WO2023092191A1

WO2023092191A1 - Online platform for multi-channel specification management

Info

Publication number: WO2023092191A1
Application number: PCT/AU2022/051418
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sharon Gray; Jesse McLALLEN
Original assignee: Kache Media Holdings Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-26
Filing date: 2022-11-25
Publication date: 2023-06-01
Also published as: AU2022399046A1

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a computer-implemented platform (310) and associated method for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels. The platform (310) includes: a processor (315), and a computer-readable storage medium (318) for storing: advertising placement data relating to a set of advertising placements; a data model (312), the data model defining a set of specification blocks for the set of advertising placements, each specification block having a set of attributes associated with a corresponding advertising placements; and a computer program for execution on the processor (315). The computer program includes instructions for: ingesting a media plan via a communications network (305), the media plan defining a set of booked advertising placements; and generating a specification sheet based on the booked advertising placements, the advertising placement data, and the data model, wherein the specification sheet includes a set of specification blocks corresponding to the booked advertising placements.

Description

ONLINE PLATFORM FOR MULTI-CHANNEL SPECIFICATION MANAGEMENT

Related Application

[0001] This application is related to Australian Provisional Patent Application No. 2021903837 titled “Online platform for multi-channel specification management” and filed on 26 November 2021 in the name of Kache Media Holdings Pty Ltd, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates to an online platform for multi-channel specification management. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an online platform that utilises a data model to process specifications received from multiple channels to generate specifications in a uniform format.

Background

[0003] The modern advertising world includes a number of different media types and different media parties. The different media types include print, audio, video, and multimedia. The different media types may be presented across one or more media channels, which include, but are not limited to, newspaper, magazine, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), online, television, radio, audio, Out-Of-Home (OOH) print, broadcast, cinema, social media, and transit.

[0004] In these examples of media channels, newspaper, magazine, and OOH all relate to print media, where OOH refers to out-of-home advertising that may include advertising printed on billboards, indoor and outdoor signs, street furniture (e.g., bus shelters, benches, booths), and transit areas (e.g., airports, train stations), as well as Digital Out Of Home (DOOH), where advertising is shown in animated or static formats. Multimedia channels include SEM, online, and cinema. Multimedia channels can display both static and dynamic content. For example, an online webpage can display a fixed image or a video, optionally accompanied by sound or other visual effects.

[0005] The media parties include media owners, media planners, clients, and creative agencies. Media owners are the entities that own the actual infrastructure on which advertising is to be placed, wherein each piece of infrastructure on which an advertisement may appear is referred to as an advertising placement. The infrastructure may be physical or virtual. Physical advertising placements include, for example, billboards, portions of a newspaper or magazine page, posters, and the like. Virtual advertising placements may include, for example, one or more display regions of a webpage.

[0006] Each advertising placement is associated with a set of attributes that define the characteristics of advertising content that can appear in that particular advertising placement. The attributes vary based on one or more of media type, location, and infrastructure capabilities. The attributes may include, for example, but are not limited to, size, location, resolution, and the like. There is no standard for advertising placements and the attributes for advertising placements can vary across different media owners and over time.

[0007] While many media owners publish the attributes associated with their own advertising placements, the published attributes often differ from the actual attributes, due to human error and changes in capabilities of the respective advertising placements over time. For example, the acceptable file formats associated with an advertising placement may change over time and the published attributes associated with that advertising placement may not reflect the current set of acceptable file formats or attributes.

[0008] Media planners are the individuals or entities that are engaged by clients to create advertising campaigns to promote goods and/or services. An advertising campaign typically includes a media plan, with a defined set of advertising placements, notes, and dates, that is generated by a media planner in response to instructions from a client.

[0009] As part of generating a media plan, media planners book advertising placements with the media owners. The number and type of advertising placements that are booked depend on the requirements of the client, the nature of creative content that is to be displayed, and the availability of the advertising placements for the desired timeframe, as defined by the dates associated with the media plan.

[0010] For example, a media plan created by a media planner for Client A in respect of the launch of a new product may include a set of advertising placements across a plurality of media owners and a plurality of media channels for a defined period of time. The period of time may be, for example, a month starting two weeks before the public release of the new product, and the set of advertising placements may include bookings for a combination of billboards, online advertising on a set of defined web pages, television, radio, social media, outdoor, and magazine covers.

[0011] Once a media planner books a set of advertising placements across one or more media owners for a campaign, the media planner generates one or more specification sheets that set out identifiers for each of the advertising placements that have been booked, along with the attributes associated with each respective advertising placement. Due to the non-uniform manner in which media owners specify and manage their respective advertising placements, it is common for the media planners to generate a set of specification sheets in different formats for the advertising placements that have been booked for the media plan. Further, even the file formats used for the specification sheets may differ, with emails, spreadsheets (e.g., xIs, xlsx), word processing documents (e.g., rtf, MS Word), and webpage documents (e.g., xml, html) all frequently being used.

[0012] Creative agencies are the advertising agencies that create advertising content to be displayed in the advertising placements booked by the media planners. The media planner sends the specification sheets associated with a media plan to a creative agency. Personnel at the creative agency then interpret the received specification sheets to determine the different formats that must be produced for the different advertising placements.

[0013] As there is no uniformity to the manner in which specification sheets are presented, processing the received specification sheets takes a long time and a lot of effort. It is difficult to store, process, and manage the disparate set of specification sheets. Further, as the specification sheets are produced by the media planner on the basis of published attributes from the media owners and the published attributes may differ from the current attributes, there is often a need for the media planner and/or creative agency to check the accuracy of the attributes associated with each advertising placement.

[0014] In many cases, work needs to be re-done when the original attributes provided in relation to an advertising placement are found to be incorrect. In other instances, the creative agency produces the content for display across different advertising placements in different formats, in response to the provided attributes for those advertising placements, when in reality a common format could have been used if the attributes associated with those advertising placements had been correct and complete. Incorrect or incomplete information associated with the advertising placements results in delays and unnecessary expense.

[0015] Further, it is common for the media planner to change the number of advertising placements associated with a booked media plan. Each time that a change is made, the media planner sends a set of one or more updated specification sheets to the creative agency. Consequently, it is very difficult for the creative agency to maintain a current set of specification sheets, particularly if updates are only presented as emails or as partial specification sheets.

[0016] Thus, a need exists for a method and system for managing specifications across multiple media channels. Summary

[0017] The present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented platform for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels.

[0018] A first aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer-implemented platform for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels, the platform comprising: a processor; a computer-readable storage medium for storing: advertising placement data relating to a set of advertising placements associated with said set of media channels; a data model, the data model defining a set of specification blocks for said set of advertising placements, each specification block having a set of attributes associated with a corresponding advertising placements; and a computer program for execution on said processor, said computer program including instructions for: ingesting a media plan via a communications network, said media plan defining a set of booked advertising placements; and generating a specification sheet based on said booked advertising placements, said advertising placement data, and said data model, wherein said specification sheet includes a set of specification blocks corresponding to said booked advertising placements.

