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Incoming Ads

INTRO TO INCOMING ADS

As a mediaCLOUD Enterprise user you get to take advantage of the Advertising Engine. It allows you to manage all aspects of the out-of-home (OOH) advertising business including:

- Inventory Control
- Scheduling
- Proof of Play
- Execution
- Cross Business Ads
- Much More

Regardless of media type (e.g. billboard, transit shelter, airport, mall, bus, and digital signage), the Ad engine delivers creative and flexible campaigns across multiple platforms and multiple markets using one centralized management tool. The MediaSignage Advertising platform is designed to ensure you maximize your Ad revenues by using smart digital signage at the lowest total cost of ownership.

The Advertising engine is all about providing advanced campaign management and scheduling that allows you to deliver the right ad at the right time to the right customer across thousands of screens.

With the mediaADNET Advertising platform you can target advertising based on sites, demographics, time of day and specific screens; all with the simplest user interface for both you (the network owner) and your advertisers.

Best of all, you can take advantage of a slimmed down, white labeled version of the SignageStudio and embed it directly onto your own web site to allow your Advertisers a portal for Ad management. You can also use the API we provide (Application Programming Interface), and create your own portal that caters to your own needs using other programming languages including PHP, ASP, Flash and others languages.

The Advertising Engine gives you a lot of different features including:

- Playback Analytics including Proof of Play
- Integrate existing campaign and timelines using the Ad Component
- Easily address thousands of Ads to different Stations across business using Ad Packages
- Set station with different hourly rate for Ads at any given hour per week
- Expose your Ad Network to the public mediaADNET
- Provide approval system, accept and suspend incoming Ads manually or automatically
- Dozens of customized reports / aggregated stats, exportable to CSV
- Assign Start and End dates for the Ad package
- Multi user Advertising privileges control
- Set geographical location for each Station using Live Maps
- Connect a private hosted mediaSERVER to the public mediaADNET
- Search Ad station in the Local Ad network or mediaADNET using keys, names and geo location

One of the great things about the Ad Engine is once that you start using it, you can expose your Screens through the mediaADNET; a public network of users and advertisers. You can bring in more advertisers and grow your business.

You also have the option to create your own local private Ad Network. So you don't have to join the mediaADNET; you can keep it all private.

If you purchase a mediaSERVER you can also establish a connection between your mediaSERVER and our mediaADNET.

ADVERTISING ENGINE AND NETWORK EXPLAINED

In this section, we'll use a factitious user named Joe. Joe is an accountant who is looking to expand his business and find more clients.

Joe gets coffee every morning at his local coffee shop and he sees Digital Signage with an Advertise here message, together with a URL address.

Joe goes back to the office and uses the advertised URL address so he can find more information about placing ads at the local coffee Shop.

We'll use this example to show you everything you need to know about the Ad Engine. From Joe's perspective, where Joe creates his own Ad package, and how he will upload his files as videos and images that he wants to use to run his ads. Joe's Ad submission will go to the Coffee Shop owner who manages the screen.

We will also cover what you need to know from the perspective of the Coffee Shop owner, approving Joe's Ad packages, setting up the different Ad rates and providing proof of Play to Joe.

INTRO TO INCOMING ADS

To access the Incoming Ads section of the SignageStudio, you must enable its functionality from the main top file menu of the SignageStudio.

After you enable the Incoming Ads section, you can access the area by clicking on the Incoming Ads tab located in the main Navigation menu.

You'll notice three subsections available under the Incoming ads section:

- Advertisers
- Rates
- Analytics

The Coffee Shop owner in our example needs to set up a Station (a PC connected to a screen) at his location. He will register as an Enterprise user on the mediaCLOUD and install the SignagePlayer Desktop version on a PC connected to a large 32" screen in his Coffee Shop.

The Coffee Shop owner will proceed by building his Campaigns and Timelines and configure the Advertising options for his Station.

First we will begin by enabling advertising capabilities at the Station level.

Under the Stations section of the SignageStudio we select a Station that we would like to run Ads on. The Advertising option is located in the Properties panel of a Station.

ADVERTISING PROPERTIES PANEL

The first option in the Advertising section is named Public. It allows a Station to be exposed to a private advertising network or through the public mediaADNET.

If the public option is set to none, you will not be able to run any of the advertising tools. However, selecting the Local network will expose the Screen to any business that's within your Enterprise account. Selecting the mediaADNET will expose your Screen to possible advertisers throughout the entire public mediaADNET.

If you select the mediaADNET, the Station will be exposed to possible advertisers from both your own local Ad network as well as the mediaADNET; which includes our mediaCLOUD servers and customers who purchase a dedicated mediaSERVER and connected it to the mediaCLOUD.

