# Dayparting: the right content at the right time > The people in front of your screen at 8am aren't the ones there at 8pm, and they don't want the same things. Here's how to plan screen content around the day, the week and the season. Guides · https://jonza.app/en/guides/dayparting-guide · [TR](https://jonza.app/tr/rehberler/gun-ici-icerik-planlama.md) ## What dayparting means Dayparting is splitting the day into parts and showing different content in each. Restaurants have always done it with separate breakfast and lunch menus; radio and TV do it with their schedules. On a screen, it means the board shows what someone can actually buy, or needs to know, at the moment they're looking at it. It matters because a screen gets a few seconds of attention. If those seconds go to a breakfast offer at 3pm, or a lunch deal that ended an hour ago, the screen is working against you. A screen that changes with the day looks looked-after, and it sells what's on. ## Start from your day, not from the screen Before planning any content, write down how a normal day actually runs. When do you open? When does the first rush come, and who is in it? When does the menu change in the kitchen? When is it quiet? Most businesses find three to five natural parts. A café's day might look like this: - Opening to 11:00: coffee and breakfast, people in a hurry on their way to work. - 11:00 to 15:00: lunch, office crowds, a queue at the counter. - 15:00 to 18:00: a quieter afternoon. Cakes, cold drinks, people with time to look around. - 18:00 to closing: evening menu, or a wind-down with an offer to clear the day's pastries. A shop's parts are different: a quiet morning for regulars, a lunchtime rush, after-work browsing. A gym's are built around class times. The method is the same: find the parts, then ask what someone in each part needs to see. > Change the content a little before each part begins. If lunch starts at 12:00, switch the screen at 11:45, so the first people in the queue see the lunch menu. ## Weekdays and weekends Weekends usually run on a different clock. Mornings start later, families come in, people stay longer. A café that sells grab-and-go coffee at 8am on a Tuesday might sell a sit-down brunch at 11am on a Saturday. The screens should know the difference. Plan weekdays and weekends as separate days, even if most of the content is shared. Typical weekend changes are a later breakfast, a brunch offer, and longer afternoons for treats and family deals. If one weekday is special, like a market day or a late-opening evening, give it its own plan too. ## Weekend content that runs itself A brunch offer that only appears on Saturday and Sunday mornings is easy to forget if someone has to switch it on by hand. Put it on the calendar once, and it shows up every weekend. - Repeat on weekdays, weekends or a single date - Priorities decide what wins when plans overlap ## Seasonal and one-off campaigns On top of the daily rhythm sit the things that only happen for a while: an autumn drink, a summer menu, a holiday opening time, a one-day sale. These are where screens save the most work, and where they most often go wrong when nobody takes the old content down. - Give every campaign a start and an end date before it goes up. - Decide what it replaces. A seasonal drink might take the place of a regular one in the loop, rather than making the loop longer. - Decide whether it shows all day, or only in the parts of the day it fits. An iced drink sells better in the afternoon than at 7am. - Plan the next campaign before the current one ends, so the slot doesn't fall back to something stale. In Jonza, campaigns sit on the same weekly calendar as everything else, with a priority. A one-day sale with a higher priority wins over the usual content on that day, and when the day is over the usual content comes back by itself. ## How many items in a loop Most screens show a loop: a few items shown one after another, round and round. The question is how long that loop should be. A good starting point is to ask how long people stand in front of the screen. In a queue that takes two minutes, a loop of a minute or so means everyone sees everything at least once. In a window that people walk past in five seconds, a single strong message works better than a loop of ten. As a rough guide: - Window or entrance screens: one to three items. People are walking. - Menu boards above the counter: the menu itself stays put, with at most one or two offers taking turns beside it. - Waiting areas and lobbies: a longer loop of five to eight items is fine, since people stay a while. If the loop keeps growing, it's usually a sign that some items belong to a different part of the day. Move them there instead of adding them to the same loop. ## How long each item shows Long enough to read, short enough not to bore. Count how long it takes you to read an item aloud at a normal pace, then add a couple of seconds. A photo with a short headline might need six to eight seconds; a list of prices needs ten to fifteen. Videos run as long as they are, so trim them to the part that matters. > Watch your loop through once, standing where customers stand. If you find yourself waiting for the next item, shorten it. If an item changes before you've finished reading it, lengthen it. ## Putting a day plan together 1. **List the parts of your day**: Write down three to five parts with their times, for weekdays and for weekends. 2. **Make one playlist per part**: Breakfast, lunch, afternoon, evening. Keep each one short and aimed at the people in front of the screen at that time. 3. **Put them on the calendar**: Set each playlist's days and times, add campaigns with their dates and a higher priority, and check what plays now and what comes next. 4. **Review once a month**: Take off what's finished, move items that ended up in the wrong part of the day, and plan the next season ahead. ## Questions ### Do I need a separate screen for each part of the day? No. The same screen shows different content at different times. That's the point of dayparting: one screen, the right content for each part of the day. ### What happens when two plans overlap? In Jonza, each plan has a priority, and when plans overlap the higher priority wins. That's how a one-day campaign can take over from the usual menu without you deleting anything. ### Can different branches follow different plans? Yes. Each screen follows the schedule you assign to it, so branches can share one plan or each have their own. ### How often should I change my content? Prices and menus as soon as they change. Offers and campaigns every few weeks, so regulars don't stop noticing them. The daily rhythm itself can stay the same for months. ## Read next - [Scheduling](https://jonza.app/en/features/scheduling.md): A weekly calendar that switches playlists by day and time, with priorities for when plans overlap. - [Setting Up a Café Menu Board](https://jonza.app/en/guides/cafe-menu-screen-setup.md): Placement, orientation, text size, how many items, photos and prices: a menu screen that people can actually read. - [Cafés & Restaurants](https://jonza.app/en/solutions/cafes-restaurants.md): Menu boards that follow the time of day, with price changes that reach every branch in seconds. --- Jonza is a digital signage platform by Erpa Teknoloji. Contact: info@jonza.app