[0019] A second aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method for managing advertising specifications, the method comprising the steps of: storing advertising placement data in a centralised file repository, wherein said advertising placement data corresponds to a set of reference advertising placements and includes a set of attributes and a media owner for each of said reference advertising placements; defining a data model for a uniform specification sheet, based on said set of reference ad placements, said data model including a specification block for each of said reference advertising placements; receiving a media plan that includes a set of booked advertising placements; processing the received media plan to identify each of said booked advertising placement; generating an advertising specification sheet based on said data model, said identified booked advertising placements and said advertising placement data, wherein generating said advertising specification includes: populating a specification block for each booked advertising placement; and combining said specification blocks; and transmitting said advertising specification to a creative agency.

[0020] According to another aspect, the present disclosure provides an apparatus for implementing any one of the aforementioned methods.

[0021 ] According to another aspect, the present disclosure provides a computer program product including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program that when executed on a processor of a computer implements any one of the methods described above.

[0022] Other aspects of the present disclosure are also provided.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0023] One or more embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described by way of specific example(s) with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0024] Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an online platform for generating production-ready specification sheets;

[0025] Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of a system on which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be practised;

[0026] Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a system on which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be practised;

[0027] Fig. 4 is a flow diagram representation of the flow of content among a server, database, background processing and an external media booking agency;

[0028] Fig. 5 is a screenshot of a first portion of a production specification sheet;

[0029] Fig. 6 is a screenshot of a second portion of a production specification sheet;

[0030] Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram representation of a system that includes a general purpose computer on which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be practised;

[0031 ] Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram representation of a system that includes a general smartphone on which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be practised;

[0032] Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram representation of a set of workspaces stored on an embodiment of the platform of the present disclosure; [0033] Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram representation of a production-ready specification sheet produced in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0034] Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram representation of a process for generating a production-ready specification sheet in accordance with embodiments of the platform of the present disclosure;

[0035] Fig. 12 illustrates a set of data retrieved from an external booking agency or media owner in relation to advertising placements; and

[0036] Fig. 13 illustrates flow of advertising placement data from an external booking agency or media owner to a set of booked advertising placements within an embodiment of a specification management platform.

[0037] Method steps or features in the accompanying drawings that have the same reference numerals are to be considered to have the same function(s) or operation(s), unless the contrary intention is expressed or implied.

Glossary

Detailed Description

[0038] The present disclosure provides a computer-implemented platform and associated method for multi-channel specification management. Particular embodiments described herein relate to a computer-implemented platform and associated method for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels. However, other embodiments may equally be practised for managing specifications across other industries.

[0039] Advertising specifications form a critical element in advertisement delivery across all media and channels, requiring highly detailed and constantly changing information being communicated among numerous stakeholders. The platform and method of the present disclosure utilise a data model that defines a specification block for each advertising placement to produce production-ready specifications in a consistent manner.

[0040] In some embodiments, the platform and method receive one or more specifications and process those received specifications to produce a production-ready specification in accordance with a predefined data model. In other embodiments, the platform and method receive a set of advertising placement bookings and reconcile those bookings with a stored set of advertising placements to produce a production-ready specification in accordance with a predefined data model.

[0041] In the current industry, advertising specifications are often provided by media owners through a variety of disparate channels (e.g., email, PDFs, webpages, Dropbox/Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Excel Spreadsheets, etc.). The provided advertising specifications are often incomplete. Constantly changing datasets results in rapidly outdated internal libraries, inaccessible data due to broken web/file links, and transposition of inaccuracies and inefficiencies to downstream stakeholders, media planners, and creative agencies.

[0042] There is an extensive array of parameters associated with each type of advertising placement. Whilst this may not present a significant technical challenge with basic static media, the number of critical parameters expands exponentially as media formats become ‘richer’ with new technologies. For example, a typical static JPG image presents a handful of variable parameters (e.g., dimension, file weight, colour profile). By comparison, a simple MP4 video file requires a rapidly increasing number of datapoints for consideration (e.g., dimension, file weight, duration, audio bitrate, compression settings, aspect ratio, codec, etc.).

[0043] As the continually growing, highly diverse and expansive media channels lead to an exponential and untenable increase in parameters to manage, there exists a significant technical problem of how to generate and manage advertising specification sheets that relate to advertising placements across the multiple media channels and multiple media owners.

[0044] The present methodology regarding the preparation, transmission, management, and processing of advertising specifications is ad-hoc, which results in errors, re-work, and additional labour. Due to the many different media owners and media types, there is a technical problem of how to identify and manage advertising specifications that define a set of advertising placements that have been booked and the associated attributes of those advertising placements. Management of the advertising specifications requires a standardised structure by which to receive advertising specifications and receive updates to those advertising specifications.

[0045] The present disclosure provides a technical solution in the form of an online platform, which acts as a centralised hub that is able to be accessed by multiple parties via a communications network. In particular, embodiments of the online platform enable access by media planners, media owners, creative agencies, clients, or authorised combinations thereof. The term “media planner” as user herein may refer to a media planning organisation, an individual within a media agency, or an individual acting as a media planner as a sole trader. Media planning organisations can have different structures. Some media planning organisations are standalone media planning agencies. Other media planning organisations include a holding entity and a set of associated media planning agencies.

[0046] The online platform provides a set of workspaces, wherein each workspace is an allocated region within the platform that is accessible by a set of authorised users. Each advertising campaign, media plan, or administration of an advertising campaign or media plan relates to a workspace.

[0047] In some embodiments, each workspace is associated with an organisation, such as a media planning agency. Authorised users utilise the workspace to create, view, and edit advertising campaigns, media plans, or combinations thereof. The platform provides capabilities to assign users different levels of access to workspaces themselves or areas within a workspace.

[0048] Within an organisation, some users may have access to all workspaces associated with that organisation, whilst other users within that organisation are restricted to accessing only one or more of the workspaces, or areas within the workspaces, associated with that organisation. Thus, different staff within an organisation can work within separate workspaces or on separate advertising campaigns or media plans within a workspace, with different levels of access and capability.

[0049] Workspaces enable multiple users to collaborate on the same campaign or media plan(s). Depending on the particular application and circumstances, the users may be from the same organisation or from different organisations.

[0050] Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram representation of a set of workspaces 910, 920, 930 stored on an embodiment of the platform of the present disclosure. A first workspace 910 includes first, second, and third media plans 912, 914, 916, respectively. A second workspace 920 includes a fourth media plan 922, and a third workspace 930 includes fifth and sixth media plans 932, 934. Each of the media plans 912, 914, 916, 922, 932, 934 relates to a media campaign and each media campaign optionally has associated campaign metadata. In the example of Fig. 9, the first and second media plans 912, 914 belong to the same campaign, denoted by box 918.

[0051 ] Access to each of the workspaces 910, 920, 930 and the associated media plans 912, 914, 916, 922, 932, 934 is determined by permissions allocated to registered users of the platform. Access is controlled by administrators of organisations associated with the respective workspaces 910, 920, 930. Further, different functionality may be approved for each user. Such functionality may include, for example, but is not limited to: creating a new campaign; editing a campaign; archiving a campaign; duplicating a campaign; deleting a campaign; sharing a campaign; downloading a campaign; uploading a media plan; adding an advertising placement to a media plan; editing an advertising placement within a media plan; creating a custom placement; deleting an advertising placement from a media plan; and managing users in an organisation.