Next, you can add a Description so users who search for screens can read and get more information about your exposed Station; i.e.: type of business it's in and price information.

The Coffee Shop owner from our example can also add some searchable keys. You can add searchable keys in the designated field.

This way, individuals can possibly find your Screen when entering a keyword, for example: Coffee Shop.

The Coffee Shop owner needs to configure the Rate table which sets the price per hour of what he chargers to run advertisements on his Station. As you can see below, the Rate dropdown list is blank. We have to create the Rate table before we can apply it to the Station.

RATES

If you click on the Rates tab under the Incoming Ads section of the SignageStudio, you'll access the Rates tables where you can configure prices per hour for your Ad packages.

Rates allow you to set the price per hour / per any day of the week so you can charge your advertisers accordingly. Rate Tables are bound to specific Stations. Running a monthly proof of play report on a particular station will use its bound rating table to compute total charges.

The Rates section is broken down to:

- 1. Rates Main Panel
- 2. Rates Timetable
- 3. Rates Properties Panel

RATES PANEL

Located on the left side of the user interface, the main panel of the Rates section allows you to add or delete rate tables.

ADDING RATE TABLE

To create a new Rate table, click on the ADD button.

You can create an unlimited number of Rate tables. However a single Station can be bound to only one Rate table at a time.

A Rate table allows you to create four different levels or rates. So you can charge 4 different rates per hour per week.

RATES TABLE

The Rate table is located in the center or the Rate section of the SignageStudio. Here you set 4 different levels of prices for every hour of the week.

RATE PROPERTY PANEL

You can change the name of a Rate table at any time; select the Name field of the Properties panel to enter a new name.

HOURLY RATES

The Properties panel contains four different fields for the hourly rates that you can set; distinguished by four colors. You define how much to charge by entering the value in currency in the hourly rate fields.

The selected button is used so you can determine the currently selected rate.

The colored squares represent the 4 rates that you can set with the Rate table.

After you select a particular hourly rate, use your mouse to drag regions in the Rate Timetable to associate the respective hourly rate within a week's time.

CREATING AND APPLY RATE TABLE

In this section we'll be creating a new Rate table from scratch and applying it to a station.

Step 1:

Add a new Rate using the ADD button.

Step 2:

Select the newly created Rate and access its properties panel on the right. Change the name of the Rate in New Rate.

Step 3:

Use the Red color to define the rate for the weekend hours. If for example you know the weekend is the busiest time at your business, you can set higher rates for Sat and Sun.

Type the number20 in the red represents 20.00 dollars an hour.

Step 4:

Using our mouse, select the period of time between 8:00 and 24:00 for Saturday and Sunday.

From midnight until 8 AM, we leave the hourly rate at zero (noted with the grey color). This is because we don't want to charge our advertisers when the business is closed.

Step 5:

For the rest of the week we set an hourly rate of 10.00 dollars. Type the number 10 in the green hourly rate field. Select the Green color and use your mouse to drag and define the green area on the timetable.

Step 6:

For Friday we set 15.00 dollars per hour. Use your mouse to define blue instead of green for Fridays.

At this point we have created a Rate table. You can create as many Rate tables as you want and choose different hourly rates for different periods.

After the Rate table is created, access the Stations area of the SignageStudio and assign the Rate table to your Advertising Station.

Step 7:

In the Properties panel click on the Advertising tab and select the Rate from the dropdown list.

SET UP A LOCATION

To add a Location, click on the Location tab from the Stations Properties panel of the selected Station.

Enter a ZIP code or town in the Location field and save your configuration.

CREATE A CAMPAIGN FOR AD ENGINE

Next we create a new Campaign and a Timeline.

Next we add the Advertising Component to it to the empty channel. Access the Component panel and drag the Advertising Player Component to the Timeline.

This particular Channel will be the portal for the Advertising Engine; on this Timeline / channel, all the advertising resources will play. The Resources submitted by the Advertiser should match the screen division size of where the Advertising component was assigned, to prevent content skewing.Double click on the Advertisement component and access its Properties panel, the only option is the default resource.

This default resource is going to be a video file or an image that's going to run on this particular Screen Division IF no ad packages have been scheduled. Therefore, if you haven't sold any ads, or you haven't scheduled any ad packages, the default resource will play. We assign a PNG image as the default resource for our Advertising component.

To assign a particular resource as the default resource for the Advertising component, select it in the Resources panel, with your mouse drag it into the default resource field to bind it.

