Contents


User management

MediaStore makes it easy to manage your user database yourself and not only control your colleagues’ access, but also retain authority over clients’ accounts:

Inviting members of your team

To send an invitation link to a colleague, please follow these steps:

  1. In the top left corner, select Create New > Contact.
  2. In the entry wizard, fill in at least the mandatory fields (marked *). Be sure to set the Organization to the same as in your own account. For Platform Role, use the appropriate admin-level role (usually Manager, Administrator, Sales Agent or similar).
  3. At the end of the wizard, Click Create in order to finish setting up the contact entry. (It will now be at the Inactive status, so no access to the platform has yet been given.)
  4. On the confirmation page, you may immediately Invite Contact. Alternatively, in the contact list or detail page, click […] > Invite in the top right corner of the contact. Either method will result in an invitation email being sent to the contact.
  5. After the new contact has opened the confirmation link in their invitation email and set a password, they will be able to log in. Using an admin-level account (Manager, Administrator, Sales Agent or similar) will allow them to log into both your admin site and your client site. On the client site, they will retain their role’s elevated access even to content which has not been published to client users.

In case the new contact cannot be saved, most likely an entry for the given email address already exists. Perform a search to find the entry – if it exists with Active status, ask the contact to use the Recover Password functionality on the public landing page. If its status is different, you can e.g. Reinvite based on the given status.

Inviting clients

You can send an invitation link to a client in order to make it as easy as possible for them to access your client site – they’ll merely need to set a password and log in. Please follow these steps:

  1. Check if the new client’s organization already exists in the system. To do so, go to Contacts > Organizations and perform a search by using the search field on the right. In case it doesn’t exist, select Create New > Organization in the top right: in the entry wizard, fill in at least the minimal mandatory fields (marked *) and Create.
  2. In the top left corner, select Create New > Contact.
  3. In the entry wizard, fill in at least the mandatory fields (marked *). Be sure to set the correct Organization. For Platform Role, use Client.
  4. At the end of the wizard, Click Create in order to finish setting up the contact entry. (It will now be at the Inactive status, so no access to the platform has yet been given.)
  5. On the confirmation page, you may immediately Invite Contact. Alternatively, in the contact list or detail page, click […] > Invite in the top right corner of the contact. Either method will result in an invitation email being sent to the contact.
  6. After the new contact has opened the confirmation link in their invitation email and set a password, they will be able to log in.

In case the new contact cannot be saved, most likely an entry for the given email address already exists. Perform a search to find the entry – if it exists with Active status, ask the contact to use the Recover Password functionality on your public client-facing landing page or login page. If its status is different, you can e.g. Approve or Reinvite. If no contact can be found, try applying the Deleted status filter to the contact list to review deleted contacts and Restore them.

Processing client registrations

When a client submits a registration using your public registration form, you retain the choice of whether or not to grant them access. To review pending registrations, please do the following:

  1. On the Dashboard, in the Contacts section, click Pending. Alternatively, go to Contacts > All Contacts and use the Status filter to display only Pending contacts.
  2. You will be presented with a list of all Pending contacts, starting with the most recent registration. Depending on your preference, use one of these available actions from the […] menu in the top right corner of the contact:
    1. Approve: In the approval dialog, review details, then click Approve. The new contact will receive an invitation email. After they’ve opened the included confirmation link and set their password, they will be able to login.
    2. Reject: The contact will receive an email stating that their registration has been rejected, and the contact entry will be deleted.
    3. Delete: The contact will be deleted without informing the contact.
    4. In Review: Use this status to remove the contact from the list of Pending registrations while not making a decision yet. You may come back to the contact later to approve, reject or delete it.


Content & asset management

MediaStore’s content management functionality includes everything you need to manage and present your catalog, including program metadata and flexible assignment of any digital assets. Access levels, permissions and marketing features (see below) can be used to manage availability of the products to either specific user roles, groups or individual users.

Adding products

A product is essentially a metadata entry, comprising information such as title, synopsis, year of production and many other metadata fields. When first created, it does not have any assigned assets yet (assets are uploaded separately and can then be assigned to Products providing images, screeners and downloadable assets). To add products to your catalogue:

  1. In the top left corner, select Create New > Product.
  2. Start filling in the entry wizard by entering the Title and selecting one of the available Types, typically Format, Program, or Series. (For setup of seasons and episodes, see below.)
  3. Fill in the product’s further details, starting with at least the mandatory fields (marked *), and finally complete the wizard by clicking Create.
  4. A basic page for your new product will appear, allowing you to review its current data and optionally edit it further by clicking the pencil icon in its top left. Besides the Title, you might typically want to define at least key details such as Genre, Synopsis, Duration and Year of Production.

Adding a season or episode to a series product

After a product has been created, you can set up parent-child hierarchies such as Series-Seasons-Episodes. Note that this may not be necessary in case you would like to reduce the number of titles managed in the system, and your main objective is to provide a single-destination page for each series where your clients may preview its key images and videos without having to navigate further.