[0052] The online platform includes a computer-readable storage medium that stores an advertising placement repository. The advertising placement repository is a collection of advertising placement data relating to advertising placements associated with a set of media owners. Each advertising placement has a set of attributes that define the type and properties of that particular advertising placement. The platform includes a data model that is derived from the stored collection of advertising placements in the advertising placement repository. The data model defines a specification block for each advertising placement, wherein the online platform combines specification blocks to form a specification sheet corresponding to a set of booked advertising placements. The specification blocks can be readily combined to form varying combinations based on individual media campaigns and media plans of any size. The data model thus defines a presentation structure for a production-ready specification sheet that includes one or more advertising placements, based on combinations of specification blocks.

[0053] In some embodiments, the platform utilises the advertising placement repository to validate incoming advertising specification sheets associated with a campaign and to generate a single outgoing advertising specification sheet for each media plan, wherein each outgoing specification sheet is in accordance with the data model. Validation is performed by comparing attributes associated with advertising placements listed in the incoming advertising specification sheets with corresponding advertising placement data stored in the advertising placement repository. The system flags any discrepancies and sends a notification to the entity that submitted the relevant incoming advertising specification sheet. Each outgoing advertising specification, being based on the data model, has a similar look and feel. Consequently, the platform provides media agencies with outgoing advertising specifications that are consistent and standardised, irrespective of the number and format of the received advertising specification sheets associated with that media plan.

[0054] In other embodiments, the platform automatically generates an outgoing advertising specification sheet in response to receiving a campaign booking reference from a media owner. When a media planner makes a booking with a media owner, the media owner generates a unique booking reference associated with the set of advertising placements booked by the media planner. The media owner transmits the booking reference to the platform. The online platform generates an advertising specification sheet in response to the booking reference by retrieving or receiving from the media owner a set of booked advertising placements corresponding to the booking reference.

[0055] The platform automatically generates production-ready specification sheets in accordance with the predefined data model. The data model defines a representational structure for each advertising placement within a specification sheet. The representational structures for the respective advertising placements may be considered as modular compositional “specification blocks” that are combined by the platform to form production-ready specification sheets in a dynamic, real-time or near real-time environment. As the specification blocks are modular, any number of specification blocks can be combined in a consistent manner, irrespective of the number of advertising placements that are involved in a media plan or the number of media channels to which the advertising placements relate.

[0056] In some embodiments, the representational structure includes a first region for each advertising placement, wherein the first region includes information regarding the identifier and media owner associated with the advertising placement, and a second region that includes advertising placement attributes associated with the advertising placement. Such attributes may include, for example, size, resolution, and acceptable file formats.

[0057] Some advertising placements have single components, such as a single printed region of a poster or newspaper. Other advertising placements have multiple components, such as a web page advertising placement that may include a banner region as well as one or more sidebar regions. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the representational structure for an advertising placement includes a graphical representation of the separate components of an advertising placement, thus providing a user with a contextual preview of how the advertising placement will appear to a user.

[0058] Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram representation of a production-ready specification sheet 1000 produced in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The specification sheet 1000 includes a set of advertising placements 1010, 1020, 1030, 1040 that have been booked by a media planner in relation to an advertising campaign.

[0059] A first advertising placement 1010 includes a first region 1012 that includes information relating to an identifier and media owner associated with the advertising placement. A second region 1014 of the first advertising placement 1010 includes advertising placement attributes associated with the advertising placement. The advertising placement attributes depend on the media channel type of the advertising placement and may include, for example, size, resolution, duration, and acceptable file formats. The first advertising placement 1010 also includes an optional third region 1016 that provides a visual representation of the advertising placement. For an advertising placement relating to print media, such as a half-page magazine advertisement, the third region 1016 provides a graphical representation of half of a magazine page. For an advertising placement relating to a webpage, which may include multiple components, the third region 1016 provides a graphical representation of the various web page components to which the advertising placement relates.

[0060] Similarly, each of the second advertising placement 1020, third advertising placement 1030, and fourth advertising placement 1040 include corresponding first, second, and third display regions 1022, 1024, 1026, 1032, 1034, 1036, 1042, 1044, 1046, respectively.

[0061 ] The production-ready specification sheet 1000 is presented in a standardised structure, consisting of a set of specification blocks associated with the booked advertising placements. Further, the content of the production-ready specification sheet 1010 has been vetted to ensure that the attributes associated with each advertising placement is consistent with the actual advertising placements of the respective media owners.

[0062] Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a system 100 that includes an online platform 110 for generating production-ready specification sheets. Media owners 120 each own a respective set of advertising placements. The media owners 120 may represent one or more different media channels, such as print magazines, OOH, television, radio, newspapers, digital, social media, etc. Examples of media owners 120 include News Corporation, JCDecaux, and Yahoo!7. The media owners 120 input advertising placement data relating to their advertising placements to the platform 110. Alternatively, the platform 110 retrieves the advertising placement data from the media owners 120. In a further alternative, advertising placement data relating to the advertising placements is manually entered into the platform 110. A combination of media owner input, data retrieval, and manual input may equally be utilised. If any changes are made to the advertising placements, the media owners 120 send updated advertising placement data to the platform 110. Alternatively, the platform 110 polls the media owners 120 periodically to check for any updates. Depending on the implementation, the polling may be hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or other defined verification interval.

[0063] Media planners 130 book advertising placements with the media owners 120 as part of media campaigns that the media planners are building for clients. Once media planners 130 have booked the required advertising placements with the media owners 120, the media planners 130 access the online platform 110 to build a campaign. A campaign may include one or more media plans. In some scenarios, building a campaign is simply sending a media plan of booked advertising placements to the platform 110, so that the platform 110 can automatically generate a production-ready specification sheet to be sent to a designated creative agency 140. In other scenarios, the media planners 130 utilise a booking reference associated with the booked advertising placements to reference advertising placement data stored by the online platform 110, such that the online platform 110 can then automatically generate production-ready specification sheets to be sent to a designated creative agency 140.

[0064] In the case in which a media owner 120 updates advertising placement data with the online platform 110, the online platform 110 sends notifications to any media planner 130 that has a media plan or campaign that utilises the advertising placements for which the advertising placement data has been updated. The automatic notification of changes to the advertising placement data ensures that the media planners 130 are aware of any changes to the attributes of the booked advertising placements. In some embodiments, the online platform 110 polls online servers associated with the media owners 120 to validate the stored advertising placement data with advertising placement data published by the media owners 120 on their respective online servers.

[0065] The online platform 110, on receiving any changes to advertising specification data, checks whether there are any existing production-ready specifications that are affected by the changes and, if so, generates updated production-ready specification sheets. The online platform 110 then sends the updated production-ready specification sheets to the relevant creative agency 140.

[0066] Media planners 130 are able to create, view, and edit media plans within workspaces on the platform 110. When a media planner modifies a campaign by adding advertising placements to a media plan, or removing advertising placements from a media plan, or changing dates associated with the campaign, the platform 110 creates and stores a different version of the campaign with which the modified media plan is associated. Dates associated with the campaign may include, for example, dispatch dates, campaign going live start dates, and campaign end dates. Other modifications to a campaign may include updating notes associated with the media campaign. The platform 110 sends updated campaign versions to the relevant creative agency 140. In some embodiments, different campaign versions are also generated if a media owner updates advertising placement data associated with advertising placements that are in a media plan. A newer version of the campaign is generated based on the updated advertising placement data.

