Understanding the Advertising Module

The Advertising Module has been designed to allow users to manage advertising content/networks in a more advanced manner than just using a standard Playlist. Users can define rules relating to Playlist length/number of Assets and schedule Advertising Campaigns based on slot availability and location by Advertising Group or distance by geo location.

Assets that you will be using for your advertising (images or movie files) should be added to the Asset Library. Please see: How Do I Upload New Assets 

Once the Advertising module has been activated for your network, you should see the ‘Advertising’ icon from the navigation:

There are 3 main sections for using the Advertising module; we suggest completing each section in this order:

1. Player Groups
2. Content Groups
3. Campaigns

Creating Player Groups

Player Groups allow you to group multiple players together and define how long each Slot will be, the total number of slots for that group, and the maximum number of assets that can play for each Content Group assigned to the Player Group.

1) From the Advertising page, click on the ‘Create New’ button

2) Create a ‘New Player Group’

• Name – Give your group a name. For example, the group name can be specific to a location (i.e. Shopping Market 001)
• Slot Length – This will define how long the slot should be (ie. 30.00 = 30 seconds).
• Total # Slots – This defines how many slots or Assets can play in this group (i.e. 10 Slots, with a slot length of 30.00 would equal a 300 second playlist).
• Sync Orientation – This allows syncing on supported Samsung SSP and Tizen players.
• Tags (optional) – Tags allow you create specific tags which can then be used to categorize ‘Campaigns’ (please see steps for setting up ‘Campaigns’ below).
• Players – The group will know which players to play the advertising playlist on based on the Players you add to the group. Please note that Players can only be added to one group.
• Location – The location allows you to define a specific location or geo tag of where the Players for this group are located. The location can then be used as part of your Campaigns.

Once Content Groups are created you will have the option to set Max Asset counts for each Content Group from the bottom of the Player Group properties:

3) Once you create your Player Group(s), you will see a table on the main Advertising page with quick details for that group:

• The Calendar icon on each Player Group line will allow you to view a calendar view of you Campaigns.
• The Preview icon will open a new tab and show you content that is schedule to play now. This is true representation of how content should be playing on the players that have been assigned to this Player Group.
• The Properties icon will open the Player Group properties (clicking anywhere inline on the Player Group will take you to the same page).
• The Player Action button will allow you to send commands to the Player Group (i.e. Force Update; etc.)

Creating Content Groups

Content groups allow to create groups that define specific groups of content. An example of Content Groups could be for Local, National, or In-House content slots. When a new Content Group is created it is added to the Advertising Group, where you can then define the max number of assets that will play as part of that group.

1) From the Advertising main page, click on the ‘Content Group’ button:

• Name – This will be the name of your Content Group. This can be changed later.
• Enable – The ‘Enable’ check box allows you to enable to disable the group. Please note that if you disable the content group by unckecking the ‘Enable’ checkbox it will delete the group.
• For Sale – This defines whether the group is for sale.
• Sort – The sort defines the priority order of the group. This will change the order that the columns display from the main Advertising page (1 will show first, 2 will show second, etc..):

Once all content groups have been created, you can define the Max Assets that will play as part of each content group from the Player Group properties. Click on the Content Group name to open the properties for that group:

Creating Campaigns

By default, Campaigns will show first when you enter the Advertising module from the Home page. Creating a Campaign will create an advertising campaign and schedule for each asset. This will also automatically generate a playlist based on the campaigns you have.

Please note that you will need to upload your assets from the Assets Library first before adding assets to your Campaigns. Please see How Do I Upload New Assets.

1) Click on the ‘New Campaign’ button from the main Advertising page:

2) Campaign Properties:

• Asset – The asset link will open the Asset Library where you can select the JPEG, PNG or video file that we be used for this Campaign.
• Name – This will be the meaningful name of your Campaign.
• Content Group – This drop down will allow you to specify the Content Group that this campaign should be connected to.
• Tags – Tags are optional and can be a helpful search tool.
• Weight – This helps determine a priority for your campaign.
• Start Date – The date you would like your campaign to start.
• Start Time – This will be the start time that the campaign will play daily from the Start Date to the End Date you define.
• End Date – This is the date your campaign will stop playing.
• End Time – This will be the end time that the campaign will play daily from the Start Date to the End Date you define.
• Override Slot Length – This will allow you to override the Slot Length you defined in the Player Group.
• Location (optional) – A location can be set if you have an advertiser that wants to advertise within a X mile radius of the Geo Location of the Campaign. The location will then find all the Advertising Groups within that radius.
• The Player Group can be defined by checking the box for the Player Group(s) this campaign should be assigned to. This is important because it connects the campaign to the player. You can also define multiple Player Groups for each Content Group but selecting the Content Group from the drop down and then checking the box for the Player Group:

Repeat the process for the rest of your campaigns.

If your Players are online and performing Health checks with the software, they should start updating with Advertising content as it is scheduled. To check the status of your Players, please see: Content Isn’t Updating / Checking Connectivity Of Your Players