The client directs TV advertising for a large corporation. His budget for a single ad campaign is typically around $10 million. Under current procedures, a single TV advertisement is commissioned for about $500,000, and the remainder of the budget is spent on airing the ad. The client is considering a new approach, in which two or more draft commercials (at about the same cost) would be commissioned from different agencies. The best of these drafts would then be aired using the remainder of the budget. Is this new plan more effective than the old procedure?

Prepare for building a model by reading the full case and answering the following questions.

1. Explore the mess by answering the following questions

What do we know?, What can we assume?, What could the results look like?, What information can be brought to bear?, What can we ask the client?, Are there any similar situations or problems?

2. Formulate one or more problem statements.

3. What are the decisions, outcomes, and relationships in the problem?

4. Draw an influence chart for the problem.