Mediatool (Camphouse) vs Halliard: Which Media Planning Tool Is Right for You? (2026)

Mediatool occupied an interesting position in the media planning software market for years: a cloud-based planning tool that was a genuine step up from Excel, with solid workflow management for teams tired of emailing spreadsheets. In 2023, the platform made a deliberate strategic pivot — rebranding to Camphouse and shifting its positioning from “media planning software” to “campaign workflow management platform.” The new identity reflected an ambition to move upmarket and serve larger enterprise teams with more complex operational requirements.

Halliard arrived with a different charter: not incremental improvement on existing workflow tools, but a rethinking of what modern media planning should look like — cross-channel R+F analysis built in, agentic buying that executes transactions autonomously, and a plan-to-proof workflow that retains institutional knowledge across every campaign cycle.

Both tools are trying to replace the spreadsheet. They’re doing it from different angles, for different kinds of teams.

What Is Camphouse (Formerly Mediatool)?

Camphouse is a campaign workflow management platform that launched under the Camphouse brand in February 2025, having previously operated as Mediatool since 2013. The platform is designed for enterprise marketing teams — with a particular focus on organizations managing campaigns across multiple markets, brands, and channels simultaneously.

Camphouse’s core value proposition is centralization: bringing campaign planning, budget tracking, approval workflows, and reporting into a single system of record. The platform features a custom data taxonomy, automated insertion order generation, AI-powered spend analysis, and real-time KPI and pacing tracking. In 2026, Camphouse added an AI media chat feature that lets users ask natural language questions about campaign performance without navigating dashboards.

Pricing is custom enterprise — starting from approximately $149 per user per year based on available data, with a 10-user minimum and annual contracts. Camphouse operates at camphouse.io and has established enterprise customers in global marketing organizations.

What Is Halliard?

Halliard is a media planning and buying platform built for independent agencies and in-house teams managing $10M to $500M+ in annual spend. The platform was created by Matthew Jacobs — 15+ years across Starcom, Dentsu (SVP Product), Amazon DSP (Senior PM), and Paramount (Senior Director).

Halliard takes planning further than workflow management. The platform includes a visual flowchart builder, budget allocation engine, and — critically — a proprietary cross-channel reach and frequency analysis system using a 10,000-person panel across 210 designated market areas. This panel gives planners cross-channel R+F modeling (spanning TV, CTV, digital, audio, and social) at the planning stage — a capability Camphouse doesn’t offer.

In December 2025, Halliard completed the first fully autonomous media buy via Model Context Protocol (MCP) with PubMatic — executing a plan-to-buy transaction without human intermediation. The platform starts free with no credit card required.

Comparison Table

Where Camphouse Wins

Purpose-built for global enterprise operations. Camphouse was designed from the ground up for organizations managing campaigns across multiple markets, brands, and regions simultaneously. Multi-market management with coordinated local and global oversight — with the governance controls, data taxonomy enforcement, and approval workflows that enterprise organizations need — is where the platform shines. This is complex operational infrastructure that Camphouse has built over more than a decade.

AI-generated insertion orders. The automation of insertion order generation directly from a media plan — with no manual formatting or double entry — is a concrete time savings for teams running high volumes of media buys. This is a practical operational capability that reduces administrative overhead on a per-campaign basis.

AI media chat for performance analysis. The conversational interface that lets users query campaign performance (“which regions are performing best this week?”) without navigating dashboards is a meaningful usability improvement. For marketing directors who need quick status updates without delegation, this kind of natural language access to campaign data matters.

Data taxonomy enforcement. Custom naming conventions and data hierarchy controls that ensure consistent data structure across campaigns are infrastructure investments that pay dividends over time. Organizations that have built reporting workflows on top of Camphouse data know how much operational chaos is prevented by consistent taxonomy.

Enterprise-grade data governance. The audit trails, role-based access controls, and data governance features in Camphouse are designed for organizations where compliance and control are non-negotiable requirements.

Where Halliard Wins

Cross-channel reach and frequency analysis. This is the most significant capability gap. Camphouse helps teams manage and track campaigns — but it doesn’t help them model cross-channel reach before the campaign launches. Halliard’s proprietary 10,000-person panel across 210 DMAs provides unduplicated cross-channel R+F analysis — across TV, CTV, digital, audio, and social simultaneously — at the planning stage. For agencies whose clients ask “how many unique people will this plan reach?” before approving a budget, this capability is essential.

Agentic buying. Camphouse manages the campaign workflow through execution. Halliard can execute the buy. The December 2025 PubMatic MCP integration is a live autonomous plan-to-buy transaction, not a feature roadmap item. For agencies moving toward automated buying workflows, this is where Halliard is building genuine differentiation.

Free plan access. Camphouse requires a 10-user minimum and annual contract commitment. Halliard offers a free plan with no credit card required. For agencies evaluating their tooling options, this accessibility difference changes the evaluation dynamic — you can build a real media plan in Halliard before committing to anything.

