Brief
The Wall Street Journal Asia wanted to take their archaic printed Media Guide online to make life easier and more efficient for their advertisers and media planners while streamlining its ad sales operation both internally and externally at the same time.

The client recognised from the outset that it was a fairly ambitious project as it was a concept that had never been previously done, making it vital for them to find the right creative agency that could successfully carry out their vision. They sought a combination of both technological expertise and innovative design insight to develop a fully functioning rates calculator that would enable users to independently calculate the price and availability of ad space. Fluid beat four other agencies to create a site that is making a significant difference for advertisers and agencies by saving them time and effort in working out advertising costs and schedules.

Solution
Fluid created a real time multi-level calculation system and designed the site using the web 2.0 technology of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). This recent addition to the online technological palette combined with Fluid’s comprehensive understanding of its intricacies enabled calculations to appear on the page without the user having to refresh the browser leading to a more immediate response time.

Following a year of research and Fluid’s design abilities, advertisers can now calculate rates for themselves and make forecasts on their yearly budget plans all on-line. In addition, the client’s sales staff is able to immediately respond to client queries about the cost of various advertising packages giving them a powerful competitive advantage.

Value-Added
Creating a working calculator from scratch was already a challenge in itself, especially a calculator that could process hundreds of unique rates in real time without refreshing the page. Fluid advised the client on a brand new, cutting-edge technology and had the foresight to build a system that did not depend on specific data to function so that updates to rates could be made at any time without effect to the calculator intelligence. They also created a sophisticated Content Management System that allowed the client to make further updates to the site themselves.

To see the Wall Street Journal Asia’s Media Guide,
please visit: http://www.wsj-asia.com/advertising