Your First Campaign
This route assumes that your station Administrator has already set up the planning templates and playout connection. If the station has no available commercial blocks, complete Station Administration first.
Use a test campaign agreed with the station before planning real commercials. This example uses a fictional advertiser, Harbour Cycles, and a 30-second spot. Replace the sample dates with a future Monday through Sunday.
1. Prepare The Brief
Agree on the advertiser, dates, material, requested count, allowed hours and any first/last-position or separation requirement. For this example:
| Choice | Example |
|---|---|
| Campaign name | Harbour Cycles - autumn offer |
| Dates | One complete future Monday-to-Sunday week |
| Requested commercials | 14, Total |
| Material | One 30-second spot, without a tag on |
| Dayparts | Every day, 08:00 up to 18:00 |
| Allowed blocks | All blocks |
| Position restriction | Anywhere |
| Week restriction | All weeks |
This is a total of 14 placements across the campaign. It is not an instruction to place exactly two every day.
2. Create The Advertiser Account
Open Accounts > Accounts, select Add account... and enter Harbour Cycles as the Account name. Choose the appropriate Account type, add contact and address information, then select Add. Reopen the account and check the saved details. See Accounts for the complete field reference.
3. Check The Material
Open Commercials > Spots. If the station uses Power Studio synchronization, find the spot that was synchronized from the studio library. Otherwise use Add spot... to register the material, following Spots And Promos.
Confirm its title, file reference, Duration, Start next item and Voice. For a 30-second item with no earlier transition, both timing fields are 00:00:30:00. Verify the actual file at the playout end; entering its name in the browser does not upload audio.
4. Save A Draft
- Open Commercials > Campaigns and select Add campaign....
- Enter the campaign name and select Draft as its Status.
- Set Start date and End date to the agreed week.
- Select Harbour Cycles as the Account and check Branche, if used.
- In Spot, choose the prepared material; leave Tag on at -None- and select the nearby Add button. Confirm a row appears in Spots.
- Enter 14 in Number of commercials and choose Total.
- Set Anywhere, All weeks and the agreed Repeat restriction. Use 0 only if no additional minimum interval is required.
- In Dayparts, select hours 08 through 17 for each day and clear the other hours. Hour 17 covers 17:00-17:59.
- Leave All blocks selected.
- Check Spot planning strategy, then select the form's Add button to save the campaign.
Reopen the draft and verify the dates, selected spot and restrictions. A Draft is not submitted for active planning.
5. Activate And Check The Result
Change Status to Active and select Save. Return to the Dashboard and inspect notifications while the background planner processes the request.
Open Schedule, choose the campaign dates and inspect several days and hours. Check the campaign's Reports > Planned commercials overview for the complete campaign. Before any schedule has been downloaded, compare the planned main-spot placements with the requested 14. If downloads already exist, also inspect the Aired commercials overview, as explained in Reports.
If some commercials could not be scheduled, open the warning details and follow Scheduling Rules. Do not treat the return to the campaign list as confirmation that every placement succeeded.
6. Hand Over To Playout
Confirm with the studio operator which connection or export format is in use. Review through the schedule screen or a report before performing a real download. Then verify the correct block, audio and timing in the studio playlist.
After this first campaign, use the Daily Workflow for routine checks.