This article explains which statuses a Plan Item in Mercury Media can have and how they represent the progress of planning.

Overview

During the planning and execution of a campaign, Plan Items pass through different phases. These phases are represented in the system via defined statuses.

Status Overview

Typically, Plan Items move through the following statuses – until they are either booked or removed from the media plan:

  • In Planning (P):
    • Status is automatically assigned when a Plan Item is created in the plan (initial status).
  • Request approval (R):
    • Once your planning is complete, you can change the status from “P” to “R”.
    • Mercury automatically checks whether key information like runtime and ad format is filled in.
    • If something is missing, you’ll receive direct feedback and can update it.
    • If everything is complete, the approver can change the status to “I”.
    • This step can be skipped – it’s also possible to go directly from “P” to “I”.
  • Internal approval (I):
    • The Plan Item has been internally approved by an authorized person, such as a supervisor or QA.
    • It is still possible to revert the status back to In Planning if needed.
  • External approval (E):
    • The Plan Item has been approved externally, for example by the client, and is now ready for booking.
    • The approval can be made directly in the tool if the client has Mercury access.
    • Alternatively, approval can happen outside the system (e.g. via Excel export) and then be manually set by the planner.
    • The status can also still be reverted to In Planning.
  • Booked (B):
    • The Plan Item has been booked.
    • This status is automatically assigned when an Insertion Order is sent.
    • It can also be set manually without sending an Insertion Order.
    • Once booked, the status can no longer be changed back to In Planning.
  • Canceled:
    • Booked Plan Items cannot be deleted anymore – only canceled.
    • Canceled lines appear crossed out in the media plan.
    • No automatic notification is sent to the publisher upon cancellation.
      • You can create a new Insertion Order (e.g. with booked volume set to "0").
Important note
Canceling a Plan Item cannot be undone!
Metrics from canceled Plan Items still count towards cost and performance calculations.