Smart Versioning Creative Best Practices

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1 Smart Versioning Creative Best Practices What is Smart Versioning? The collection of features inside the MediaMind Platform that allow users to: Ø Create target audiences, based on a geography or behavioral identity (e.g. message remarketing). Ø Create multiple versions of an ad using a dynamically updated master ad template. Ø Create serving logic (targeting or optimization guidelines) to allow ad versions to deliver differently based on specific patterns, sequences or scenarios. What are some examples of use of Smart Versioning? Smart Versioning use cases depending highly on the vertical and the desired outcome for the advertiser. The product is capable but not limited to the following examples: Ø Retail Build an ad template that is dynamically altered and targeting to remarketed customers who have abandoned shopping carts. Typically using the advertiser s e-commerce.xml feed to change the many variables within the template e.g. SKU name, image, price, description etc. Ø Automotive Create versions of an ad template to have the campaign adapt to dealer inventory and promotions for a multitude of dealer locations. E.g. LA dealership wants to promote model A offer B, while Seattle dealership wants to promote model C with offer A and D How do I create Smart Versions? When building your Smart Versioning template, you will first define the aspects of the creative that can be changed dynamically (smart items). Smart items can be text, images, video files, sound files, swfs, html text, variables or external data sources. Once you have uploaded your template to the MediaMind Platform, you can create ad versions by selecting 1 out of 3 options: Single Version, Multiple Versions Excel, and Multiple Versions Data Feed. Please note that Smart Versioning does not support using more than 1 of the following versioning workflows per template. Sizmek 1

2 Single Version This is particularly good for campaigns with a small amount of necessary versions but require those versions to be updated frequently. It is used quite often by entertainment (movies and games) clients. Using this option will create a new master ad for each version, each of which must be trafficked separately. This option also gives you the opportunity to visually edit the smart items, change fonts per version and set unique default images per version. Dynamic retargeting is not available for Single Version ads. Multiple Versions (Excel Upload) This option is best when you need to control many versions in bulk, and do not have a data feed to subscribe to. You will export an Excel feed from the platform which will be populated with columns for each of your smart items. In Excel, you will enter your versions as line items, and they will be created automatically when you import the Excel document back into the platform. When you want to update the ad, export the Excel document again, and you ll see the existing versions in the second sheet. Edits to those line items will update current versions in the platform, while edits to the New Versions sheet will create new versions. Note: Usually creative shops do not input clickthrough urls, rotations or targeting, so these fields can be ignored during creative versioning and filled out by the media team later. Multiple Versions (XML feed) This option allows you to subscribe to a data feed in order to automatically populate your versions. You will enter the feed url, then map a node in the feed to each smart item. Note: All smart items must be subscribed to and available in the data feed; you cannot currently mix Excel versioning with Data Feed versioning. All updates must be made in the feed itself, not the MediaMind Platform. If you need to alter an advertiser s feed to suit your Smart Versioning execution, our Custom Development team will be happy to work with you to create a feed on our servers that mirrors the advertiser s feed and creates the additional information you need for each version. Technical feed requirements: Must use elements rather than attributes, must have at least one unique identifier node. If you will be pulling images from an external domain, their cross domain permissions need to be enabled for *.serving-sys.com How do I preview my Smart Versions? If you are using Single Versioning, you will preview the ads as you do with any other format. If you are using Mass Versioning, you will go to the ad, click Preview, then click Switch to Versions Preview. The best way to view them is to expand the top level navigation and look at the list view. For sending to clients, it s Sizmek 2