If a parent entry (e.g. Series) is already available, you can add Seasons or Episodes as follows:

  1. In the top left corner, select Create New > Product.
  2. In the first step of the entry wizard, as Type, select Season or Episode.
  3. Select which Parent product the Season or Episode should be associated with, as well as the new product’s Sequence Number (i.e. season/episode number), then proceed with the wizard and finally Create the product. Note that the parent must be of a suitable type, e.g. an Episode cannot be the parent of another Episode.
  4. A basic page for your new product will appear, allowing you to review its current data and optionally edit it further by clicking the pencil icon in its top left. Besides the Title, you might typically want to define at least key details such as Genre, Synopsis, Duration and Year of Production.

Uploading assets

MediaStore allows you to upload assets of any kind and assign them to one or multiple products. An asset is composed of metadata (such as Title and Asset Type) and the file itself, which is ingested into MediaStore and, for file types such as video, transcoded in a streamable version. Access levels, permissions and groups (see below) can be used to manage availability of the assets to either specific user roles, groups or individual users.

To upload assets:

  1. In the top left corner, select Create New > Asset.
  2. Drag and drop a file (or multiple) into the open dialog or select Browse.
  3. As the upload starts, for each added asset, fill in asset metadata such as a Title and a suitable Type.
  4. At this stage, you can already assign the new asset to a product by filling in the Products field. (This assignment can also be changed once the asset is uploaded.)
  5. In case the uploaded asset is to be used as a presentational marketing asset (such as key art image or streamable video – see below), you can directly tick Marketing use. This will flag the asset as a marketing asset on the assigned product(s).
  6. Click Finish. The upload will continue in case it has not already finished during data entry; note that, depending on the total file size, the upload may take some time. You may simultaneously continue using the platform in another browser tab.
  7. After upload has completed, the All assets list with the latest assets will display automatically.

Assigning assets to products

Once assets are available on MediaStore, and a product has not already been assigned during upload, there are a few ways you can assign assets to products:

  • Go to the All assets list and select […] > Assign to a product on an individual asset in the list or detail view.
  • To bulk-assign assets to products, tick the assets and, in the Selected panel, select […] > Assign to a product.
  • Open the asset’s detail view, navigate to the Products tab and click Assign.

A dialog will appear where you will be able to select the product you wish to assign the asset to, and choose Use as marketing asset optionally. Once complete, click Assign. to confirm.

As assets are fundamentally independent of products, they may be assigned to multiple products or even none at all.

Flagging assets for marketing use

MediaStore uses “starred” assets, called marketing assets, to represent their assigned products on the client site. This means that the asset will be used for presentational purposes (e.g. a key art image or a streamable trailer or screener), and not “only” be assigned to the product in order to manage a connection between the asset and product.

During upload, or when assigning products to an asset, you can do this by ticking the Marketing use box. Alternatively, even after it has been assigned to a product, you can flag an asset (usually a trailer, screener or image) as a marketing asset simply by highlighting the star icon next to the asset when viewing the Assets tab in an individual product’s detail view.

Note that it is only if a video is flagged as a marketing asset that it will become streamable on the given product page in the client site.

Product and asset access settings

The Access level of a product or asset impacts its availability to contacts. Access levels can be modified at any time via available editing functions.

  • Private: available only to you personally (and to high-level administrators).
  • Company: available to all contacts in your organization; not available to client contacts.
  • Viewable: available to all contacts in your organization; visible to logged-in client contacts.
  • Public: available to all contacts in your organization; visible to logged-in client contacts and public visitors (only applicable if your platform comprises a public catalog).

In addition, on assets you will find the Download tickbox under Permissions which, if ticked, lets client users download the asset in case they are able to view it.

Asset status

The Status field optionally allows you to record asset status related to internal workflows. An asset must have a status of Available (which is the default status) before Access levels (see above) can be used to make it visible or downloadable to clients.

Usage of Status is not mandatory, and by default, all assets will have an Available status.

The following status settings may be applied to an asset:

  • Created: The asset was created and is now present in the system. Regardless of access level, a Created Asset is not available to clients.
  • Review: The asset is earmarked for review. Regardless of access level, a Review Asset is not available to clients.
  • Available: The asset is available without any reservations. Once an asset is Available, access levels can be used to impact its availability to clients.
  • Archived: The asset should not be used productively anymore. Regardless of access level, an Archived asset is not available to clients.
  • Offline: The asset has been moved to long-term storage. Regardless of access level, an Archived asset is not available to clients.


Sales & marketing

A pivotal portion of MediaStore’s functionality relates to presenting content and video to clients. The following core features are especially useful:

Sending screening links to clients via email

In order to send a screening link to any client (whether registered or not), MediaStore’s Recommendations are an easy-to-use tool giving you detailed controls for on-point sharing of videos. To recommend one or more titles, please follow these steps:

  1. In the top left corner, select Create New > Recommendation. Alternatively, on one or multiple selected products in the All products list, select […] > Recommend.
  2. In the wizard’s step 1, add Products until you are happy with the line-up of titles in this recommendation.
  3. In step 2, select the videos to include. All marketing asset videos assigned to the selected products are eligible and can also be preselected by product or type, using the available tickboxes.
  4. In step 3, enter the email Subject and optionally a Message which will be display at the top of the email body.
  5. In step 4, add the Recipients. You may add any email address, no matter if a contact already exists for it or not. If you select Require login, recipients will need to log in to view the link, and any recipients that do not yet exists as contacts will be invited for an account. Optionally, you may also define recipients to CC and BCC.
  6. In step 5, define the message’s validity settings, i.e. expiry date and (optionally) number of views. Here you may also tick Generate links only in case you would only like to receive the links to your own email address, so that you may forward them to the intended recipients manually (e.g. within your existing correspondence).
  7. In step 6, review your recommendation and either Send or Save draft. The latter option will save the recommendation draft under Marketing > Recommendations, where you can revisit and complete it later.

