New Feature: Book media insertion by email with confirmation

Release date: January 29, 2021

A key benefit of MediaPlanHQ is to help marketing teams track their bookings with the media without chaos.

With the current version, you can generate professional insertion order pdf, and track booked media insertion with statuses. 

But you still had to download the insertion order pdf, send it to your media rep, and make sure he confirmed/declined the booking.

This can quickly become a daunting task when your media plan has several media outlets and you need to send/track your insertion orders individually.

With the new version, the entire booking workflow is integrated.  You can send insertion order with a click of a button directly in MediaPlanHQ, and track the booking status of your media insertion in an automated way.

Let see how it works...

For existing users, all features works exactly the same as before if you don't use booking integrations in your account.  

Booking deadline

Default booking deadline date

You can now define the default number of days to booking deadline date prior to the media insertion run date for a each media in the Media module:

In the screenshot above, the media "Le Journal de Montreal" requires that ads be booked at least 5 days before the run date.  Thus, if you have a run date for Wednesday, December 23, 2020, the system will compute the booking deadline to Wednesday, December 16, 2020 when ignoring weekends.

You can also define the number of days to booking deadline date on the media vendor, that will be used by its media when the use vendor booking information is enabled.

Media insertion booking deadline date

When you create a media insertion in the planning module, the system will automatically calculate the booking deadline date based on the selected media and the insertion run dates:

You can always modify the booking deadline date manually.

Booking deadline date column

You can also add a column to display the booking deadline date in the planning module:

Tracking booking deadlines

You can track the booking deadline in the dashboard with the "Book overdue" and "Book soon" widgets:

Previously, these widgets were computed based on the delivery date of the media insertion assuming that a media insertion must be booked before delivery. 

Now, they use the number of days to booking defined by the media or media vendor to compute the booking deadline which provides more flexibility and accuracy.

Booking methods

You can now define the booking method for each media in the Media module:

It is used to automate the steps needed to book a media insertion with a media.

The supported booking methods are:

Manual	The system will... 1- generate the IO pdf, and 2- transition the media insertion to the first media insertion status with the "Booked" workflow stage. 3- download the IO pdf to your computer 4- send the IO pdf manually
Email	The system will... 1- generate the IO pdf, 2- send the IO pdf by email to the booking email of the media, and 3- transition the media insertion to the first media insertion status with the "Booking Sent" workflow stage.
Need a booking integration?	We will add more booking methods in the future based on your needs/requests.  This includes integration with known digital platform APIs, or even to your custom private systems.  Let us know at [e-mail].

Note that you can also define the booking method on the media vendor, that will be used by its media when the use vendor booking information is enabled.

Book media insertion

The Planning module now has a Book button to book media insertions with media using the defined booking method.

You can bulk Book multiple media insertions at a time directly in the Planning > List view:

or individually in the Planning > Details view:

When booking a media insertion with a media that uses the Email booking method, the system sends a booking email to the media with the IO pdf:

and transitions the media insertion status to the "Booking sent":

Confirm/Decline booking with automatic reminders

You'll notice that the booking email sent to the media contains 2 links to Confirm or Decline the booking.

Note that the booking email links are only added if you have media insertion statuses with the "Booking sent", "Booked" and "Booking declined" workflow stage: https://mediaplanhq.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055740131-Configuring-booking-email-confirmation-links

Confirm booking

The media can click the Confirm link to help you make sure they received the booking with all necessary information. 

This will automatically transition the media insertion to the "Booked" media insertion status:

Decline booking

They can click the Decline link if the information is incomplete/invalid or the availability changed:

This will automatically transition the media insertion to a "Booking declined" media insertion status:

 

Automatic reminders

The system will a send daily reminder email if the media insertion booking was not confirmed/declined by the media.

Booking details & history

The media insertion view now displays the booking details including the booking deadline date and booking method:

The system will generate different booking history events to follow the important interactions of your booking process with a media:

Those history events are appended to the parent media plan / campaign too for a complete history of all your interactions.

That's it ! We hope you'll enjoy the new booking integrations. 

Give it a try and let us know what you think !

As always, don't hesitate to send us your great feedback or other idea for new features !

Have a great day,

The MediaPlanHQ team