ADVERTISER SECTION OF INCOMING ADS

Joe, the accountant from our example, has seen the Coffee Shop rates and submitted an Ad package to the Coffee Shop owner. In the next chapter, we'll explain how to search for Screens and how to submit ad packages from the Advertisers side.

Note: Once an Ad package has been submitted, it may take a few minutes for it to synchronize among all the mediaCLOUD servers. You can speed up the process by selecting File > synchronize from the main menu to pull down the latest Ad engine data and onto the SignageStudio.

The Advertising section of the Incoming ads has six main areas:

1. User / Domain Directory2. Business / Package3. Ad Status4. Properties Panel5. Content Listing6. Content Preview

USER / DOMAIN DIRECTORY

After Joe submitted an Ad package, the Coffee Shop owner will be able to see the user who submitted the Ad package and the domain under which the user is registered.

The User / Domain directory is listed on the left side of the interface.

In our example, the user is test02 and the domain is signage . me. In this area of the user interface you see all users who submitted an Ad package and the domain they belong to.

Domains are used to identify private mediaSERVERs that extend onto the public mediaADNET; therefor they will have a different domain name.

BUSINESS / PACKAGE

The Business / Package area is located next to the main navigation menu.

It contains four different columns:

- Business
- Package
- Date Start
- Date End

The Business column contains fields showing the business under which the Advertiser submitted ads.

The Package column contains fields describing the name of the Ad Package as well as the Start and End dates; time set by the Advertiser as to when to start and end playback of the submitted Ad package.

We only have one Business and one Package available, but it could be any number of businesses and packages.

AD STATUS AREA

The status area of the ad packages submitted by advertisers is located next to the Business / Package area. It contains five columns:

- Status
- Station
- Week Days
- Hour_Start
- Hour_End

STATUS

The Status field is used to display the current status of the Ad package submitted. In the above example, the current status of the Ad package is pending.

The Status can be either:

- Pending
- Accepted
- Suspended
- Declined

STATION

The Station field displays the name of the Station to play the Ad package that was submitted.

WEEKDAYS

The Weekdays field refers to the days of the week chosen by the Advertiser to play the submitted Ad package.

In our example, Joe the accountant wants his Ad package to play every day of the week. Each day of the week has a check box. The first checkbox represents Sunday, the next one Monday, and so on. If the Advertiser wants his Ad package to playback only on certain days, only those specific days will be checked in the Weekdays field.

HOUR START

The Hour Start field is used to display the hour to start playback of the Ad package as set by the Advertiser.

The Advertiser can set the exact start time specified in hours and minutes. In our example, the starting time is just after midnight.

HOUR END

The Hour End field is used to display when to stop the playback of the Ad package as set by the Advertiser. In our example, the end playback time is just before midnight.

In the Properties panel you can apply:

- Ad-in Domain
- Ad-in Domain Business
- Ad-in Package
- Package Station

AD-IN DOMAIN PROPERTIES PANEL

To access the Properties panel of theAd-in Domain, you select the domain used by the Advertiser. The domain in our example is signage . me.

After you select the domain used by the Advertiser, you can access its properties panel.

The properties panel contains only one field. It can be used to set whether to accept manually or automatically future businesses registered under the selected Domain.

If you set this option to automatically, any package coming from the selected domain will be accepted without having to approve it.

If you set the option to manually, you must manually accept all the Ad packages submitted from the selected domain.

AD-IN DOMAIN BUSINESS PROPERTIES PANEL

To access the Properties panel of the Ad-in Domain Business, or the Username of the Advertiser, select the username used by the Advertiser. The username / Business in our example is Test02.

The properties panel contains only one field which can be used to set whether to manually or automatically accept future new packages registered under the selected business.

Notice if you set this option to automatically, any package coming from the selected Username or Business will be accepted automatically.

If you set the option to manually,future submissions must be accepted manually for ad packages coming from the selected Username or Business.

AD-IN PACKAGE PROPERTIES PANEL

To access the Properties panel of the Ad-in Package, select the Package submitted by the Advertiser. In our example, Joe the accountant submitted an Ad package to the Coffee Shop owner named Package 01.

After you select the Ad package, you access its Properties panel.

In the Properties panel you can set to manually or automatically accept different changes made to the selected package.

PACKAGE CONTENT MODIFIED

If you enable this option and choose automatically from the dropdown list the action will automatically be accepted by the system if:

- The Advertiser Modifies the Content of the Ad Package
- Items are Removed
- Items are Added

STATUS / STATION PROPERTIES PANEL

If you select the Status of the submitted package you access its properties panel.