Reviewing client usage analytics

As clients make use of the MediaStore platform, various analytical data is recorded which can be reviewed in detail, such as product page views and video screening. All analytical data can be found in the Analytics section. A few central principles apply to all available pages and views:

  • Each section contains an Overview of the most salient data, and further tabs to navigate into the details more specifically.
  • By default, the past six months are being analyzed; use the date pickers at the top to modify this.
  • The top section also allows you to narrow down the displayed results by territories (contacts’ countries), specific contacts, and in the case of assets, specific products.
  • Where available, you may use the export button in the top right corner to retrieve a spreadsheet export of the currently viewed data.

The following is an overview of the key functionality by Analytics section:

  • Contact analytics (logins and activity by user): Go to Analytics > Contacts. The Overview tab provides a bar chart of overall logins per day, plus views of used devices and activity by weekday. The Top Lists tab shows the contacts with the most product and video views. Detailed stats gives you a breakdown of individual video views, or you can click the Video views dropdown (top left) to change the type of data being analysed.
  • Product analytics (product page views): Go to Analytics > Products. The Overview tab features a bar chart of overall product views per day, plus views of top products and top genres. The Top Lists tab shows the most viewed products in more detail, as well as the contacts with the most product views. Detailed stats gives you a breakdown of individual video views, or you can click the Video views dropdown (top left) to change the type of data being analysed.
  • Asset analytics (video screening): Go to Analytics > Assets. The Overview tab features a bar chart of overall screenings per day, plus views of the top videos and longest screened videos. The Top Lists tab shows the most and longest screened videos in more detail. Detailed stats gives you a breakdown of individual video views, or you can click the Video views dropdown (top left) to change the type of data being analysed.
  • Recommendation analytics: Go to either the contact who received a recommendation or the contact who sent it, and in the contact detail view, on its Analytics tab, change the data being analysed to Recommendations Received or Recommendations Sent as applicable.

Populating slideshows, contact pages and other dynamic elements

MediaStore offers various easy-to-use content management features to help populate frequently changing elements of your client site, such as slideshows, dropdowns and contact pages.

For this purpose, you will find various sections under Website, which typically mirror the pages of your client-facing site, and each of which will feature so-called showcases where the manageable elements can be controlled:

  • Product slideshows: Depending on your client site’s design, you will likely find the relevant showcases under Website > Home Page and/or Website > Genre Pages. Showcases for elements like a hero slider, genre-specific sliders and possibly further featured content will allow you to Add items and Edit in order to determine the items which appear, as well as influence their sort order or remove some of them.
  • Sales Contacts dropdown in the registration form: In case your client site allows new users to select a sales contact, you may manage this list under Website > Registration Page, where the relevant showcase will allow you to Add items and Edit in order to determine the contacts which appear, as well as influence their sort order or remove some of them. Please note that, on each added contact, the access setting should be Public.
  • Content of the client-facing contact page: In case your client site features a non-static contact page, you will find at least one showcase under Website > Contacts Page. Here, you may Add items and Edit in order to determine the contacts which appear, as well as influence their sort order or remove some of them. Please note that, on each added contact, the access setting should be Public (and possibly feature an avatar image in case the client-facing page displays contact images).

Depending on your client site implementation, there could be additional showcase in the Website section (e.g. under News Page, Collections). The title and contents should give sufficient indication of what their purpose is, otherwise please contact us.

Additional sales tools

These optional tools are available at an extra charge and thus may not be included in your MediaStore package. If in doubt, please ask your MediaStore coordinator or contact us directly.

  • iPad application: This app provides offline screening of individually selected titles and videos, making it a perfect tool to take into markets, pitches and meetings. Apart from offering a fully browsable catalog saved in your iPad’s storage, it can also display video in fullscreen and to second screens. A generic version is available for only a per-user monthly fee; optionally, a bespoke app with fully custom branding can also be developed.
  • Screening conferences: Our integrated conferencing solution is purely browser-based, requiring no software installation, and offers all the features you would expect of a state-of-the-art conference tool, such as flexible webcam and audio interfacing, multiple conference modes, waiting rooms, and raise hand functionality. What sets it apart is the possibility of leveraging MediaStore’s streaming architecture to directly deliver an optimal multi-bitrate video stream to each conference participant for top-quality screening calls and even panels and events.
  • Meetings calendar: This tool allows you to manage meetings at, for instance, markets or events, assigning meeting locations, respective capacities, and allocating attending sales executives to them.