Ad Decision Engine Video on Demand Delivering the Moment. March 2015

Transcription

1 Ad Decision Engine Video on Demand March 2015 Delivering the Moment

2 Publication Information 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. Imagine Communications considers this document and its contents to be proprietary and confidential. Except for making a reasonable number of copies for your own internal use, you may not reproduce this publication, or any part thereof, in any form, by any method, for any purpose, or in any language other than English without the written consent of Imagine Communications. All others uses are illegal. This publication is designed to assist in the use of the product as it exists on the date of publication of this manual, and may not reflect the product at the current time or an unknown time in the future. This publication does not in any way warrant description accuracy or guarantee the use for the product to which it refers. Imagine Communications reserves the right, without notice to make such changes in equipment, design, specifications, components, or documentation as progress may warrant to improve the performance of the product. Trademarks Product names and other brands are trademarks or trade names of Imagine Communications or its subsidiaries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective companies. Contact Information Imagine Communications has office locations around the world. For locations and contact information see: Support Contact Information For support contact information see: Support Contacts: ecustomer Portal: Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential

3 Table of Contents Contents About Ad Decision Engine - VOD... 4 Intended Audience... 5 Assumption/Dependencies... 5 Useful Terms and Definitions... 5 Document Conventions... 6 System Setup... 8 Setup Ad Placement Rules... 8 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand)... 9 Overview... 9 Ad Placement Request Processing (Video on Demand)... 9 Overview... 9 Workflow (Block Diagram)...10 Field Description...11 Ad Placement Status Notification Processing...14 Overview...14 Workflow (Block Diagram)...15 Appendix Ad Placement Prioritization Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page i of 19

4 About Ad Decision Engine - VOD About Ad Decision Engine - VOD The Ad Decision Engine - VOD describes how the Ad Decision Engine works for the dynamic ad placement of advertisements in Video on Demand (VOD) content for users of a Traffic and Billing (T&B) or Sales system that contains the VOD contract buys. This user guide is organized under the following chapters: About Ad Decision - VOD explains how information is organized and provides tips for users to quickly understand the information structure System Setup explains the setup for ad placement rules Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) explains how ad placement requests and ad placement status notifications are processed Appendix provides additional information as necessary relevant to sectional context 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 4 of 19

5 About Ad Decision Engine - VOD Intended Audience The end-users of the Ad Decision Engine service are users responsible for defining rules for the placement of advertisements in VOD content and who need to understand how the Ad Decision Engine operates. Assumption/Dependencies 1. The Ad Decision Engine is tightly integrated with the Traffic and Billing (T&B) or Sales system in which VOD contracts are maintained. The Ad Decision Engine service must be installed along with the T&B and Sales system. 2. Each installation of the Ad Decision Engine is designated to a single Traffic and Billing (T&B) or Sales system for obtaining contract data for ad placement in VOD content. Useful Terms and Definitions Term Description Ad Ad Copy Ad stands for advertisement and represents a spot that is created from a contract line that will be broadcast for the Advertiser in VOD content. Ad Copy is the content asset that will be aired for an ad placement. It is also referred to as Copy, Media, or Commercial. ADM The Ad Management Service is a third party service within the SCTE 130 standard. The Ad Decision Engine interfaces to the ADM using the ADS (ad decision service) for communicating ad placement requests and responses. ADS ADE The Ad Decision Service is a service within the SCTE 130 standard that is used by the Ad Decision Engine to integrate with an ADM for communicating ad placement requests and responses. The Ad Decision Engine is a service that is integrated with the Traffic and Billing or Sales System, which operates like a spot plotter/scheduler for the dynamic placement of ads in the avails (placement opportunities) of VOD content. It is a complex function that makes real time decisions on which advertisements to place in avails of VOD content using information from contract lines Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 5 of 19