In this area you can change the actual Status of the selected package:

- Pending
- Accepted
- Suspended
- Declined

SUSPEND MODIFIED PACKAGE / STATION

When enabled, anytime the Advertiser modifies the Ad package, the Status will automatically change to Suspended.

For our example, the Coffee Shop owner will add additional videos to the Ad package and the Status of the Ad package will change to suspended until approved by the Coffee shop owner.

Once the Status is changed from Pending to Accepted the Ad package will begin running on the Ad network. The Ad package will run within the schedule set for it.

CONTENT LISTING AREA

The Content Listing area contains the Items / Resources that are part of the Ad package:

- Content
- Duration
- Repetitions
- Percent

CONTENT

The Content column is a list with names of the Resources that are part of the Ad package. In our example, Joe the accountant submitted three files named Dream Vacation, Sunset and Have Fun Banner.

DURATION

In the Duration column you set the duration of each file within the Ad package that was submitted by the Advertiser. In our example, one file has duration of 31 seconds, the next 5 seconds and last with 5 seconds. The Advertiser has the ability to override content duration.

REPETITIONS

The Repetitions column shows how many times the selected Resource will run within a single hour. In our example, each file is set to have 12 repetitions; thus the system will try to run each file 12 times within an hour.

The Advertiser can set the repetitions value.

PERCENT

The Percent column shows the percentage of time filled within an hour by the selected Resource. If the Resource is longer and/or the number of Repetitions is higher, the playback percentage will also be higher.

The percentage can also be set by the Advertiser.

Note: If multiple Ad packages are submitted by Advertisers to a single Station, some of the ads may get pushed back, eventually all ads will receive playback time. Some content may receive higher impression rate as dictated by the values described above.

CONTENT PREVIEW AREA

Network owner can preview resources in the Content listing before deciding if to approve or deny it into their Ad network.

ANALYTICS

The Analytics of the Incoming Ads is a key feature as it allows you to provide proof of play to advertisers.

Use Search to look for Ad packages assigned to your Screens within a specified Year / month.

After you entered the date, click on the Go button to begin searching the database.

The system will find Ad packages that played during the specified month and provide full analytics including dates, times, ads, charts and more.The data is exportable to CSV so you can use it with Excel, Crystal Reports and other analytic tools.

As you can see in our example, the Ad package submitted by Joe, the accountant was found. Once selected, we can find details related to the Ad package.

The Analytics main area:

- 1. Grid
- 2. Charts

The GRID area contains columns with information related to the Advertisements played on Stations.

You can filter what information to display in the Grid area, select or deselect features under:

- 1. Baseline
- 2. Present

Under the Baseline, you can choose to display Analytics on an hourly, daily or both.

Using the Present, you can display analytics for Package, Content and Station currently in use.

Date: specified date the selected Ad package played.

Time: when the Ad packages played.

Package: name of the Packages that Played.

Station: Stations that played the Ad packages.

Content: name of each individual resource that played within the specified Ad package.

Count: number of counts for each Resource played.

Duration: length of each resource played per station as part of an Ad packages.

AVG SIZE (MP): average size in Megapixel as in total megapixels divided by total ads.

Hourly rate: the hourly rate applied to the selected Ad package as set by the Rate table.

Price: calculated price that Advertiser should pay as set by the Rate table.

At the bottom of the main Analytics area, you see a summary of the information.

- Total Counts for the Ad Packages
- Total Duration
- Average Hourly Rate
- Average Size
- Total Price

EXPORT ANALYTICS

The Export function is used retrieve analytics data and import into a CSV file. CSV is a Comma Separated Values format that can be opened natively with application such as Microsoft Excel and Crystal reports.

If an Advertiser requires proof of Play for a submitted Ad package, you can generate the required report from the proof of play raw CSV data.

Click on the Export button and you will be promoted to SAVE the data file. Name the file end save it to your Computer. After its saved, you can open it with Microsoft Excel.

CHARTS

Another section of the Analytics is Charts; a visual representation of the raw analytics data. The Charts data contains both Baseline and the Present fields. Charts can display Package, Content and Station information.

There are three sections to the analytics data:

- Counts
- Duration
- Price

For each of the three sections you can choose to display:

- Column
- Line
- Plot
- Area
- Bar

If the data is not visible on your screen, use the horizontal and vertical scroll bars to navigate through the Charts.

In this chapter we focused on the Coffee shop owner (Ad network operator). He determines the rates, default resource and Ad component channel assignment. It is also his job to accept or reject incoming Ad packages submitted by the Advertisers.

In the next chapter, we will cover the Outgoing ads used by the Advertiser (i.e.: Joe the accountant).