The Adstream Media Bookings Sheet is a simple, formatted spreadsheet providing you direct access to Adspec, Adstream’s global spec database for newspapers and magazines globally, whilst retaining all of the familiar and powerful functionalities of Excel. The sheet allows you to cover your campaign fulfilment straight from a media plan and this article will detail how it all works.
By connecting the sheet directly to Adspec and Adsend you can use one document to fulfil your campaign by auto creating job tickets in Adsend without the need to complete an individual form for each insertion.
Once your media schedule is uploaded using the submit button available in the spreadsheet, you will only be required to attach the corresponding ad materials to complete the delivery. Attaching ad material can be done manually via Adsend or simply by uploading your PDF using AdGate for added automation.
The Adstream Media Bookings Sheet is provided to any Adsend users with a premium account. To get hold of it, you will require to contact print support and request for it in order to get the appropriate download link sent to you.
Setting the Sheet as an Excel Template
To get started we recommend saving a blank version of the file as an Excel template and creating a new version for each new campaign.
To do this, when you first receive the file, open it using Excel and save as an Excel Template (.xltm - Excel Macro-Enable Template) and do not change the default folder location. This will save the template in the appropriate folder so that it will become available among the default Excel template when creating a new document.
Then, when you're ready to create a new campaign, choose New document from the file menu and select the booking sheet under the Personal tab.
Using the Sheet
You can populate the sheet by either manually typing in all the information, row by row, or, if you have an existing media plan, simply copy the contents over and edit as necessary.
The sheet becomes interactive as soon as you log on using your Adsend credentials.
Most of the columns are self-explanatory but here are some extra details for the key fields:
| Column | Notes |
| Key Number | An auto-generated unique identifier for the insertion order, also known as material ID or asset ID. Different from a booking number, which is typically used by the publisher. The method by which this number is generated can be customised in the settings tab, see below for further details. The Key Number field also displays the state of the insertion from certain actions taken. It has three states, red, green and bold black. If the number is red, it means there is an error or some missing data in the row. Hover over the corresponding key number cell to find out more details. If the number is green, it means the insertion order is valid and ready to be submitted. If the number is black and bold, it has been successfully submitted. |
| Country | The country for the insertion order. You can either enter the country code or the country name (e.g. UK or United Kingdom). |
| Title | The title of the publisher. As you begin to type, the sheet will lookup possible options and will provide you with a drop down list containing the available titles matching the value entered. You can also type in the publisher code e.g. UKDML for the UK Daily Mail and the sheet will fill in the rest. |
| Insertion date | Date of insertion, ensure this is in the correct format, as the insertion won't be able to proceed otherwise. Date expressed in dd/mm/yy format. |
| DepthxCol | Optional field that is used mainly to express size for newspaper titles. Fill in the depth (a number of 10 equals 100mm) and the number of columns. By entering this, the next 4 columns (size type, size description, depth, and width) should be automatically populated. |
| Status | A column with customisable statuses which you can use to track the status of this insertion in a way relevant to you. Statuses can control whether a row is included in a booking submission, see below for more info on Settings. |
As you begin to fill in the content, either manually or by copying from another sheet, you will be able to Refresh Adspec Data, which will ensure you have the most up-to-date title and sizing information. Remember to Log In using your usual Adsend credentials to gain access to this info.
This interactive functionality available on Excel 2013 for Windows onwards. Although you can edit content using other versions of Excel including macOS versions, you will not be able to use the connection to Adsend or Adspec.
Once you have filled in the rows with all the required information, the next step is to submit your orders using the Submit Booking Schedule button. Any rows with a green Key Number will be included in the submission and, once successful, they will turn black and the orders submitted will be created in Adsend.
If you need to change any information you can do so, but you will notice the Key Number change back to green to indicate the order will need to be resubmitted for the changes to take effect in Adsend.
Settings
In the settings tab you will be able to customise Key Number generation, the statuses and the remote services in use by the Media Bookings Sheet.
Firstly you can choose how your Key Numbers are created, by setting a prefix (e.g. BB) and an index (e.g. 1164) from which each additional insertion order with incrementally increase.
In this case, the first row will be BB00001164 and then BB00001165, followed by BB00001166 and so on.
Next, you can choose up to 5 custom statuses which can be named as you see fit. For each status you can choose whether it will ignored by the sheet or not when submitting an order.
If, using the example above, you have a row with the status set to "Cancelled" then when submitting the order, this row will be ignored, no matter the state of its Key Number.
Lastly in the settings tab, the Booking Exchange and Adspec URLs. can be specified. The spreadsheet comes preconfigured and only in specific cases, will you be asked to update these settings. For example, if you are running your own AdGate version, you will be able to update the Adspec settings to match your configuration.
Working with FTP
In order to allow for the transfer and bulk auto-allocation of print media within the Adsend system, an FTP client, such as FileZilla, will be required.
Once the FTP client has downloaded and installed, enter the following details:
1. Enter the Host as: ftpdelivery.adsend.com
2. Enter your Adsend Username and Password
3. Connect
A prerequisite of this auto-allocation of the physical print material (PDF) and the bookings as included in the Media Booking Form against the booking in Adsend, is that the file is named as per the Key Number, or Booking Reference number so that the system knows which booking to attach the physical material to.
Once connected to the Adsend FTP server as per the above step, you will be presented with 3 folder options:
1. KEYin – Physical print material (PDF) which has been saved with the filename as the Key Number per the Media Booking Form must be placed into this folder.
2. MBXin – Do not place any files into this directory. This is for the Excel file to be processing.
3. URNin – Physical print material (PDF) which has been saved with the filename as the Booking Number per the Media Booking Form must be placed into this folder.
Once you've added your files to the correct folders, they will be auto-allocated to the Job within Adsend and the Status of the Job will change to Dispatched.
Contact Printsupport on printsupport@extremereach.com to request your Adstream Media Bookings Sheet. You will require a premium account in order to benefit from this great interactive media schedule. There is no extra charge for a premium account.