6 About Ad Decision Engine - VOD Term Avail Type Avails Entertainment Content Opportunity Type Placement Placement opportunity VOD Description An Avail Type is a value that identifies the type of the avail (placement opportunity) an advertisement needs to be placed in. For example, National, Local, and Regional. This is defined on the contract line in the Traffic and Billing or Sales system and is matched to the Scope element on a placement opportunity (per SCTE 130 specs). Avails are blocks of time that can be sold within the VOD entertainment content. In the SCTE 130 standard, these are referred to as placement opportunities. Entertainment content is a term used in SCTE 130 specifications and refers to the main content being viewed and is usually a program or movie. An Opportunity Type is a term used in SCTE 130 specifications that defines where within the entertainment content the placement opportunity (avail) appears, such as pre-roll, post-roll, midroll, interstitial, and pause. A Placement is a decisive action made by the Ad Decision Engine for the placement of advertisements (e.g. a spot) in a placement opportunity (i.e. avail). Placement Opportunity is a term used in SCTE 130 specifications and refers to avails within the VOD entertainment content. VOD is the acronym for video-on-demand, which allows users to select and watch/listen to video content (e.g. programs, movies, etc.) when they want (i.e. on demand). Document Conventions The following table describes the documentation conventions used: Document Conventions Bold Bulleted List Description Indicates references to keys, menu, numbered caption, section, and button names Indicates an unordered series of concepts, items, or options Numbered List Indicates the sequence of processes, events, or steps Italic Indicates information that provides emphasis to content 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 6 of 19

7 About Ad Decision Engine - VOD Document Conventions NOTE TIP WARNING Description Indicates important information that emphasizes or supplements information to the main content, which may apply to special cases Indicates additional information that helps users understand the benefits and capabilities of the application Indicates critical information that cautions users before proceeding with a particular step or option 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 7 of 19

8 System Setup System Setup Setup Ad Placement Rules Ad placement rules are used by Ad Decision Engine to place advertisements into an avail (or placement opportunity) of VOD entertainment content when information needed to make an ad decision is not provided in an ad placement request. The following Ad Placement Rules can be defined during the installation process (see Install Guide): 1. Default Placement Duration this default is used by the Ad Decision Engine as the duration for a placement opportunity (avail) within an SCTE 130 Ad Request when duration is not provided for a placement opportunity in the request. 2. Default Placement Count this default is used by the Ad Decision Engine as the number of advertisements allowed in a placement opportunity (avail) within an SCTE 130 Ad Request when count is not provided for a placement opportunity in the request. 3. Default Aired Percentage this default is used by the Ad Decision Engine when autoreconciling ad placements. If the amount of the ad that played is equal to or greater than the Default Aired Percentage amount, the ad will be reconciled as fully aired. If the ad play out time is less than the default, it will be reconciled as did not air. NOTE There is no user interface for maintaining the ad placement rules. Once set up through the installation, they can only be changed in the Ad Decision Engine database by an authorized system administrator or technical support Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 8 of 19

9 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Overview This section details the following processes for ad placement in Video on Demand content: Ad Placement Request Processing (Video on Demand) Ad Placement Status Notification Processing Ad Placement Request Processing (Video on Demand) Overview The Ad Decision Engine (ADE) and ADS interface are used to process Ad Placement Requests for the placement of advertisements in Video on Demand (VOD) content. This section details the interaction between the ADE and an ADM (Ad Decision Manager) for processing on demand ad placement requests using the ADS (Ad Decision Service). An Ad Placement Request is a request sent from an ADM to the ADE using the ADS interface. The ADS interface is based on the SCTE 130 ADS standard. The ad placement request contains information about the VOD entertainment content (For example, program or movie) and the placement opportunities (avails) that are available in the entertainment content for placing advertisements. The ADE responds to the ad placement request with an ad placement response, which contains the advertisements placed in the placement opportunities that it has chosen from the contracts in the Traffic and Billing or Sales system. Pre-conditions to process placement requests Before a placement request is processed, the following pre-conditions must be fulfilled: An interface between the ADE and a third-party ADM must exist. Contracts for VOD advertising need to exist in the Traffic and Billing or Sales system integrated with the ADE so it can locate advertisements for placing into the placement opportunities received in a placement request Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 9 of 19

10 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Workflow (Block Diagram) Start Viewer requests Program through VOD service Sends Ad Placement Request Dynamic Ad Placement Decision Service/Vendor (ADE) VOD Service/Vendor (ADM) Return Ad Placement Respose End Loads VOD content for viewing with ads placed Make Ad Placement Decision Locate VOD ads to place from sales buys Read Placement Rules The following describes the normal ad placement workflow for video on demand placement request(s). 1. The ADM sends a placement request to the ADE through the ADS Service. The placement request contains the placement opportunities for the entertainment content including all crucial information needed to place advertisements in the placement opportunities (For example: duration, count, opportunity type). 2. The ADE receives the ad placement request through the ADS Service. 3. The ADE performs the following functions on receiving the request for ad placement: Read ad placement request Process ad placement request Send Placement Response (Placement Decisions) Read Ad Placement Request i. The ADE reads the following information from the ad placement request to identify the program and placement opportunities (avails) in which it can place advertisements Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 10 of 19

