Guideline

Independent ad intelligence and media planning platform combining proprietary spend and pricing data with planning software, serving agencies, brands, and media owners globally.

Guideline is an ad intelligence and media plan management company that provides advertising and media professionals with data and software to plan, price, and optimize media investments. The company offers advertising spend data through its SMI (Standard Media Index) dataset and media pricing data through SQADCosts, giving agencies, brands, and media owners visibility into real market spending and pricing benchmarks across channels. On the software side, Guideline operates MediaTools, a media planning and management platform, and Lumina, a global media planning tool acquired from Mediaocean. Together these products form an integrated suite that supports the full media planning workflow — from market intelligence and competitive analysis through to plan creation and execution. The company is backed by private equity firm GTCR. Guideline was formed in 2020 under the name PC Dreamscape (later operating as Dreamscape) and rebranded to Guideline in June 2023. It has no current parent company and operates as an independent entity. Its client base spans media agencies, advertisers, and media owners who rely on its data and planning tools to make more informed investment decisions in an increasingly complex media landscape.