Methods and systems for selecting inventory units for television and other media advertising campaigns

A computer system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• memory associated with the at least one processor;
• and
• a program supported in the memory for selecting inventory units for a media advertising campaign comprising one or more advertisements, the program containing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
• (a) receive information identifying (i) a target media audience, (ii) a plurality of inventory units in which the one or more advertisements may be included and a given price for each inventory unit, and (iii) a budget for the media advertising campaign;
• (b) determine the probability of the target media audience viewing or listening to each of the plurality of inventory units based on historical audience data;
• (c) identifying a plurality of feasible combinations of inventory units meeting the budget for the media advertising campaign, then determine an expected target media audience reach for each feasible combination of inventory units based on the probabilities determined in step (b);
• (d) select the feasible combination of inventory units providing the greatest media audience reach for the media advertising campaign;
• and
• (e) display results of step (d) to a user in a graphical user interface and enable the user to adjust one or more parameters to iteratively determine an optimal budget or an optimal target media audience and identify a resultant combination of inventory units to be purchased for the media advertising campaign prior to airing of any of the resultant combination of inventory units in the media advertising campaign.

A computer-implemented method of selecting inventory units for a media advertising campaign comprising one or more advertisements to optimize audience reach for a target media audience, said media advertising campaign having a given budget, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) calculating, by a computer system, a projected probability that members of the target audience will view or listen to each of a plurality of inventory units in which the one or more advertisements may be included based on historical data;
• (b) searching, by the computer system using a convex optimization process, for a feasible combination of inventory units meeting the media advertising campaign budget that has the highest expected reach of the targeted audience based on the projected probabilities calculated in step (a);
• and
• (c) displaying results of step (b) to a user in a graphical user interface and enabling the user to adjust one or more parameters to iteratively determine an optimal budget or an optimal target media audience and identifying a resultant combination of inventory units to be purchased for the media advertising campaign prior to airing of any of the resultant combination of inventory units in the media advertising campaign.