3 recommended to Switch to Versions Preview, then generate a non-detailed preview link. If you want to generate a preview that opens on a specific version, navigate to that version before generating the preview link. Here s a screencast: What are some creative best practices for Smart Versioning ads? Hide smart objects until the Smart Versioning component has completed loading the items, and then animate them in. This ensures a smooth transition and gives you control over when the smart items are displayed. Smart Versioning will not tween in your images or text, so they might appear abruptly if you don t control them. Remove text and guide out images used in testing dynamic items before upload. This ensures that you won t ever see the graphics/test switch suddenly from what was in the text/image object originally to what is replaced by Smart Versioning. If you have a smart item in a timeline animation that is not introduced to the stage on the second frame, you will have to call SVComp.updateAllItems(); or SVComp.updateItem( itemname ); in order to populate it. In general we recommend keeping all of your assets in one main movie clip on the second frame and tweening the objects with code for the most flexibility. Once you have uploaded the ad to the platform and are sure you will add no more smart items, it s best to make any creative updates by overwriting your swf assets directly through the Creative Assets section in the MediaMind Platform rather than uploading through Eyeblaster Workshop. When you update through the Workshop, it will clear any existing data feed/excel data and you ll have to re-subscribe. Once the ad has been attached, you will no longer have the ability to update through Workshop, so you must update swfs directly from Creative Assets. To update your creative asset through the MediaMind Platform, go to Manage > Creative Assets Find the file you wish to update and double click on it Click Replace, navigate to your new file and click Save Try to use as few fonts as possible in your dynamic text fields, and only embed the characters you know you ll need. This will help cut down on file size. If necessary, load fonts externally by creating Font Assets. Sizmek 3

4 Consider the range of values your text fields will receive and how your display objects should adapt accordingly. Is your design built for a three-line headline but might receive more? Should it always be vertically or horizontally centered? Does your CTA button need to move/resize depending on the length of the call to action? Put some logic in your oncomplete event that will account for this. Example code: Consider your image assets and how they need to be sized or laid out in order to look correct and fit the template. You can set conditions for image handling in the Smart Versioning settings to fit the image to the movie clip and maintain its aspect ratio. If you need more control over size and positioning of a wide variety of images, it s best to lay them all out in Photoshop and export them to fit the full banner size (300x250, 728x90, 160x600). With Mass Versioning you can only use one default image for all of your versions, so think carefully about what generic message you d like to show users who don t have Flash enabled. Use variables to make your templates more flexible (see next section). How do I make my templates more flexible? Smart Variables are the best way to make a template flexible. You can use them to accommodate multiple layouts, behaviors, color schemes, animation styles etc. You can use switch statements to predefine values for a variable and control multiple objects at a time; for instance you might have color schemes that affect your background color, text and CTA color. You know the colors that the items should be in each case and don t want to have to set them individually, so you could have a variable that accepts values Brights, Neutrals, and CoolTones and set them all at once. When using switch statements, always make sure to have a default value set and educate your team about what values they can enter. Alternatively, you can manipulate the variable to define something explicitly, such as font size or x position. This is ideal for when you want to support a dynamic range of values. Bear in mind that Smart Variables will always come in as Strings, but if you need to use them as a Number or other data type you can easily convert them. Sizmek 4

5 Example for changing copy alignment and color using variables. Notice that for the copy alignment variable, we use a switch statement to accommodate set values, while copy color takes any hexadecimal color value. Both values inform a single TextFormat object which is applied to the text field. Reporting and Technical Considerations? Make your Version Classifications unique and descriptive. We currently only report on the Version Classification or Audience levels so this has a huge effect on how you see reporting. Example of Auto client Version Classification naming convention: CarModel_ModelColor_BgColor Sedan_Blue_BgRed Mass Versioning does not currently support multiple clickthrough destinations but can easily be worked around. If you have another clickthrough URL, make a variable to put the URL in and fire it directly through Flash, while in the same function calling an EB.Clickthrough( clickname ); method for tracking. See template for implementation; we ve added a popup blocker class to avoid the popup blocker triggered in IE9 by AS3 s navigatetourl method. Data feed requirements: Must use elements rather than attributes, must have at least one unique identifier node. If you will be pulling images from an external domain, their cross domain permissions need to be enabled for *.serving-sys.com In instances where you need to populate tracking urls with site or placement IDs, use our URL tokens so this is populated dynamically and can be set the same for all versions. Additional Help: Online Help MediaMind API AS2 MediaMind API AS3 Contact Us: If you have any questions or issues, please feel free to contact your Creative Account Manager or creativeau@sizmek.com Sizmek 5