# Flight plan — Fintech

The flight plan with three columns a regulated financial product needs: which product this week sells, which market it may be delivered in, and the reference of the review that cleared the creative running in it.

Everything else is the general flight plan, unchanged. One row per week of one line of spend, a phase on every row, a share of the flight on each, and a decision point at the end of every phase.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. Write one row per week per line of spend, including the quiet weeks.
3. Give every phase a first week and a last week, and name the phase on every row inside it.
4. Leave Share of flight budget and Budget blank until the weight has been agreed against a plan you have.
5. Put a decision point on the last row of every phase, written as a question.
6. Give every dependency a due date that falls before the week that needs it.
7. Re-read the flight every Monday against what the accounts actually spent.

## The columns

**Flight** (Text). The acquisition period this row belongs to: a quarter, a product launch, a standing programme. Named so that a period spanning a rate change can be split at the date and still be read as one flight.

**Phase** (Text). Where in the programme this week falls: launch, sustain, wind-down. The wind-down here is retargeting under narrower wording, which is why it is a phase rather than a tail.

**Channel** (Text). The platform this row's spend runs on, one per row, matching the media plan so a week of spend can be reconciled against the plan the review cleared.

**Campaign** (Text). The campaign name as it reads in the ad account, carrying the product and the market, so an export answers what ran where without anybody opening the account.

**Week starting** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The Monday. Weeks are the unit because creative in this category is replaced on review cycles rather than on performance, and a week is the smallest period a replacement can be planned into.

**Share of flight budget** (Percent). What proportion of the period this week is meant to carry. A launch weighted early suits new creative whose applicant quality is still being read; a flat profile suits a product with steady search demand.

**Budget (minor units)** (Integer). The week's budget for this row, in the smallest unit of its currency, as a whole number, so the weekly rows still add to the figure the acquisition plan committed.

**Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The ISO 4217 code the ad account bills in, which for a product authorised in one market is one code and should stay that way. Two codes in this column usually means two rows are missing.

**Creative set** (Text). Which cleared assets are in market this week. It is the column that pairs with the review reference: together they say what was running and under what clearance on any given week.

**Dependency** (Text). What this week needs from outside the ad account: the page update, the disclosure refresh, the new review, the product change landing mid-week. Put the due date in the cell, a week ahead of the row.

**Decision point** (Text). What is being decided at the end of this week, as a question about who is arriving rather than how many: whether the approval rate is holding, whether applicants match the product's eligibility.

**Owner** (Text). The person who answers for this row, usually the acquisition marketer, with the reviewer owning anything that changes what the creative claims.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the rate change and its date, the review that took three weeks, the week creative was out of market, the seasonal effect this product shows every year.

**Product** (Text). The financial product this week's spend sells: a card, an account, a loan type, a payments rail. It sets the review, the disclosure and the result definition at once.

**Jurisdiction** (Text). The market this week may be delivered in, in the terms your authorisation uses. A week running in two markets under different wording is two rows, not one with a note.

**Review reference** (Text). The identifier of the review that cleared the creative in market this week, with its date. It is what makes the flight answerable to the question of what was running when.

## The flight plan

| Flight | Phase | Channel | Campaign | Week starting | Share of flight budget | Budget (minor units) | Currency | Creative set | Dependency | Decision point | Owner | Notes | Product | Jurisdiction | Review reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- Every week of every line has a row, including the quiet ones.
- Every row names one product and one jurisdiction.
- Every row carries the review reference of the creative in market that week.
- No week runs creative whose review predates the last change to a rate, a fee or a term.
- Every phase names its first week, its last week and its intent.
- Every dependency has a due date before the week that needs it.
- Every phase carries at least one decision point, written as a question.