allocation rules, and calculates the total GRP for each material for each of the second set of allocations generated based on the one or more allocations (S204).

[0028] More generally, the device 100 performs a process of allocating any one of the above-mentioned multiple materials to each of a set of advertisement frames defined for a TVCM for each i (1≦i≦n (n is an integer equal to or greater than 2)) and calculating a total GRP for each material, as follows:i (M i (where M is an integer greater than or equal to 2) for the i-th set of assignments including M assignments. Then, the apparatus 100 selects one or more assignments that conform to the assignment ratio among the assignments of the i-th set of assignments, and based on the selected one or more assignments, generates the (i + 1)-th set of assignments including M i+1 assignments. FIG. 2 shows the case where n = 2. Details will be described later.

[0029] The apparatus 100 calculates the total GRP of each of the plurality of materials among the assignments of the (n + 1)-th set (S205), determines an assignment that conforms to the assignment ratio (S206), and transmits the assignment to the user terminal 110 as necessary (S207).

[0030] When verifying all assignment patterns, the number becomes astronomical. In the assignment of a plurality of materials to advertising frames, by repeating the selection of an assignment that conforms to the assignment rule from among the assignments of the (i + 1)-th set generated based on at least a part of the assignments of the i-th set in this way, the amount of calculation can be significantly reduced. As a result, it becomes possible to improve the assignment of a plurality of materials used for TVCM within a predetermined period.

[0031] In the above description, the assignment ratio is described as the assignment ratio in units of GRP of a plurality of materials, but it is also conceivable to use the assignment ratio in units of amount such as publication cost. It is also conceivable to use an assignment ratio in a predetermined unit other than GRP. If a quantitative value can be determined for each advertising frame, the total value for each material can be calculated, and the present invention can be applied. As an example, for each of a set of advertising frames, points such as 3 points for a golden frame and 2 points for a daytime frame may be determined and these values may be used.

[0032] Also, the details of the method for selecting or determining an assignment that conforms to the assignment ratio from among the assignments of the (i + 1)-th set when i = n and when i < n do not necessarily have to be the same method and may be different.

[0033] Randomization process details In one example of the allocation process, a material is randomly selected from a number of materials and allocated to each of a number of ad slots. 500 such allocations are prepared as a first set of allocations, and the total GRP of each material is calculated for each allocation. Figure 4 shows an example of the results of allocating materials to each of the ad slots.

[0034] Then, the allocation with the smallest deviation from the allocation ratio is evaluated as an allocation that is more suitable for the allocation ratio, and an allocation that is suitable for one or more allocation ratios is selected. For example, if five allocations are selected, 99 allocations are generated by changing a part of each of the selected allocations to obtain 100 allocations, resulting in a second set of allocations of 500 in total. Furthermore, a third set of allocations can be generated based on one or more allocations selected from the second set of allocations. By repeating such generation and selection of allocations n times as required, an allocation that is suitable for the allocation ratio can be determined from the n+1th set of allocations. In addition to determining a single allocation that is most suitable for the allocation ratio, the determination from the n+1th set of allocations may be performed by determining multiple allocations and, for example, transmitting these allocations to the user terminal 110 to have the user company using the user terminal 110 make a final selection.

[0035] If a single allocation is selected from the first set of allocations and part of it is changed to obtain the second set of allocations, there is a possibility that the allocation obtained will be significantly different from the allocation that provides the maximum compatibility with the allocation ratio and will only be a maximum allocation. Therefore, it may be preferable to select multiple allocations from the first set of allocations and change part of each of the multiple allocations to obtain the second set of allocations.

[0036] The above-mentioned allocation processing algorithm corresponds to what is called a genetic algorithm. However, any algorithm that selects an allocation that matches the allocation ratio from a second set of allocations generated based on at least a part of a first set of allocations has the effect of reducing the amount of calculation and can be applied to the present invention.

[0037] In the above explanation, an example was given in which the first set of allocations was generated randomly, but it is also possible to incorporate human intuitive judgment and shorten the calculation time by including at least one allocation created manually by a human in the first set of allocations.

[0038] Allocation percentage details The allocation ratio may be input by the user company from the input screen shown in Fig. 3, or may be generated by the device 100 for a second period (such as the second week) following a first period (such as the first week) based on the results of effectiveness measurement of the airing of the TV commercial during the first period within a predetermined period (such as one month) during which the TV commercial is aired. Any method of effectiveness measurement may be appropriately adopted, including those shown in Patent Documents 1 and 2. For example, the allocation ratio may be set evenly in GRP units at first, and then changed to 60% for creative A, 20% for creative B, and 10% for creatives C and D, respectively, based on the results of effectiveness measurement.

[0039] The generated allocation ratio may be automatically used as the allocation ratio for the second period, or may be sent as a proposal to the user terminal 110, and the device 100 may set and read out the allocation ratio for the second period upon receiving approval of the proposal from the user terminal 110, or upon receiving an allocation ratio that changes the proposal or a part of it.