[0067] Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of a system 200 that includes an online platform 260 in accordance with the present disclosure. Advertising placement data 205 from publishers, such as the media owners 120 in Fig. 1 , is uploaded in step 210 and then formatted in step 215, before being stored in a database 225.

[0068] Depending on the implementation, uploading of the advertising placement data 205 in step 210 may be performed by manual data entry, automated ingestion of data files (such as XLS spreadsheets or the like), or via an Application Programming Interface (API). Step 215 formats the uploaded advertising placement data 205 into a format that matches a stored data model associated with the platform 240.

[0069] The platform 260 stores in the database 225 a set of user profiles and each registered user is allocated levels of permission or authorisation, depending on the respective role of that user. In the example of Fig. 2, a user 250 utilises a computing device 255 to access the computer-implemented online platform 260. Depending on authorisation access, the user 250 may have access to one or more application functions 240, including: create campaign, share campaign, create custom parameters, edit campaign, download campaign, user management, delete campaign, edit placement data, and delete placements. In some embodiments, clients may be granted restricted access as guests to selected workspaces.

[0070] The platform 260 includes an optional cloud-based platform 220, which in the example of Fig. 2 utilises a hosted online service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Other suitable hosting services, such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or the like may equally be utilised. The AWS cloud 220 stores one or more of images relating to advertising placements, documents and notes associated with advertising placements, original advertising placement specifications, uploads relating to missing advertising placements, organisation logos, and the like.

[0071] The system 200 also includes an advertising unit booking system 230 that is accessible to media owners and media planners. An integration unit 235 feeds booked advertising placement data to the database 225. The integration unit 235 is a set of computer code instructions executing on a processor of the platform 260 to retrieve (i.e., pull) data from the advertising unit booking system 230 and present the retrieved data to the database 225. The retrieved data may include, for example, booking codes, client names, placement site identifiers, advertising placement data associated with the booking codes, changes to live bookings, and the like. In alternative embodiments, data is pushed from the advertising unit booking system 230 to the integration unit 235.

[0072] Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram representation of a system 300 that includes an online platform 310 for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels. The platform 310 may be implemented using one or more computer servers, a cloud computing platform, or the like. When implemented using a cloud computing platform, a hosted online service such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or the like may be utilised.

[0073] The platform 310 is accessible, via a communications network 305, by authorised parties, which may include media planners, clients, media owners, and creative agencies, as well as administrators of the platform 310. In the example of Fig. 3, a set of Media Planners 330 includes Media Planner 1 ... Media Planner m, a set of Media Owners 320 includes Media Owner 1 ... Media Owner n, a set of Creative Agencies 340 includes Creative Agency 1 ... Creative Agency p, and a set of Clients 350 includes Client 1 ... Client q. A platform administrator 390 is also able to access the platform 310 either directly or via the network 305. [0074] The platform 310 includes an optional Application Programming Interface (API) 311 for communicating with third parties, such as media planners, media owners, clients, and creative agencies. The API 311 defines a protocol by which communications can take place between the platform 310 and computer systems associated with the external parties. The API 311 is particularly useful for Media Owners 320 that are associated with a large number of advertising placements, as the API 311 enables changes to the advertising placements to be changed in real-time or near real-time, mitigating the use of any human interaction.

[0075] The platform 310 also includes an ad placement repository 318, which stores advertising placement data pertaining to advertising placements owned by one or more media owners. The advertising placement data includes the identifiers and attributes of the respective advertising placements.

[0076] Uploading of the advertising placement data to the ad placement repository 318 may be performed by manual data entry, automated ingestion of data files (such as XLS spreadsheets or the like), or via an Application Programming Interface (API). For example, an API can retrieve a JSON payload of advertising placement data from an online resource associated with a media owner. A specification placement ingestor 317 parses and formats the retrieved advertising placement data for storage in the ad placement repository 318. The specification placement ingestor 317 may also ingest advertising placement data from spreadsheets provided by media owners. In some embodiments, the specification placement ingestor 317 is programmed to parse advertising placement data by identifying keywords, column headings, and the like to extract the required data for storage in the ad placement repository 318. Manual entry requires a human operator to manually input advertising placement data to the ad placement repository 318.

[0077] In some embodiments, the ad placement repository 318 is associated with a timer and periodically polls the published advertising placements of the media owners 320 to check for any changes to the advertising placements. This ensures that the advertising placement data stored in the ad placement repository 318 is accurate and up to date.

[0078] In some embodiments, polling of the published advertising placements of media owners 320 is performed by polling code executing on the processor 315, wherein the polling code includes instructions to invoke a web crawler to visit URLs associated with the media owners 320 at predefined polling intervals to check the published advertising placements. In other embodiments, the API 311 incorporates polling code that verifies the published advertising placements. In other embodiments, the published advertising placements are verified manually and any changes are updated on the platform 310 by manual data entry. Any combination of web crawler, API, and manual entry may equally be practised to verify the published advertising placements.

[0079] The platform 310 optionally notifies media planners 330 and/or creative agencies 340 of any changes to the ad placement data. In some embodiments, the platform 310 generates an alert against the advertising placement, wherein the alert is a notification to relevant media planners 330 and/or creative agencies 340 of the changes.

Implementation of the alert may include, for example, a visual and/or audible alert on a user dashboard or within a workspace or media plan or specification, an in-app notification, an email, SMS text message, or any combination thereof.

[0080] The platform 310 stores a data model 312 that is utilised by software executing on a processor 315 to generate production-ready specification sheets from a media plan supplied by a one of the media planners 330 or based on a set of advertising placements retrieved using a booking reference. In some embodiments, the data model is defined using Nodejs and Typescript, but other application programming languages, such as Algorithm Definition Language (ADL), may equally be practised.

[0081 ] The platform 310 also includes a database 319, which may be integral to the platform or an external data storage. The database 319 stores registered user information, user interface templates, campaign templates, and the like. The platform 310 further includes a set of workspaces. Each workspace relates to a set of clients, users, templates and advertising campaigns and/or media plans.

[0082] Authorised parties register with the platform 310 and are assigned access permissions to different functionalities and workspaces, depending on their respective roles. Consequently, the platform provides an online environment for collaboration among key stakeholders. Some embodiments of the platform 310 provide authorised users with a user interface that includes a dashboard. Depending on the implementation, the dashboard may be a native application, a web/cloud-based application, or available via a browser accessing software on the platform 310. The dashboard provides each user with access to the workspaces and functionalities to which the respective user has authorisation to access.

[0083] A user is able to create, view, and modify advertising specification sheets within a workspace, in accordance with permissions granted to that user. The advertising specification sheets are “live” documents that reflect changes made by the users. Further, the advertising specification sheets can be updated by the platform 310 to reflect any changes made, over time, to the attributes associated with individual advertising placements.