Modern planning workflow for independent agencies. Camphouse is enterprise-focused — optimized for large organizations with complex global operations. Its pricing, contract structure, and feature priorities reflect that orientation. Halliard was built for the agency or in-house team that needs enterprise-grade capabilities without enterprise-scale organizational overhead.

18+ channel integrations. Camphouse integrates with Google Analytics, Meta, LinkedIn, and a set of data connectors. Halliard connects natively to 18+ channels — including Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube — for planning and real-time spend tracking.

Feature-by-Feature Breakdown

Campaign Planning

Camphouse provides campaign calendar views, dynamic sheet views, budget management, and media inventory planning. The workflow is organized around campaign lifecycle stages with approval workflows and multi-market coordination.

Halliard provides visual flowchart planning, budget allocation across channels, and cross-channel reach and frequency analysis. The planning interface is designed for the strategic allocation decisions that happen before any campaign is configured.

AI Features

Camphouse includes AI media chat for natural language performance queries, Smart Spend Analysis for automated performance insights, and automated insertion order generation from media plans.

Halliard applies AI to planning scenarios (what-if modeling, budget optimization), conversational planning assistance, and the agentic buying workflow that completed the first autonomous plan-to-buy transaction in December 2025.

Reporting and Measurement

Camphouse provides automated planned vs. actual reporting, custom dashboards, and real-time KPI tracking (ROAS, CPA, spend, delivery). Strong reporting infrastructure for enterprise clients.

Halliard provides real-time plan-to-delivered spend tracking across all channel integrations, with historical benchmarking against past campaigns.

Pricing

Camphouse starts at approximately $149/user/year with a 10-user minimum and annual contract. Custom enterprise pricing for larger organizations.

Halliard offers a free plan for individual planners with no credit card required, and premium tiers for teams and agencies.

Best Fit Scenarios

Choose Camphouse if:

• You’re a global enterprise marketing team managing campaigns across multiple markets and brands simultaneously
• Data taxonomy enforcement, consistent naming conventions, and governance controls are operational priorities
• Automated insertion order generation and workflow management are the most pressing operational pain points
• Your organization has the budget and organizational scale to justify an annual enterprise contract with a 10-user minimum
• Multi-market coordination with local-global visibility is a core workflow requirement

Choose Halliard if:

• You need cross-channel reach and frequency modeling as a planning-stage capability
• You’re an independent agency or mid-market in-house team where Camphouse’s enterprise pricing structure doesn’t fit
• The free plan is the right starting point for your team’s evaluation
• Agentic buying and autonomous plan-to-execution capability matters for your team’s direction
• You want to integrate planning and execution across 18+ channels in a single workspace

The Rebrand Question

It’s worth acknowledging that Camphouse’s rebrand from Mediatool reflects a genuine strategic shift — not just a name change. The original Mediatool was a planning tool for media teams. Camphouse is positioning as an enterprise campaign management platform for larger organizations with operational complexity.

That shift upmarket has advantages: clearer enterprise positioning, higher contract values, more defensible customer relationships. But it also means the platform is increasingly optimized for a different buyer profile than the typical agency media planner who used Mediatool. Teams that chose Mediatool for its simplicity and accessibility relative to enterprise platforms may find Camphouse’s current direction moving away from their needs.

Halliard’s trajectory is in the opposite direction: bringing enterprise-grade capabilities (cross-channel R+F, agentic buying, institutional knowledge retention) to the independent agency and mid-market in-house segment that’s been underserved by both enterprise platforms and simple workflow tools.

FAQ

Is Mediatool the same as Camphouse? Yes. Mediatool rebranded to Camphouse in 2023, with the new brand fully launching at camphouse.io in February 2025. The platform retains its core campaign workflow management capabilities with significant additions including AI features, automated IO generation, and expanded integrations. See the full Camphouse listing for current feature details.

Does Camphouse have a free trial? Camphouse does not offer a public free trial. Access requires a sales demo and enterprise contract discussion, with a 10-user minimum and annual commitment. Halliard offers a free plan with no credit card required.

What makes Halliard’s R+F panel different from Camphouse? Camphouse doesn’t offer cross-channel reach and frequency modeling. Halliard’s proprietary 10,000-person panel across 210 DMAs provides cross-channel unduplicated reach projections — spanning TV, CTV, digital, audio, and social — at the planning stage. This is a capability that Camphouse wasn’t designed to deliver.

Does Camphouse support agentic buying? No. Camphouse manages campaign workflows — approvals, budget tracking, insertion orders — but doesn’t execute media buys autonomously. Halliard’s December 2025 PubMatic MCP integration executed the first autonomous plan-to-buy transaction in the industry.

Can I start Halliard without a contract? Yes. Halliard’s free plan is available immediately at halliardmedia.com/trytoday — no contract, no credit card, no minimum user count.

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Ready to see modern media planning? Start free at halliardmedia.com/trytoday — no contract, no credit card, no minimum users.