11 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Field Description Field Description Date This field displays the date on which the entertainment content is being viewed and is used to locate campaign advertisements that can air on this date. Fields for a Placement Opportunity (PO) Placement Opportunity ID Scope (from Placement Opportunity Constraints) Opportunity Type (from Opportunity Binding) Duration (from Placement Opportunity Constraints) Count (from Placement Opportunity Constraints) ii. This field uniquely identifies the placement opportunity within the ad placement request and is used to define which placement opportunity advertisements are placed into when an ad decision is returned to the ADM. This field (if included) is used to match and locate advertisements for placement in the placement opportunity based on the avail type on the advertisement s contract line. Examples of a scope (avail types) are National, Local, and Regional. NOTE The term for avail type can differ by Traffic and Billing or Sales system. In the Novar product it is Avail Tag. This field is used to locate advertisements for placement in the placement opportunity based on the opportunity type on the advertisement s contract line. Opportunity type defines the location of the placement opportunity in the VOD content. Examples of an opportunity type (avail types) are Pre-roll, Post-roll, Interstitial, and Midroll. This field (if included) is used to define the duration of the placement opportunity and determines the number of advertisements (based on their duration) that can be placed in the placement opportunity. This duration can either be a single duration or a minimum, desired, and maximum duration. If duration is not included for a placement opportunity (or positional placement opportunity), the system will use the Default Placement Duration in Ad Placement Rules as the duration for the placement opportunity. This field (if included) is used to define how many advertisements can be placed in the placement opportunity. This count will be either a single count or a minimum, desired, and maximum count. If a count is not included for a placement opportunity (or positional placement opportunity), the system will use the Default Placement Count in Ad Placement Rules as the duration for the placement opportunity. After the ADE reads the entertainment content and placement opportunity information, it looks for advertisements from VOD contract lines in the Traffic and Billing or Sales system that can be placed in the entertainment content s placement opportunities Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 11 of 19

12 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Process Ad Placement Request i. Criteria for locating Advertisements The ADE uses the following criteria for locating advertisements from VOD contract lines that can be considered for placement in each placement opportunity (avail) of the VOD entertainment content: Criteria Rule Active Status Ad Copy Exists Valid Date Range The advertisement s contract line must be active. The advertisement s contract line must have valid ad copy (ad content) assigned. Ad content is required to create the advertisement for placement. The advertisement s contract line must have a date range that covers the date the entertainment content is being viewed. Valid Days of Week Avail Type Opportunity Type Duration ii. The advertisement s contract lines must have an active day of week that covers the day of week the entertainment content is being viewed. Advertisements that either have no specific avail type defined or have an avail type on the contract line that matches the scope (if included) on the placement opportunity are deemed valid. If the placement opportunity does not have a scope defined, then only advertisements with no avail type on the contract line are deemed valid for placement in the placement opportunity. Advertisements that have no specific opportunity type defined or have an opportunity type on the contract line that matches the opportunity type on the placement opportunity are deemed valid. If the placement opportunity does not have an opportunity type, then only advertisements with no opportunity type on the contract line are deemed valid for placement in the placement opportunity. a) If the placement opportunity has a required duration, only advertisements that have a duration that is not greater than the placement opportunity required duration are deemed valid. b) If the placement opportunity has a minimum, desired, and maximum duration, only advertisements that have a duration that is not greater than the maximum duration are deemed valid. For example: if placement opportunity required or maximum duration is 2:00, then only advertisements with a duration of 2:00 or less are considered for placement in the placement opportunity. Criteria for adhering to Placement Opportunity Duration After the ADE has collected the advertisements that are deemed valid for placing in the placement opportunity, the ADE determines if all the advertisements can be placed in the placement opportunity while adhering to its duration constraint. Criteria Rule 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 12 of 19