[0084] A notifications module 313 is configured to send alerts to relevant users. Alerts may appear as notifications within a dashboard, notifications sent within a software application, or Short Message Service (SMS) text notifications. The alerts may be implemented using audible or visual notifications, or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the dashboard presented to a user displays media plans and/or campaigns within a workspace in different colours to indicate a status or change in status. For example, an advertising placement within a media plan is highlighted red if a change to attributes of that advertising placement has been detected or made. Similarly, edits to a media plan may result in one or more attributes of that media plan being highlighted and/or a notification appearing in a designated display region of the dashboard.

[0085] A registered media planner 330 utilises a computing device to access the platform 310 via the communications network 305. The computing device may be, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a smartphone, a tablet computing device, a phablet computing device, or the like. The platform 310 displays a dashboard to the computing device for viewing by the media planner 330. The media planner 330 can create a new workspace or is granted access to one or more existing workspaces. The media planner 330 is able to upload a media plan to the platform 310, wherein the media plan includes a set of booked advertising placements, along with any notes and dates associated with the booked advertising placements. A media plan ingestor 314 receives the uploaded media plan and parses the media plan to identify the various information in that plan and store that information in the relevant workspace.

[0086] In some embodiments, the media plan ingestor 314 is computer code executing on the processor 315 to read data from one or more predefined columns of suitably formatted spreadsheet files and/or to identify keywords from an ingested file. The ingestor 314 utilises a parser to extract relevant information from the predefined columns. In some embodiments, the media plan ingestor 314 utilises machine learning to identify and extract relevant data from an ingested file. Such machine learning may utilise an initial set of training data to recognise suitable data fields and data entries within ingested files of different file types and different file formats.

[0087] The processor 315 executes instructions to generate a production-ready specification sheet, based on the ingested media plan, advertising placement data stored in the ad placement repository 318, and the data model 312. In particular, the platform 310 generates a production-ready specification sheet that presents all of the booked advertising placements from the ingested media plan in a clear and consistent manner, by using specification blocks for each of the advertising placements. The media planner 330 that uploaded the media plan is able to edit and modify the specification sheet. Once the media planner 330 approves the specification sheet, the platform 310 transmits the specification sheet to one of the creative agencies 340, as designated by the media plan. The creative agency then produces creative content in accordance with the received specification sheet.

[0088] Media planners 330 generate a media plan by booking advertising placements with one or more media owners 320. In one example, Media Planner 1 books a set of advertising placements with Media Owner n and Media Owner n issues Media Planner 1 with a booking reference number. In some embodiments, the specification placement ingestor 317 receives the booking reference and booking data relating to the associated booked advertising placements from the Media Owner n, via manual update, ingestion of a file, or via the API 311. In some embodiments, the specification placement ingestor 317 includes computer code executing on the processor 315 to ingest from the Media Owner n full advertising placement data associated with the booked advertising placements associated with the booking reference number. The platform then generates a specification sheet based on the ingested booking reference, booking data, and the data model 312. The specification sheet lists each of the booked advertising placements and the attributes associated with each of those advertising placements and presents those booked advertising placements as a combination of corresponding specification blocks. Consequently, the specification sheet is production-ready and able to be actioned by a receiving party.

[0089] Media Planner 1 logs in to the platform 310 and enters the booking reference. The platform 310 then presents Media Planner 1 with the generated specification sheet for review. In these embodiments, Media Planner 1 does not need to generate a media plan, rather the platform 310 generates a production-ready specification sheet from the booking data. Media Planner 1 can then edit the specification sheet, if necessary, before confirming that the specification sheet is finalised and ready to be sent by the platform 310 to a designated creative agency 340.

[0090] Some embodiments enable one or more clients 350 to access selected workspaces as guests of the workspace. Depending on the implementation and application, the access may be restricted to read only, sharing, or full editorial access. Some embodiments provide in-app messaging and edit tracking that enable clients and media planners to work collaboratively on a media plan and associated specification sheet. In such embodiments, authorised parties are able to view, edit, and comment on the media plan and associated specification sheet. As the media plan and specification reside in a central, online location hosted at the platform 310, there is no need for media planners 330 and clients 350 to manage multiple pieces of correspondence and draft specification sheets. The specification sheet residing on the platform 310 is a “master” sheet viewable and accessible to all authorised parties.

[0091 ] The platform administrator 390 is able to grant access permission to different users across different workspaces. Similarly, different organisations are able to grant different levels of access to users within the respective organisation. The level of access may depend, for example, on the organisation or associated sub-organisation for which a user works, the campaign(s) on which the user is working, or the media plan(s) on which the user is working.

[0092] Software executing on the processor 315 groups advertising placements within a specification sheet in accordance with a predefined structure. In some embodiments, advertising placements having common attributes are grouped together within the spec sheet. For example, all outdoor advertising placements are grouped together and all social media advertising placements are grouped together. Grouping advertising placements together based on common attributes makes it easy for the receiving creative agency 340 to identify the type of content that is required for the campaign.

[0093] Media planner administrators are able to view user specific analytics from the platform 310. The analytics will depend on the particular application, but may include for example: last log in, number of specifications created, number of hours on platform, number of changes to campaigns. Other analytics may relate, for example, to who created or modified a specification, date of creation, date of last modification, log history of modifications, version history, and the like.

[0094] In some embodiments, software executing on the platform provides an authorised user, such as an organisation administrator, with visual metrics relating to the analytics. The visual metrics may be used, for example, to display actual or relative usage of the platform across different organisational units, employees, or the like, distribution of campaigns across clients within an organisation, number of active campaigns, number of new campaigns created within a predefined time period (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually), and the like.

[0095] The platform optionally captures and makes available for display to authorised users analytics relating to advertising placements. Such placement-specific analytics may include, for example,: most frequently used placements, and least used placements in campaigns. Such placement-specific analytics can be particularly useful for media owners to see which advertising placements are booked most often and/or have the greatest occupancy. Placement-specific analytics may also include a list of most recently updated placements (based on a verification time stamp) and, in the event of a “change spec” alert, how many end users where notified of the change to the specification (as determined by how many people were using that update placement/spec on their spec sheet.

[0096] The media platform 310 optionally provides software that provides media planners with the ability to access a set of predefined campaign and/or media plan templates, as well as the ability to create custom campaign and/or media plan templates. This functionality enables media planners to create campaign templates using customised column names and field types that can be reused when creating new campaigns.

Different plans may require different information and this campaign template builder achieves that flexibility. Similarly, when multiple campaigns are to be generated with a common look and feel, such as for a single client, using the same campaign template provides consistency and efficiency.

[0097] Fig. 5 is a screenshot of a first portion 500 of a production specification sheet. A first region 510 includes information that identifies a media owner and an ad placement type. In this example, the media owner is “Nine” and the ad placement type is “Wallpaper” having attributes of “190x1000 (1030px wide non visible in the middle)”, and device compatibility. A second region 520 provides a contextual visual representation of the ad placement, which in the example of Fig. 5 shows the Wallpaper ad placement type as a background image on which other content is superimposed. This contextual visual representation provides a user with a quick preview of the manner in which the ad placement will appear.

