One playlist, many screens: each one plays only what it should

When every screen has its own playlist, any campaign change turns into a series of manual edits. That is how a partner's ad ends up on a competitor's screen, a Friday promotion is still running on Wednesday, and an advertiser contracted for six screens ends up on forty.

There is a simpler way to organize this: one main playlist, the same for every screen, in which each media defines where it may be shown. In DSPLAY, this is done by combining sub-playlists with display restrictions by group of terminals.

How the pieces fit

A sub-playlist is a block of content with a single purpose, such as a venue's institutional content. The main playlist brings these blocks together in the desired order and sets how many items of each one play at a time. The display restriction lives on each media and indicates which groups of screens it may appear on.

The example in this guide

Consider a network with screens in restaurants, gyms and clinics. All of them need to show four kinds of content:

• Institutional: opening hours, free Wi-Fi for guests and the venue's house rules.
• Partners: advertising from nearby businesses, such as a pizzeria or a flower shop, that do not compete with the network's venues.
• Ads: campaigns sold for specific screens, such as a gym's membership drive or a supplements promotion.
• Entertainment: fun facts, RSS news, weather and time, which hold attention between one ad and the next.

Step 1: create the sub-playlists

Under Content > Playlists, create one playlist for each block: Institutional, Partners, Ads and Entertainment. Name them by purpose, not by client. Over time, names like “Promo Maria” stop meaning anything to whoever takes over the operation.

Step 2: build the main playlist

Create the main playlist and add the sub-playlists as items. Each item has an Items to play field, which sets how many items of that block play each time (the list shows “2 per pass”). The same sub-playlist can be added more than once, which helps spread the ads across the cycle. In the example, the sequence was:

1. Institutional, 2 items
2. Partners, 1 item
3. Institutional, 1 item
4. Ads, 2 items
5. Entertainment, 2 items
6. Ads, 2 items

A full cycle has 10 items: 3 institutional, 1 partner, 4 ads and 2 entertainment. That means 4 in every 10 items are ads. To give campaigns more room, raise the “items to play” of the Ads sub-playlist; if the screen feels too promotional, lower it. In both cases, no video needs to change.

Each sub-playlist also remembers where it stopped. If Institutional has eight items, on the next pass the screen continues with the item that comes next instead of always repeating the first two. That way, people who spend longer in front of the screen don't see the same notice all day.

Step 3: organize the screens into groups

Group the terminals by whatever criterion makes sense for your restrictions. In the example they are Restaurants, Gyms and Clinics, but grouping can also be by city (“Campinas store”, “Santos store”), by client, or by the two screens of an advertiser who bought a fixed package. Then point every terminal to the same main playlist.

Step 4: define where each media may be shown

Open the media and go to the Display restrictions tab. With no restriction, the media is shown on every terminal in the project. With a restriction, it is shown only on the selected groups and terminals.

A few cases this setup solves:

1. A partner that must not appear at a competitor. The partner pizzeria's ad should not play at another restaurant, so we select only Gyms and Clinics. A restriction is a list of where the media plays; for “everyone except one”, select all the others.
2. An ad aimed at one kind of venue. The supplements store wants to appear where people are training: restrict the ad to the Gyms group, and the clinics never even receive it.
3. Information specific to each kind of venue. The clinics' opening hours differ from the gyms', and each one is restricted to its own group.
4. A temporary campaign in a few stores. For a Black Friday promotion in three stores, create a group with them, restrict the media to that group and set the media's start and end dates.
5. A notice for a single location. For a construction announcement at one branch, select the terminal directly, with no group: a restriction accepts groups and terminals.

A restriction can also be applied to a whole sub-playlist: the playlist editor has the same tab.

What each screen receives

The server builds each terminal's list with only what that terminal may show. What isn't allowed never reaches the screen.

In the example, a gym's screen shows the network-wide notice, the partner pizzeria, the supplements ad and the gyms' institutional content. A clinic's screen shows the network-wide notice, the partner pizzeria and the clinics' institutional content, without the supplements ad. A restaurant's screen shows only the network-wide notice.

Day to day

• Ad sold: create the media, put it in the Ads sub-playlist and choose the groups. No other screen changes.
• New location: put the screen in the right group, and it starts showing the main playlist.
• A partner became a competitor: remove the matching group from its restriction.
• An ad only during lunch hours: combine the restriction with the media's days and hours.
• Proof for the advertiser: the per-media play report shows what ran, and keeping ads in their own sub-playlist makes them easier to find.

Frequently asked questions

Can I restrict by screen, without creating a group? Yes, a restriction accepts groups and terminals. What happens if nothing in a sub-playlist is allowed on a screen? The screen moves on to the next item. How many sub-playlists fit in a main playlist? As many as needed, and a sub-playlist can also contain others.

Start with the free trial

The free trial lasts 3 months and requires no credit card. Build your first main playlist with two or three sub-playlists, create two groups and watch each screen show only what it should.