13 Criteria Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Rule Total duration of all the advertisements is less than or equal to the required or maximum duration of the placement opportunity. Total duration of all advertisements is less than, equal to or greater than the desired duration, but greater than the minimum duration and less than the maximum duration of the placement opportunity Total duration of all advertisements is less than the minimum duration of the placement opportunity. Total duration of all advertisements is greater than the required or maximum duration of the placement opportunity. iii. All advertisements can be placed. All advertisements can be placed. No advertisements are placed because minimum duration cannot be met. All advertisements cannot be placed and the system must prioritize the ads to determine which ones to place. (See Appendix Ad Placement Prioritization) Criteria for adhering to Placement Opportunity Count After the ADE determines which advertisements can be placed based on duration, if there are multiple advertisements, the ADE determines if all the advertisements can be placed in the placement opportunity while adhering to its count constraint. Criteria Rule Total number of advertisements is less than or equal to the required or maximum count of the placement opportunity. Total number of advertisements is less than, equal to or greater than the desired count, but greater than the minimum count and less than the maximum count of the placement opportunity. Total number of advertisements is less than the minimum count of the placement opportunity. Total count of all the advertisements is greater than the required or maximum count of the placement opportunity. iv. All advertisements can be placed. All advertisements can be placed. No advertisements are placed because minimum count cannot be met. All advertisements cannot be placed and the system must prioritize the ads to determine which ones to place. (See Appendix Ad Placement Prioritization) For each advertisement placed in the placement opportunity, the ADE includes the following information for the advertisement when returning the ad decision to the ADM: a. Provider ID this is the Name of the ad s Advertiser b. Asset ID this is the unique identifier for the ad copy (content) used for the advertisement. It will be used by the ADM to locate the physical content for broadcasting the ad Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 13 of 19

14 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) NOTE The information populated as the Asset ID for the ad will differ by Traffic and Billing or Sales system. c. Duration this is the duration of the advertisement d. Tracking ID this is an ADE assigned tracking code that is used to identify the specific ad placement. v. For each advertisement placed, the ADE records that an advertisement has been placed for the contract line and it is considered a possible delivered impression until a PSN (placement status notification) message is received with the as-run status, or 24 hours has passed at which time the ad is auto-reconciled as not aired. Send Placement Response (Placement Decisions) After all placement opportunities have been processed and advertisements have been placed in them, the ADE sends the ad placement decisions for each placement opportunity in a Placement Response to the ADM. 1. The ADE sends the placement response message to the ADM through the ADS interface. Each advertisement placed in a placement opportunity is a single ad placement decision in the response. a. The placement response also includes information from the placement request and placement opportunity so the ADM can match the placement response to the placement request they sent. 2. The ADM acknowledges the receipt of the placement response and processes the placement response, which includes broadcasting the advertisements along with the video on demand entertainment content to the viewer. Ad Placement Status Notification Processing Overview Once advertisements have been placed and played out to the viewer, the Ad Decision Manager (ADM) returns what is called a Placement Status Notification message to the Ad Decision Engine (ADE) using the ADS service. The Placement Status Notification is the as-run information for placed advertisements informing the ADE if the advertisement was successfully aired. This section details the interaction between the ADM and ADE using the Ad Decision Service (ADS) for processing a Placement Status Notification. Pre-condition to process ad placement status notification Before a placement status notification message is processed an interface between the ADE and an ADM must exist Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 14 of 19

15 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Workflow (Block Diagram) The following describes the placement status notification workflow for advertisements placed in On Demand content. 1. The ADE receives a Placement Status Notification Message from an ADM for the advertisements placed in placement opportunities of a video on demand content. The placement status notification message contains the airing status (as-run information) of the advertisements that were sent in a placement response message for a video on demand content. 2. The ADE performs the following functions on receiving the placement status notification message: Process Placement Status Notification Reconcile Advertisements Process Placement Status Notification 1. The ADE reads the spot (advertisement) information from the placement status notification to capture the information needed to reconcile the advertisements that were placed in the video on demand content. Spot information in the placement status notification is the aired information for a placed advertisement. 2. The ADE uses the Tracking Identifier associated to the spot in the placement status notification to identify the advertisement to which the status pertains. NOTE Tracking Identifier is the unique ID assigned to the advertisement when it is placed in the placement opportunity by the ADE. a. If spot information exists in the placement status notification that does not have a tracking identifier, or it does not match a tracking identifier for any advertisement placed by the ADE, the spot information is ignored. 3. The ADE records the following information for each advertisement (spot) it placed from the placement status notification. Field Spot Air Date/Time Description The date/time at which the advertisement began broadcasting is recorded as the advertisement s aired date/time Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 15 of 19

