From Weeks to Minutes: Why Time to Insight Matters in Media Management

Waiting 2-3 weeks for polished reports just to answer simple questions puts media teams one step behind.

Here's the real cost of that wait:

✗ Decisions on investments that are made half-blind without learnings

✗ Budget wasted on what you should already know are poor performers

✗ New questions mean new reports...and more waiting

Media Insights eliminates the wait so you can access media performance in minutes.

Data available → Insight ready → Actions discussed → Decisions made on the same day.

The waiting game nobody wants to play

If you're managing global media, you know this scenario all too well: Your CMO asks a straightforward question about performance across your media investments. You know the answer exists somewhere in your data, but getting to it means emailing multiple teams, waiting for agency reports, then manually piecing together spreadsheets in different formats.

By the time you have an answer, it's often too late to act on it.

The problem isn't lack of data - it's lack of infrastructure. Without a shared system where media data lives in a unified structure, even basic questions become time-consuming detective work.

Why 'time to insight' is your competitive advantage

In today's media environment, speed matters. Budget decisions can't wait three weeks for a polished deck.

The brands that win aren't necessarily spending more - they're learning faster. They spot patterns across their media investment that reveal what's working and what's not. They identify which tactics drive the best results across markets and channels. They apply successful approaches to their next briefs and strategic decisions whilst the opportunity is still fresh.

This is what proper infrastructure enables: the ability to move from question to insight to action in hours, not weeks.

Starting with the right foundation

Media Insights is built on the foundation we've already established: your unified media data in Global Media Platform's Campaign Management solution.

Because your data already lives in a standardised structure with global media taxonomy and validated delivery metrics, you don't need to spend time reconciling formats or chasing missing information. The foundation is already solid.

This is why you can access insights in minutes rather than weeks. The data work is already done.

Complete view. Flexible analysis. Instant access

Here's how Media Insights changes your workflow:

Start with the big picture. See your entire media activity in one view, spot patterns across brands, markets, media types, and vendors. Understand how your complete media mix is performing without waiting for someone to compile it.

Want to dig deeper? Go granular. Drill down to channel or site-level data, analyse performance by delivery metrics, format types, or specific placement metrics. With a global media taxonomy and data at the highest level of granularity, you get the freedom to analyse what matters to you.

Build once, use everywhere. Create templates around the metrics that actually matter for media effectiveness and efficiency - not vanity metrics. Once you've built a template that works, distribute it to all markets, monitor adherence without chasing reports, and instantly spot patterns and optimisation opportunities across regions.

The template advantage: never start from scratch

One of the most overlooked time drains in media analysis is the constant recreation of views from blank PowerPoint slides.

Every time you need to look at performance across your media investment, someone starts from zero: which metrics matter? How should we structure the comparison? What time period makes sense? By the time you've answered these questions and built the view, the urgency has often passed.

Media Insights solves this with analysis templates. You build the template once and then you use it across markets and stakeholders. When data is available, teams can instantly see how they're tracking against standards, how their metrics compare across markets, and what tactics are working across brands and regions.

No more "let me build that for you." The analysis framework already exists. You just add your perspective.

Real collaboration, not report ping-pong

Traditional reporting creates silos. Agencies build reports in their systems. Advertisers review them in email attachments or static PDFs. Questions require new reports, creating another waiting cycle.

Media Insights changes this dynamic. Both advertisers and agencies work in the same system with the same data. When questions arise about patterns across your media investments, you're not requesting new analysis - you're exploring together in real time.

This transforms relationships. Instead of agencies defending their work through curated presentations, you're working side-by-side to understand patterns and identify opportunities.

Shared infrastructure means shared understanding and that leads to better decisions.

From data to insights to decisions

The traditional media cycle is linear: plan, execute, report, learn. Each step waits for the previous one to complete. By the time learnings arrive, the next brief is already written without them.

Media Insights enables a continuous cycle. Performance across your media investment flows into the same system where you plan. Learnings are immediately visible. Patterns inform your next brief in real time. Successful tactics can be scaled across markets whilst they're still relevant.

This is the advantage of having your entire media operation in one connected system. Insights don't just inform future decisions—they become part of your planning infrastructure, creating what we call the 'Learn Loop': intelligence that steers your strategic direction and is codified within our Media Guardrails solution.

Stop waiting, start learning

Every week you wait for reports is a week you risk wasting budget. Every question that takes three emails and five days to answer is an opportunity cost.

Media Insights brings your media performance into focus - not in weeks, but in minutes. So you can act whilst it still matters.

Ready to stop chasing reports and start driving strategy?

Talk to our team

About the author

Jakob Kalkar is the CPO of Global Media Platform, the first operating system for media. He brings 25 years of media experience from across agency, advertiser and marketing technology.