Case Study: Leading US Consumer Magazine Publisher achieves faster, more precise ad pricing and reduced costs with FICO Blaze Advisor

Faster, more precise ad pricing solution reduces costs, improves time-to-revenue for top US magazine

A leading US consumer magazine publisher (140+ titles, ~$1.5B ad revenue) struggled to deliver timely, accurate ad pricing quotes amid thousands of annual requests and a highly complex pricing process (placement, color, geography, creative, frequency, seasonality, special issues, etc.). Heavy reliance on spreadsheets and several full-time analysts made quotes slow, inconsistent and unavailable as a self-service tool for sales teams.

FICO Professional Services implemented a custom, rules-based automated pricing solution using FICO Blaze Advisor, integrated with the publisher’s CRM and a central rules repository that business users can maintain per magazine. The system delivered faster, more consistent and confident quotes, improved customer satisfaction, freed analysts to reallocate about 30% of their time, streamlined budgeting and contract updates, and is being expanded to more titles.