Keeping your brand consistent across sites with shared playlists

The way to keep screens consistent across sites is to have one copy of anything that should look the same everywhere. In Casty that means a shared playlist for the group-wide content, placed inside every venue's layout, and templates built from one approved design. Change the shared playlist once and every site shows the change, while each venue keeps a part of the screen for its own news.

How brands drift

Nobody sets out to make the screens look different at every site. It happens one slide at a time. A manager needs a poster for Friday's quiz, can't find the brand font so uses whatever's on their laptop, grabs the old logo from an email, and stretches a photo to fill the gap. Multiply that by a few venues and a year, and the screens in one pub look nothing like the screens in the next. The fix is to make the on-brand option the easiest one for a busy manager to use.

Start with one master design

Get one layout right first. Decide where the logo sits, which fonts and sizes you use for headings and prices, the colours (write down the exact colour codes and use them every time), and which parts of the screen are for group content and which for local content. Casty layouts can use your own uploaded fonts, so the brand typeface is on every screen whatever's installed on the manager's laptop.

Then split the screen into zones. A common pattern is a large zone for the main content, a smaller one for local news, and a slim strip for the logo or a ticker. Build a version for each screen shape you use, as a portrait design won't stretch to fit a wide screen.

Save each one as a template. Templates live in folders like everything else, so keep them in a Shared folder that every venue can see. When a manager needs a new screen, they start from the template and change the words and pictures, and the fonts, colours and positions stay put. The templates guide covers saving and using them.

The shared playlist

A playlist is a list of images, videos and widgets that play in turn, and the same playlist can sit inside as many layouts as you like. Put your group-wide content (the seasonal campaign, the new menu launch, the loyalty app) in one playlist, and place that playlist in the main zone of every venue's layout.

Because each layout uses the playlist itself, editing the playlist changes what every venue shows, with no need to edit or republish a single layout. Add next month's campaign on the first, and it's on every screen in every site after their next check-in. The playlists guide shows how to build one and drop it into a layout.

A dynamic playlist makes it even easier for the brand team. It fills itself from the library using a tag or a name filter, and it can be limited to one folder. So if the brand team uploads group content to the Shared folder and tags it campaign, it joins the playlist automatically. Pair that with expiry dates on the media and old campaigns drop out by themselves.

Playlists can also sit inside other playlists, with settings that control how often each one plays. That's handy for keeping the balance between brand and local content where you want it.

When the logo or a core image changes, use Replace File in the media library and leave Update across all Layouts ticked. The new version goes into every layout that used the old one (every one you have edit access to), which beats a manager hunting through thirty layouts on a Monday morning.

Room for local content

A screen that only ever shows head office content gets ignored by regulars, and managers stop caring about it. Each venue needs space for its own things: the quiz, the live music, a new member of staff, tonight's specials.

Give each venue a local playlist in its own zone, or local spots within the main loop. For managers who should only change those local spots, we can set up a login with one-playlist access. They land on a simple page showing each numbered spot in the playlist, and they can drop a new image into a spot or replace one. Spots holding brand content they mustn't touch show as locked. For this to work, the playlist sits in a layout with a set number of spots, which we set up with the login. Adding people to your account explains the options.

Decide who can change what

Folders are the main control. The brand team gets edit access to the Shared folder, and each venue manager gets access to their own venue's folder. Access can be view, edit or delete for each folder or item, so managers can see and preview the shared templates and campaigns without being able to change them. We set up the access for you.

Two smaller things help as well. Only one person can edit a layout at a time, so two people can't overwrite each other's changes. And layouts go through a draft and publish step, so a half-finished edit never reaches a screen.

Use an overlay for the brand strip

If you want the logo or a group-wide ticker on every screen whatever else is playing, an overlay layout does it. It sits on top of whatever's on the screen, so you schedule it once to a group that covers every venue and it stays on top for as long as it's scheduled, local content included. Build it with content only where it should appear (a logo in one corner, say) and the rest stays clear. Running screens across several venues covers the display groups that make scheduling it once possible.

Check every site now and then

The Displays list shows the latest screenshot from every screen. A quick scroll through it once a week tells you whether every site is showing what it should, without visiting any of them. If a supplier has funded a group campaign, a proof of play report can add up plays by display group or tag to show it ran at every venue. Designing content for screens is worth a read for whoever builds the master layouts.