16 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Field Viewing Events (Spot NPT and Viewer Event Type) Description The ADE determines how much of an ad was viewed by reading the Spot NPT and Viewer Event Type of all Placement Status Events included in the placement status notification for an ad placement. For example, if one of the placement status events Spot NPT is 25 seconds and the Viewer Event Type is Fast Forward, that means the viewer fast forwarded the ad at the 25second mark of the advertisement. Reconcile Advertisements The ADE auto-reconciles each placed advertisement based on the information received in the Placement Status Events of the Placement Status Notification. The ADE determines how much of an ad was viewed by reading the Spot NPT and Viewer Event Types in each Placement Status Event, which describe what the viewer did as the advertisement played out (e.g. played, paused, fast forwarded, rewound) Condition An advertisement did not air or was skipped or fast forwarded through by the viewer Full duration of an advertisement was played Only a portion of the advertisement was viewed Reconciled As Did Not Air Fully Aired Fully Aired or Did Not Air Description When the advertisement is not aired or is not played at all, it is reconciled as Did Not Air. An ad that did not air is one where: The advertisement was not played out by the ADM The viewer skipped or fast forwarded through the entire advertisement. When the full duration of an ad is played, it is reconciled as Fully Aired. A fully aired ad is one where: It is played from start to end without any interruption It is played from start to end through several different actions that result in the entire duration of the advertisement being viewed (e.g. play, fast forward, rewind, play). When the Placement Status Events result in a portion of the advertisement being viewed, the ADE uses a system setting to determine if the ad should be reconciled as Fully Aired or Did Not Air. An ad that partially aired is one where the user took actions such as play and fast forward where only some of the ad was viewed. The ADE calculates the percentage amount of the ad that aired and if it is equal to or greater than the system setting percentage reconciles the ad as Fully Aired. If the percentage aired is less than the system setting, the ad is reconciled as Did Not 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 16 of 19

17 Ad Placement Workflow (Video on Demand) Condition Reconciled As Air. Description A Placement Status Notification is not received for a placed ad after 24 hrs has lapsed Did Not Air NOTE The system setting to determining how much of an ad aired is considered fully aired is set up through the database. There is no user interface for setting this and must be done by an authorized system administrator or technical support. When an advertisement is sent to an ADM in an ad placement response, it is expected that a Placement Status Notification will be received to report the as-run status of the ad. If no Placement Status Notification is received after 24 hours has lapsed from the time the ad was placed, the ad is reconciled as Did Not Air Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 17 of 19

18 Appendix Appendix Ad Placement Prioritization When the number of advertisements to place in a placement opportunity (avail) of VOD entertainment content is greater than the placement opportunity duration or count allows, the ADE prioritizes the ads to determine which ads to place, and the ads with a higher priority are placed first up to the placement opportunity (avail) duration and count constraints. The ADE determines a Priority Factor for each ad using the scheduling priority, end date, rate type, rate, and number of impressions still to deliver for the advertisement s contract line. Advertisements with a higher priority factor are placed first. The Priority Factor for each advertisement is calculated as follows: 1. The number of impressions still to be delivered per day for the contract line is determined by dividing the number of days remaining on the line by the number of impressions still to be delivered. For Example, if imps still need to be delivered for the contract line and there are 50 days left to the line end date, is divided by 50 which results in 500 impressions to deliver per day. 2. The cost for each impression remaining to be delivered per day is calculated using the line rate and rate type. If the rate type is CPM (cost per thousand), the number of impressions to deliver per day is divided by 1000 and then multiplied by the rate but if the rate type is flat (cost per impression), the number of impressions to deliver is multiple by the rate. For Example, if 500 imps still need to be delivered per day and the rate type is CPM, 500 is divided by 1000 and then multiplied by the rate 500/1000 x $30 = $15 3. The scheduling priority on the contract line is then used with the cost per day to determine the priority factor by dividing the cost per impression per day by the scheduling priority. For Example, if $15 is the cost per impression per day and the scheduling priority is 2, the priority factor is 7.5 NOTE What the scheduling priority is on a contract line can differ by Traffic and Billing or Sales System. It is the attribute on the line that defines the priority of the buy in relation to other contract lines. Another common term for scheduling priority is section level/number. When two or more advertisements have the same priority factor, the system will then use the scheduling priority on the contract lines to prioritize those ads based on the scheduling priority rules of the Traffic and Billing or Sales system Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 18 of 19

19 Appendix For Example, if two advertisements have a priority factor of 7.5, where one has a higher scheduling priority, the ad with the higher scheduling priority is considered first for ad placement in the placement opportunity. When two or more advertisements have the same priority factor and scheduling priority, the system will then use the date/time the contract line was entered and the advertisement from the contract line with the earlier date/time will be considered first for ad placement Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential Page 19 of 19