[0098] Fig. 6 is a screenshot of a second portion of 600 of the production specification sheet of Fig. 5. The second portion 600 includes a first region 610 that details attributes of the ad placement for content delivered from the media owner itself. Such self-served attributes include a maximum file size and a set of acceptable file formats. A second region 620 details third-party attributes of the ad placement for content delivered from third party sources. The third-party attributes include file size information, a set of acceptable file formats and other notation that may be useful for the creative agency to know the bounds and scope of creative content that can be delivered to appear in the ad placement to which the specification sheet relates.

[0099] The computer-implemented specification management system of the present disclosure may be practised using one or more computing devices, such as a general purpose computer or computer server. Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a system 700 that includes a general purpose computer 710. The general purpose computer 710 includes a plurality of components, including: a processor 712, a memory 714, a storage medium 716, input/output (I/O) interfaces 720, and input/output (I/O) ports 722. Components of the general purpose computer 710 generally communicate using one or more buses 748.

[00100] The memory 714 may be implemented using Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), or a combination thereof. The storage medium 716 may be implemented as one or more of a hard disk drive, a solid state “flash” drive, an optical disk drive, or other storage means. The storage medium 716 may be utilised to store one or more computer programs, including an operating system, software applications, and data. In one mode of operation, instructions from one or more computer programs stored in the storage medium 716 are loaded into the memory 714 via the bus 748. Instructions loaded into the memory 714 are then made available via the bus 748 or other means for execution by the processor 712 to implement a mode of operation in accordance with the executed instructions.

[00101] One or more peripheral devices may be coupled to the general purpose computer 710 via the I/O ports 722. In the example of Fig. 7, the general purpose computer 710 is coupled to each of a speaker 724, a camera 726, a display device 730, an input device 732, a printer 734, and an external storage medium 736. The speaker 724 may be implemented using one or more speakers, such as in a stereo or surround sound system.

[00102] The camera 726 may be a webcam, or other still or video digital camera, and may download and upload information to and from the general purpose computer 710 via the I/O ports 722, dependent upon the particular implementation. For example, images recorded by the camera 726 may be uploaded to the storage medium 716 of the general purpose computer 710. Similarly, images stored on the storage medium 716 may be downloaded to a memory or storage medium of the camera 726. The camera 726 may include a lens system, a sensor unit, and a recording medium.

[00103] The display device 730 may be a computer monitor, such as a cathode ray tube screen, plasma screen, or liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The display 730 may receive information from the computer 710 in a conventional manner, wherein the information is presented on the display device 730 for viewing by a user. The display device 730 may optionally be implemented using a touch screen to enable a user to provide input to the general purpose computer 710. The touch screen may be, for example, a capacitive touch screen, a resistive touchscreen, a surface acoustic wave touchscreen, or the like.

[00104] The input device 732 may be a keyboard, a mouse, a stylus, drawing tablet, or any combination thereof, for receiving input from a user. The external storage medium 736 may include an external hard disk drive (HDD), an optical drive, a floppy disk drive, a flash drive, solid state drive (SSD), or any combination thereof and may be implemented as a single instance or multiple instances of any one or more of those devices. For example, the external storage medium 736 may be implemented as an array of hard disk drives.

[00105] The I/O interfaces 720 facilitate the exchange of information between the general purpose computing device 710 and other computing devices. The I/O interfaces may be implemented using an internal or external modem, an Ethernet connection, or the like, to enable coupling to a transmission medium. In the example of Fig. 7, the I/O interfaces 722 are coupled to a communications network 738 and directly to a computing device 742. The computing device 742 is shown as a personal computer, but may equally be practised using a smartphone, laptop, or a tablet device. Direct communication between the general purpose computer 710 and the computing device 742 may be implemented using a wireless or wired transmission link.

[00106] The communications network 738 may be implemented using one or more wired or wireless transmission links and may include, for example, a dedicated communications link, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, a telecommunications network, or any combination thereof. A telecommunications network may include, but is not limited to, a telephony network, such as a Public Switch Telephony Network (PSTN), a mobile telephone cellular network, a short message service (SMS) network, or any combination thereof. The general purpose computer 710 is able to communicate via the communications network 738 to other computing devices connected to the communications network 738, such as the mobile telephone handset 744, the touchscreen smartphone 746, the personal computer 740, and the computing device 742.

[00107] One or more instances of the general purpose computer 710 may be utilised to implement a server acting as an online platform to implement a computer-implemented specification management system in accordance with the present disclosure. In such an embodiment, the memory 714 and storage 716 are utilised to store data relating to one or more data models, advertising placements, specifications, user interface templates, and campaign templates. Software for implementing the online specification management system is stored in one or both of the memory 714 and storage 716 for execution on the processor 712. The software includes computer program code for implementing method steps in accordance with the method of online specification ingestion, processing, and production described herein.

[00108] Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a system 800 on which one or more aspects of an online specification management method and system of the present disclosure may be practised. The system 800 includes a portable computing device in the form of a smartphone 810, which may be used by a registered user of the online platform 310 in Fig. 3. In particular, a registered user of the online platform 310 in Fig. 3 may use software executing on the smartphone 810 to access different functionality of the online platform 310 or to upload data or other content to the online platform 310.

[00109] The smartphone 810 includes a plurality of components, including: a processor 812, a memory 814, a storage medium 816, a battery 818, an antenna 820, a radio frequency (RF) transmitter and receiver 822, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card 824, a speaker 826, an input device 828, a camera 830, a display 832, and a wireless transmitter and receiver 834. Components of the smartphone 810 generally communicate using one or more bus connections 848 or other connections therebetween. The smartphone 810 also includes a wired connection 845 for coupling to a power outlet to recharge the battery 818 or for connection to a computing device, such as the general purpose computer 710 of Fig. 7. The wired connection 845 may include one or more connectors and may be adapted to enable uploading and downloading of content from and to the memory 814 and SIM card 824.

[00110] The smartphone 810 may include many other functional components, such as an audio digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital converter and an amplifier, but those components are omitted for the purpose of clarity. However, such components would be readily known and understood by a person skilled in the relevant art.

[00111] The memory 814 may include Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), or a combination thereof. The storage medium 816 may be implemented as one or more of a solid state “flash” drive, a removable storage medium, such as a Secure Digital (SD) or microSD card, or other storage means. The storage medium 816 may be utilised to store one or more computer programs, including an operating system, software applications, and data. In one mode of operation, instructions from one or more computer programs stored in the storage medium 816 are loaded into the memory 814 via the bus 848. Instructions loaded into the memory 814 are then made available via the bus 848 or other means for execution by the processor 812 to implement a mode of operation in accordance with the executed instructions. The software applications may include, for example, an Internet browser to access data hosted on a website associated with the platform 300 or a native application associated with the platform 300 to enable the smartphone 810 to exchange data with the server 310.

[00112] The smartphone 810 also includes an application programming interface (API) module 836, which enables programmers to write software applications to execute on the processor 812. Such applications include a plurality of instructions that may be preinstalled in the memory 814 or downloaded to the memory 814 from an external source, via the RF transmitter and receiver 822 operating in association with the antenna 820 or via the wired connection 845.