[0040] Working Example The following calculations were performed on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 port) equipped with an Intel Core i7-8569U CPU as the processor and 1MB DDR4 SDRAM with a bus clock of 2133 MHz as the memory. The OS was macOS Catalina (version 10.15.7).

[0041] It was decided to allocate five materials to 200 slots with a target of 1200 GRP. Figure 5 plots the GRP set for each of the 200 ad slots, and since the GRP differs for each slot, it can be seen that simply allocating the five materials to a number of slots according to the allocation ratio will not result in the total GRP for each material matching the allocation ratio. The allocation rule was the allocation ratio, and the allocation ratios were set to 60%, 20%, 10%, 10% and 0% for creatives A to E.

[0042] A genetic algorithm was used as the allocation processing algorithm, and more specifically, a library called DEAP was used. Three allocations were selected from the previous generation to generate the allocation for the next generation, and the number of allocations in each generation was 100. The number of generations was 100, i.e., n=99.

[0043] Table 1 below shows the allocation that best fit the above allocation ratio among the 100th generation allocations. For each material, the deviation from the set allocation ratio was clearly less than 1%, and the results were extremely compatible with the allocation ratio.

[0044] [Table 1]

[0045] Here, the difference between the allocation ratio for each material and the total GRP ratio was calculated, and a score corresponding to this difference was calculated for each allocation. The allocation with the larger score was determined to be the one that was more suitable based on the allocation ratio.

[0046] Table 2 below shows the results of further verification of the generation in which the allocation with the maximum score appears when the number of allocations in each generation is changed from 100, including the case of 100. The number of generations to reach the maximum score and the time to complete processing of that generation may differ for each trial, so the results were averaged from multiple trial results.

[0047] [Table 2]

[0048] Although the calculation time varies depending on the processor and memory used, the results in Tables 1 and 2 show the following:

[0049] First, as the number of allocations per generation increases, the number of generations required decreases, but when the number of allocations per generation reaches 100,000, it takes about 100 minutes of calculation time. This is a short time compared to the conventional material allocation work that takes several days, so allocations of 100,000 or more are not excluded from the scope of the present invention, but it is preferable to set the number of allocations per generation to less than 100,000, or even 10,000. It is preferable to set the number of allocations per generation to less than 100,000, or even 10,000.

[0050] Furthermore, when the number of allocations for each generation is less than 2000, calculations can be completed in about one minute or less, and the material allocation time is significantly shortened, so it is preferable to set the number of allocations for at least any of the generations to less than 2000. When the number of allocations for each generation is 5 to 800, the calculation time is less than one minute, and the time is significantly shortened, so it is preferable to set the number of allocations for at least any of the generations to 5 to 800.

[0051] Furthermore, when the number of allocations in each generation becomes 100,000, a calculation time of about 100 minutes is required, which is not necessarily an optimal example. However, since 12 generations are required even with such a large number of allocations, it is preferable that n be at least 11 or more.

[0052] In the above embodiment, it should be noted that unless there is a statement of "only" such as "based on XX", "depending only on XX", or "only in the case of XX", it is assumed in this specification that additional information may be taken into consideration. Also, as an example, it should be noted that the statement "do b in the case of a" does not necessarily mean "always do b in the case of a" or "do b immediately after a" unless expressly stated. Also, the statement "each a constituting A" does not necessarily mean that A is composed of multiple components, but includes the case where the component is singular.

[0053] Also, just to be clear, even if there is an aspect of a method, program, terminal, device, server or system (hereinafter referred to as a "method, etc.") that performs an operation different from that described in this specification, each aspect of the present invention is directed to an operation that is the same as any of the operations described in this specification, and the existence of an operation different from that described in this specification does not make the method, etc. outside the scope of each aspect of the present invention.

[0054] Furthermore, the "start" and "end" shown in Figure 2 are merely examples, and do not mean that the method of this embodiment necessarily starts or ends in the procedure shown. [Explanation of symbols]

[0055] 100 devices 101 Communications Department 102 Processing section 103 Storage section 104 Database 110 User Terminal 300 Allocation rule input screen 311 First input field 312 Second input field 313 Third input field 314 4th input field

Claims

[Claim 1] A method for allocating a plurality of materials to be used in a TV commercial within a predetermined period, comprising: acquiring an allocation rule including an allocation ratio of a predetermined unit of the plurality of materials; For each i (1≦i≦n (n is an integer of 2 or more)), A process of allocating any of the plurality of materials to each of a set of advertisement frames determined for the TV commercial, and calculating a total value for each material using the predetermined unit value determined for each advertisement frame, ｉ (M ｉ a step of performing the i-th set of allocations including the i-th allocation (i is an integer equal to or greater than 2); selecting one or more allocations from the i-th set of allocations that conform to the allocation rule; generating an i+1 th set of allocations including Mi+1 allocations based on the one or more selected allocations; Calculating a total value for each material for each of the (n+1)th set of allocations using the predetermined unit value determined for each advertising space; determining an allocation that complies with the allocation rule among the n+1 sets of allocations; Includes.

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