Introducing Takeover

Takeover

Takeover is a type of digital campaign that does not use the traditional loop scheduling to program content. Takeover, as the name suggests, interrupts and takes over the scheduled loop content playing on specific faces.

Emergency messages are intended for weather warnings, amber alerts, evacuation instructions and other critical situations. They can be scheduled in advance. Emergency messages do not have a digital proof of play.

Takeovers are pre-planned campaigns where takeover events are created and configured within a special UI in Splash. Their proof of play is logged.

Emergency messages always take precedence over takeovers.

  • Takeover campaigns do not work with clock sync.
  • Takeover campaigns are not yet billable through the Finance module. Digital POP will provide campaign level information if billing is required.
  • The duplicate campaign function does not duplicate takeovers.
  • Alto does not support scheduling content for takeovers.
  • API does not support the ability to create, edit, or delete takeovers.

There are two Takeover methods. Both will have start and end dates that will define the framework for takeover events, as well as the settings for frequency and the number of occurrences.

Scheduled
Takeover that occurs at a specific time, with specific frequency. A Scheduled takeover will play for the duration set.
Event-Based
Takeover that runs on a trigger (for example a TCP interrupt signal). You can only call this type of takeover during the start and end time specified. The design is loaded just before start time and deleted at end time, and the player will not respond to the call outside of those times. An Event-based takeover will play for the duration set or until an end-call is received.

There are two ways that scheduled or event-based takeovers can interact with the scheduled loop.

Override
Takeover content completely replaces all scheduled content for the takeover's duration. When the loop's normal operations resume, the loop begins playing from the point of interruption. Spots interrupted mid-play will be restarted from the point where they left off just as with the interrupt bundle functionality.
Append
Takeover content is appended to the scheduled loop. If a loop is 60 seconds and a 20-second takeover is appended, the total loop length will be 80 seconds for the duration of takeover.

In both cases, the impact of takeovers will be lower play count for normally scheduled content.

The schedule time is in LOCAL TIME to the person scheduling the Takeover. All the players base the takeover time at that time – not their local time. So no matter where in the world they are, they will action the Takeover at the same time.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) may thus cause time issue when scheduling multiple takeovers (which means that the takeover is repeated on some days) in the following scenario:

  • The start date is before the DST
  • The end date is after the DST

In that case, the days that occur after the DST are not at the correct time. To avoid this issue, we suggest to create the takeover in two parts, one before DST and one after DST.

To use takeovers:

  1. Log into Splash.
  2. Click Scheduling and then the Campaigns tile.

    3. This presents a filter search window.

  3. Enter the search criteria to locate the digital campaign for which a takeover must be scheduled.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Open the campaign record.
  6. Scroll down to click the Takeover tab in the left navigation bar.

    7. This presents a configuration screen:

  7. To add a Scheduled or Event-Based Takeover, click their respective buttons.

See Also: