Creating HTML Creatives for Mobile Application Spots

About Merge Tags

You can use merge tags to personalize the text of the creative for each recipient. When you enter a merge tag in a creative, the available merge tags are retrieved from uploaded customer data and are displayed consistently across tasks. For example, a creative with a merge tag that displays a customer’s name always displays a customer name when used in a task, regardless of which task it is used in.

You can insert a variable that acts as a placeholder for the merge tag. When you create a task that includes a creative with a variable, you select the merge tag to replace the variable. This functionality enables you to use data that is specified in the task itself (not in the creative) to supply your merge tags. For example, you can use attributes that are specified for task targeting events, task triggering events, or data views.

Here are options for using merge tags:

• You can select a merge tag or enter merge tag syntax manually.
• You can enter a default value to use when the merge tag cannot retrieve data. For example, if the user’s identity is not known, you might replace the name with “Valued Customer”.
• You can add as many as 10 merge tags or variables to one creative. Creatives that pre-date this restriction and contain more than 10 merge tags or variables work. However, once you update a creative, the restriction becomes active for that creative.

Insert a Merge Tag or a Variable

A creative can include both a merge tag and a variable. To insert a merge tag or a variable, you need to be in the HTML editor.

1. Place your cursor where you want to insert the merge tag or variable.
2. Click .
3. To add a merge tag:
   1. Select a tag from the list.
      • Click to display a hierarchical folder view of merge tags.
      • Click to expand all of the folders. Click to collapse all of the folders.
      • Click to display individual merge tags in alphabetical order.
      Note: If the merge tag is not in the list, you might need to exit the HTML editor and update the information about the Properties tab. For example, you might need to set the category of the merge tag or select the custom merge tag from a list. After you update the Properties tab, save the creative and re-open the editor. To return to the editor, navigate to ContentLayout and click Edit.
      Note: Alternatively, you can manually enter the merge tag into the HTML code if you do not want to select it from the list. For information, see Enter Merge Tag Strings Manually.
   2. (Optional) In the Default Value field, enter the value to use if the merge tag cannot retrieve data. For example, if a user is not logged on to your website, SAS Customer Intelligence 360 cannot know their identity. As a result, no customer information is available to replace the merge tag. Instead, the default value is used.
      Note: If you use a creative in multiple places, you must use the same default value in every place that the creative is used. Otherwise, do not set a default value for the creative in any place where it is used.
   3. Click OK.
4. To add a variable:
   1. Click Insert Variable from the Select in task section. The HTML code is updated with a default variable.
   2. (Optional) The variable must start and end with braces. However, you can change the variable name by editing the content within the braces. For example, you can replace

      {{variable1}}

      with

      {{cart amount}}

      or

      {{user name}}

      .

   Note: You will replace the variable with a merge tag when you create the task that includes this creative.
5. Click OK.

   The merge tag that you inserted retrieves data from the customer table in the data hub. Each customer views personalized content.

For more information about merge tags, see Personalizing Content.

Enter Merge Tag Strings Manually

Instead of inserting a merge tag from a list, you can manually enter the merge tag string:

1. Enter the merge tag using the correct format.
   • For merge tags that are not journey-related, use this format:
     %%<source>.<category>.<name>%%

     %%<source>.<category>.<name>%%

     In the merge tag string, these are how the values are defined:

     • source represents the data source
     • category is the data group
     • name is the field name of the data item
   • If your task is part of a journey and you want to use a placeholder from the journey's data, use this format:
     %%JOURNEY.<placeholder name>%%

     %%JOURNEY.<placeholder name>%%

2. (Optional) To specify the default value for a manually entered merge tag, insert | | after name and specify a default value within the string:
   %%<source>.<category>.<name>||<default value>%%

   %%<source>.<category>.<name>||<default value>%%

3. (Optional) Override the default number formatting. By default, automatic number formatting is applied to numbers. For example, a string such as a postal code, is displayed as 25,678 instead of 25678.

   To override automatic number formatting, insert $ after the first %% instance in the string:

   %%$<source>.<category>.<name>%%

   %%$<source>.<category>.<name>%%

   In this example, the automatic number formatting is overridden for a postal code:

   %%$DATAHUB.customer.zip%%

   %%$DATAHUB.customer.zip%%

Example: Use Variables and Merge Tags to Target Event Attributes

You can use any event and the event attributes to personalize tasks. For example, you can use a mobile spot task to display a personalized message to customers who add a particular product to their cart.

1. Select ContentCreatives on the navigation bar and click .
2. Click HTML.
3. In the HTML source, position the cursor where you want to add the variable. Click and select Insert Variable. The variable name is inserted in braces.

   The HTML text could be similar to this example:

   Hi,{{variable1}}! We hope you'll love our Super Sandals!

   Hi,{{variable1}}! We hope you'll love our Super Sandals!

   You can also add the product image to the creative.

4. Select Tasks on the navigation bar and click to create a task.
5. Click Mobile Spot and follow the prompts to create the task.
6. On the Content tab, click Select Content and select the HTML creative that you added.
7. The variable must be associated with a merge tag. On the Targeting tab, select an Add to Cart event. Add an attribute condition that the product name of Super Sandals must be met.
8. On the Content tab, click and select “customer first name” from the Customer Data folder.

When the event, creative, and task are published, customers who add the specified product to their cart will view a personalized creative.

Example: Use Variables and Merge Tags to Target Data View Attributes

You can use merge tags and data views to target attributes such as the product names from multiple events. For example, you can use a task to display the specific product name, quantity, and SKU when one of a number of products is added to a cart.

1. Select Events on the navigation bar and click .
2. Click Add to Cart.
3. Click Mobile App Action.
4. On the Event Identifier tab, assign the Mobile Event Key.
5. Save and publish the new event.
6. Select Data Views on the navigation bar and click .
7. On the Conditions tab, add the Add to Cart events that you have created. The common attributes for both events are listed on the Attributes tab of the data view.
8. Save and publish the new data view.
9. Select Creatives on the navigation bar and click .
10. Click HTML.
11. In the HTML source, position the cursor where you want to add the variables. For each variable, click and select Insert Variable. The variable name is inserted in braces. You can replace the name in braces with your own text.

    The HTML text could be similar to this example:

    Product: {{product name} <p> SKU: {{SKU}} <p> Quantity: {{product quantity}}

    Product: {{product name}
    <p>
    SKU: {{SKU}}
    <p>
    Quantity: {{product quantity}}

12. Select Tasks on the navigation bar and click to create a task.
13. Click Mobile Spot or Mobile Spot A/B Test and follow the prompts to create the task.
14. On the Content tab, click Select Content and select the HTML creative that you added.
15. The variables must be associated with merge tags. On the Targeting tab, select the data view that you created.
16. On the Content tab, click . Click for each variable and specify the Product Name, SKU, and Product Quantity attributes.

When the event, data view, creative, and task are published, the correct product information is displayed when a specific product is added to a cart.

Rename, Copy, Delete, and Edit a Creative

On the ContentCreatives page, you can rename, copy, delete, and open (for editing) a creative. To access the options, select the creative in the list, and then select the appropriate action.

• To rename the creative, click and select Rename.

  You can rename a creative regardless of its status. The new name is reflected in all messages and tasks that include the creative. If you rename a creative that is published, it becomes out of sync and must be republished.

  TipAfter you rename a creative that is included in an open message or task, you can click in the task to see the name change.
• To copy a creative, select it and click .
• To open the creative for editing, click it or select the message and click .

  When you modify a creative that is used in active tasks, be aware of these guidelines:

  • If you add or modify merge tag variables (such as {{variable1}}), you can save the creative only as a new item.

    This restriction does not apply if you remove variables or modify other types of merge tags (such as tags that use demographic data).

  • When you re-publish a creative that has not modified a variable, published tasks begin to use the re-published version of the creative.
• To delete the creative, click .

  You can delete a creative that is published. You cannot delete a creative that is included in a task. When you delete a creative, the creative is removed from the creatives repository and from any messages that include the creative.

When you open a creative from inside a message, you can access the rename and edit options for the creative. On the ContentMessages page, open the message that contains the creative you want to rename or edit. Select the creative, click , and then select the appropriate action. The changes that you make are applied to the original creative.

Change the Status

To change the status, open the creative and navigate to the Orchestration tab. Depending on the status of the creative, these are the options in the status list:

• Mark Ready: Changes the status from Designing to Ready. This option indicates that the creative is ready to be published.
• Return to Designing: Changes the status from Ready back to Designing.
• Publish: Changes the status from Ready to Active. When you publish an item, you are prompted to publish any dependent items that are marked Ready.
• Republish: Changes the status from Out of Sync back to Ready. If the content of a published item is changed and saved, that item becomes out of sync with the published version. Republish to synchronize the content. Otherwise, the item stays out of sync with the published version and the updates are not delivered.

  For more information, see Republishing Out of Sync Items.

• End: Changes the status from Active to Completed. This option prevents the creative from being published. A creative with a Completed status cannot be included in a task. Only a creative that is not currently in use by a task can be completed. Ending an item stops any associated data collection and makes the item's content unavailable. In addition, any unsaved changes to the creative are lost.

View Usage Information

On the OrchestrationUsage tab, you can view which items use the creative and the items that the creative uses.

The ability to view dependencies between items enables you to see the items that a task depends on to work successfully. Usage information helps you identify how changes that you make to one item might affect another item.