[00113] The smartphone 810 further includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) location module 838. The GPS location module 838 is used to determine a geographical position of the smartphone 810, based on GPS satellites, cellular telephone tower triangulation, or a combination thereof. The determined geographical position may then be made available to one or more programs or applications running on the processor 812.

[00114] The wireless transmitter and receiver 834 may be utilised to communicate wirelessly with external peripheral devices via Bluetooth, infrared, or other wireless protocol. In the example of Fig. 8, the smartphone 810 is coupled to each of a printer 840, an external storage medium 844, and a computing device 842. The computing device 842 may be implemented, for example, using the general purpose computer 710 of Fig. 7.

[00115] The camera 826 may include one or more still or video digital cameras adapted to capture and record to the memory 814 or the SIM card 824 still images or video images, or a combination thereof. The camera 826 may include a lens system, a sensor unit, and a recording medium. A user of the smartphone 810 may upload the recorded images to another computer device or peripheral device using the wireless transmitter and receiver 834, the RF transmitter and receiver 822, or the wired connection 845.

[00116] In one example, the display device 832 is implemented using a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The display 832 is used to display content to a user of the smartphone 810. The display 832 may optionally be implemented using a touch screen, such as a capacitive touch screen or resistive touchscreen, to enable a user to provide input to the smartphone 810.

[00117] The input device 828 may be a keyboard, a stylus, or microphone, for example, for receiving input from a user. In the case in which the input device 828 is a keyboard, the keyboard may be implemented as an arrangement of physical keys located on the smartphone 610. Alternatively, the keyboard may be a virtual keyboard displayed on the display device 832.

[00118] The SIM card 824 is utilised to store an International Mobile Subscriber Identity ( IMS I) and a related key used to identify and authenticate the user on a cellular network to which the user has subscribed. The SIM card 824 is generally a removable card that can be used interchangeably on different smartphone or cellular telephone devices. The SIM card 824 can be used to store contacts associated with the user, including names and telephone numbers. The SIM card 824 can also provide storage for pictures and videos. Alternatively, contacts can be stored on the memory 814.

[00119] The RF transmitter and receiver 822, in association with the antenna 820, enable the exchange of information between the smartphone 810 and other computing devices via a communications network 890. In the example of Fig. 8, RF transmitter and receiver 822 enable the smartphone 810 to communicate via the communications network 890 with a cellular telephone handset 850, a smartphone or tablet device 852, a computing device 854 and the computing device 842. The computing devices 854 and 842 are shown as personal computers, but each may equally be practised using a smartphone, laptop, or a tablet device.

[00120] The communications network 890 may be implemented using one or more wired or wireless transmission links and may include, for example, a cellular telephony network, a dedicated communications link, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, a telecommunications network, or any combination thereof. A telecommunications network may include, but is not limited to, a telephony network, such as a Public Switch Telephony Network (PSTN), a cellular (mobile) telephone cellular network, a short message service (SMS) network, or any combination thereof.

[00121] Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram representation of a process 1 100 for generating a production-ready specification sheet in accordance with embodiments of the platform of the present disclosure. A media planner generates an initial booking reference 1100 for a media plan and in step 1120 books a number of advertising placements 1 130.

[00122] In some embodiments, advertising placement data relating to the advertising placements 1 130 is pulled from a booking agency or media owner associated with the advertising placements 1130. Fig. 12 illustrates a set of data retrieved from a booking agency or media owner, which in the example of Fig. 12 is referred to as QMS. The data may be pushed or pulled between the platform and online storage associated with the booking agency or media owner. In some embodiments, an API is provided to enable the transfer of data between the platform and external booking agencies and media owners. Booking Data 1210 relates to campaigns and bookings that have been made with the booking agency or media owner. Such Booking Data 1210 may include, for example, references that identify the advertising panels that have been booked and the associated dates for which those panels have been booked.

[00123] Static Panel Data 1220 is data retrieved from the booking agency or media owner relating to static panels that exist and are associated with the booking agency or media owner. Digital Panel Data 1230 is data retrieved from the booking agency or media owner relating to digital panels that exist and are associated with the booking agency or media owner.

[00124] Fig. 13 illustrates flow of the Static Panel Data 1220 and Digital Panel Data 1230 to the set of booked advertising placements 1130. Some embodiments of the specification management platform of the present disclosure utilise a join table 1310 to map data sets from an external booking agency or media owner to the predefined format utilised within the platform. Some embodiments of the specification management platform provide a Campaign Booking module 1340 that interfaces between the platform and an external booking agency or media owner to reference booked advertising placements and booking references.

[00125] Returning to Fig. 11 , the set of booked advertising placements 1130 form an initial version of a campaign 1140. Once the media planner validates the initial version of the campaign 1140, a campaign 1150 is produced for transmittal to a creative agency, wherein the campaign 1150 includes a structured specification sheet based on the set of booked advertising placements and a data model.

[00126] The media planner is able to edit the campaign, such as by adding or removing advertising placements. The media planner utilises the booking reference 1110 to access the campaign within the platform and in step 1160 makes the required changes to the bookings. The platform creates a new version of the campaign 1170 and, on approval by the media planner, issues an updated campaign 1150 for transmittal to the creative agency.

[00127] Fig. 4 is a flow diagram representation 400 of the flow of content between an online specification management platform 450 and an external media booking agency (or media owner) 490. The platform 450 includes each of a server 401 , database 403, and background processing module 405.

[00128] In the example of Fig. 4, the external media booking agency is QMS, which has an API 430 for interacting with the online specification management platform 450 in accordance with the present disclosure. The API 320 pulls and pushes data from and to a server 422 of the platform 450. In some implementations, the server 422 executes code that periodically pulls data from the API 430, such as on an hourly or daily basis.

[00129] A QMS emailer 428 periodically emails booked advertising placement data relating to booked advertising placements to an email server associated with the online platform 450. The email server may be integral with the platform 410 or an external mail server. In some implementations, the emailer transmits advertising placement data daily or weekly. The advertising placement data is transmitted in an electronic file, such as an XLS spreadsheet.

[00130] Received advertising placement data is uploaded to a Private Data Bucket 424 as CSV files. In this example, two CSV files are generated: one for static advertising placements and one for digital panel advertising placements. The Private Data Bucket 424 hosts data that has been provided to the platform by Media Owners and which must be protected and kept confidential. The data stored in the Private Data Bucket 424 feeds into placements that are also protected and cannot be searched by users without correct permissions.

[00131] A background fetch job program executing on the server 422 fetches advertising placement data periodically from the API 430 and the Private Data Bucket 424. In this example, the background fetch job executes hourly and pushes the retrieved data to a Database Copy of the QMS Data 404 in the database 403.

[00132] In some embodiments, data stored by the external media owner 490 is in a different format from the format in which the platform 450 stores data. In such embodiments, the background fetch job formats the retrieved data before pushing the retrieved data for storage in the database 403. In some implementations, formatting of the retrieved data is performed by the specification placement ingestor 317 of Fig. 3, which utilises a predefined set of mapping tables to format the retrieved data to suit the data model of the platform 450. The specification placement ingestor 317 executing on the server 422 maps the retrieved data to parameters in the data model and, where a parameter does not exist, the server 422 creates a placement attribute.

