How To: Workspace: Creating an Inventory Plan

Creating an Inventory Plan in Workspace is simple and begins by selecting Add Scenario from the Sandbox page, or by selecting either the Add Scenario or Add Project button from the Projects page. In this article, we will detail the steps a user will follow to create an Inventory Plan after selecting first the Add Scenario button and then the Add Project button

Method 1: Add Scenario

When creating an Inventory Plan from the Add Scenario button, the user is able to select their Audience, Market, Operators, and Inventory. Only Audience and Market are required to generate an Inventory Plan

The Audience menu provides the user with the option to select their audiences using the most recent mid-year forecast (202106), the 2021 Data Source, or the legacy 2020 Data Source from a dropdown

(note: sorting and filtering are now available for 2021 and 202106! check it out here)

The Audience, Market, Operator, and Inventory menus in the updated Workspace are structured the same as in the legacy Workspace:

Adding Inventory from Media Attributes

When selecting Media Attributes from the Media & Placement menu, the user is required to first click the Add Selected button before the Apply Selections button

If multiple Media selections are checked, the user will be given the option to add their selections as a group or as individual media

The user will be shown a confirmation of their media selection and the Apply Selections button will be available to add the media to the Inventory Plan

Adding Inventory From File

Users can upload a CSV with spots and dates from the plan generation page with the From File tab

A file can be added by dragging-and-dropping from a folder or by clicking the "Upload Related Files" text

Clicking Apply Selections will begin the process of validating the inventory and auto-assigning market(s) based on the inventory database

Validation popup:    

Confirmation popup:

Once the inventory ID are validated, the "Select Market Type to Auto-Assign Inventory’s Market" menu will appear

Whenever specific inventory is selected, the system needs to know if the selected market(s) needs to be reassigned when pulling measures for the inventory. If the user hasn't selected a market yet, they can choose to filter at the DMA, CBSA, or County level and add those markets as a group or run them individually

If the user has already assigned their market(s), they can choose Cancel Auto-Assign which prevents the system from over-riding their market selection

*It's important to note that the Add Inventory From File function will initiate the plan generation process. Please ensure that other plan filters have been selected before uploading a file. This is a known issue and a fix to the workflow is forthcoming

Other Selections

Once these selections have been made (with the noted exception of uploading from CSV), the user can also adjust Plan Period:

• Generic: 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 26, or 52 Weeks (26 and 52 Weeks are only available for 2021 and 202106 audiences)
• Specific: any date range using the format dd/mm/yyyy

Users can also choose to have the "Include Inventory Outside of Markets within Market Summaries" button checked or unchecked. Checking this box will allow for measures to be pulled for inventory that doesn't exist in a targeted market. The default state for this box is unchecked

(Users can find a more detailed overview of this feature here)

The default Project in this method is the Sandbox. The Sandbox is a permanent project in which the user can create as many scenarios as they like. The user can use the dropdown to assign this new Inventory Plan to any existing Project or create a new Project using the +New Project link

Selections made in the menus will be reflected in the Summary column to the right. 

If the user needs to remove a filter, trash can icons are present next to each filter selection

Clicking the Generate button will bring the user to the project page where they can select their Inventory Plan. While the plan is pulling data, the user is brought back to the Project page where the plan will show that background processes are operating

Once the plan is finished, the user can open the scenario and view their Inventory Plan

With the Inventory Plan loaded, the user is given four options at the top of the Scenario:

• Map the plan to the Explore module (will open a new browser tab)
• Export the Plan as a CSV
• Delete, Duplicate, or Generate a Market Plan based on the Inventory Plan's parameters under the Actions dropdown
• Save the scenario

The user can also select the Parameters or Customize Columns icons to further edit their Inventory Plan

The Parameters menu allows the user to adjust their Audience, Market, and Inventory 

The Customize Columns icon allows the user to select which data sets they want to see in their Inventory Plan. Edits to the columns are easily made by dragging and dropping the selected headings from one side of the menu to the other

The user can choose to update the headings of the overall plan summary or the detailed media metrics of the plan packages

(a more detailed look at the Customize Columns buttons can be found here)

The Expand Table button allows the table to be viewed in a larger area:

Method 2: Add Project

Selecting the Add Project button from the Projects page prompts the user to create and name their new Project.  A description is optional

Once the Project is given a name and the Create Project button selected, the user is taken to a blank Project page from which they can add a new plan

This brings the user to the same Market and Inventory Plan creation page from the beginning of Method 1 but the Project has been named

From here, the user can select their Audience, Market, Operators, and Inventory to generate their Inventory Plan as previously described