[00133] The server 401 includes a first module in the form of a campaign code module 402 that adds a booking agency campaign code to the database 404. After a booking has been made by a media agency with a media owner, the media owner issues to the media agency a unique campaign code. By using this code and the client name, the media agency is able to retrieve all the placements associated with the booking and add those placements to a specification. Without this campaign code, the media agency does not have access to those placements. [00134] The server 401 includes a second module in the form of a Query Campaign module 412 that receives booking, placement, and campaign data from each of a Booking module 408, Placement module 414, and Campaign module 418 of the database 403. When a user accesses the platform 450 and utilises the user interface to engage either: (i) a campaign building tool to create or edit a campaign; or a review mode to review a shared specification within a workspace, the Query Campaign module 412 retrieves campaign data, including booking and placement details, associated with the campaign or shared specification. The platform 450 then presents the retrieved campaign data as populated data within the campaign building tool or review mode.

[00135] The database 403 includes a booking reference module 406 that attaches to a campaign an external booking reference associated with the external media booking agency 490. The platform 450 pulls in data from the external booking system 490 and retrieves a list of individual bookings. Associated with each booking is a unique booking code and placement identifiers that are used by the booking reference module 406 to map to the placements that are stored in the TSS database 403.

Industrial Applicability

[00136] The arrangements described are applicable to the computing, data management, and advertising industries.

[00137] The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention, and modifications and/or changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, the embodiments being illustrative and not restrictive.

[00138] Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment,” “some embodiments”, or “embodiments” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

[00139] While some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination. [00140] Furthermore, some of the embodiments are described herein as a method or combination of elements of a method that can be implemented by a processor of a computer system or by other means of carrying out the function. Thus, a processor with the necessary instructions for carrying out such a method or element of a method forms a means for carrying out the method or element of a method. Furthermore, an element described herein of an apparatus embodiment is an example of a means for carrying out the function performed by the element for the purpose of carrying out the invention.

[00141] In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

[00142] Note that when a method is described that includes several elements, e.g., several steps, no ordering of such elements, e.g., of such steps, is implied, unless specifically stated.

[00143] In the context of this specification, the word “comprising” and its associated grammatical constructions mean “including principally but not necessarily solely” or “having” or “including”, and not “consisting only of’. Variations of the word "comprising", such as “comprise” and “comprises” have correspondingly varied meanings.

[00144] Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term coupled should not be interpreted as being limitative to direct connections only. The terms “coupled” and “connected,” along with their derivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other but may be. Thus, the scope of the expression “a device A coupled to a device B” should not be limited to devices or systems wherein an input or output of device A is directly connected to an output or input of device B. It means that there exists a path between device A and device B which may be a path including other devices or means in between. Furthermore, “coupled to” does not imply direction. Hence, the expression “a device A is coupled to a device B” may be synonymous with the expression “a device B is coupled to a device A”. “Coupled” may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

[00145] As used throughout this specification, unless otherwise specified, the use of ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", “fourth”, etc., to describe common or related objects, indicates that reference is being made to different instances of those common or related objects, and is not intended to imply that the objects so described must be provided or positioned in a given order or sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

[00146] Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.

Claims

- 32 - We claim:

1 . A computer-implemented platform for managing advertising specifications associated with a set of media channels, the platform comprising: a processor; a computer-readable storage medium for storing: advertising placement data relating to a set of advertising placements associated with said set of media channels; a data model, the data model defining a set of specification blocks for said set of advertising placements, each specification block having a set of attributes associated with a corresponding advertising placements; and a computer program for execution on said processor, said computer program including instructions for: ingesting a media plan via a communications network, said media plan defining a set of booked advertising placements; and generating a specification sheet based on said booked advertising placements, said advertising placement data, and said data model, wherein said specification sheet includes a set of specification blocks corresponding to said booked advertising placements.

2. The platform according to claim 1 , wherein said set of attributes includes an advertising placement type of said corresponding advertising placement.

3. The platform according to either one of claim 1 and claim 2, wherein said set of attributes includes a contextual visual representation of said corresponding advertising placement.

4. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein ingesting said media plans includes parsing said media plan to identify each one of said booked advertising placements.

5. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein ingesting said media plan is performed by at least one of manual entry, application programming interface (API), ingestion code, or machine learning. - 33 -

6. The platform according to claim 5, wherein said computer program includes ingesting code that polls a remote computing device at periodic intervals to pull said media plan from said remote computing device.

7. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: an Application Programming Interface (API) defining an interface protocol for enabling communication exchange between said platform and a third party.

8. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the set of media channels includes a plurality of media channels, said media channels selected from the group consisting of: newspaper, magazine, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), online, television, radio, audio, Out-Of-Home (OOH) print, broadcast, cinema, social media, and transit.

9. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said computer program includes further instructions for: grouping specification blocks within said specification sheet based on common attributes of said specification blocks.

10. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said computer-readable storage medium further stores: a set of workspaces, each workspace being associated with an organisation, wherein each workspace relates to a campaign.

11 . The platform according to claim 10, wherein said computer program further includes instructions for: providing a user interface to a user computing device of a user accessing said platform, said user interface including a dashboard that enables access to one or more of said workspaces to which said user has authorisation.

12. The platform according to claim 11 , wherein said dashboard provides controls to said user to create, view, modify, and authorise media plans.

13. The platform according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein said media plan includes an identifier of a creative agency, and further wherein said computer program further includes instructions for: transmitting said specification sheet to said creative agency, via said communications network.

14. A computer-implemented method for managing advertising specifications, the method comprising the steps of: storing adverting placement data in a centralised file repository, wherein said advertising placement data corresponds to a set of reference advertising placements and includes a set of attributes and a media owner for each of said reference advertising placements; defining a data model for a uniform specification sheet, based on said set of reference ad placements, said data model including a specification block for each of said reference advertising placements; receiving a media plan that includes a set of booked advertising placements; processing the received media plan to identify each of said booked advertising placement; generating an advertising specification sheet based on said data model, said identified booked advertising placements and said advertising placement data, wherein generating said advertising specification includes: populating a specification block for each booked advertising placement; and combining said specification blocks; and transmitting said advertising specification to a creative agency.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said attributes are selected from the group consisting of: location, file format, resolution, size, and duration.

16. The method according to either one of claim 14 and claim 15, wherein said set of attributes includes a contextual visual representation of said corresponding advertising placement.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, wherein said data model further includes a structured representation that groups said specification blocks in said advertising specification based on common attributes.

18. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein receiving said media plan includes: an ingestor executing code to parse a file associated with said media plan, based on a set of predefined parameters.

19. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 18, wherein method includes, prior to transmitting said advertising specification, the further steps of: receiving at least one amendment to said media plan; amending said advertising specification based on each of said at least one amendment.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein each of said at least one amendment relates to addition of an advertising placement or deletion of an advertising placement from said media plan.

21 . The method according to any one of claims 14 to 19, including the further step, prior to transmitting said advertising specification of: displaying said advertising specification within a user interface dashboard provided to a computing device, wherein said user interface dashboard provides a set of controls to perform at least one of viewing, editing, and submitting said advertising specification.