This article explains how event times displayed in Banners are formatted based on your brand's Time Format Locale and Time Zone settings. This functionality is configurable at the brand level, allowing you to present local times clearly to your audience.
What You Can Configure
Brands can now define how event times appear in Banners using two key settings:
- Time Format Locale: Controls the time format (12-hour vs. 24-hour) and date style (e.g., DD/MM/YYYY vs. MM/DD/YYYY).
- Time Zone: Determines the specific time offset applied to the event timestamp.
Once enabled, these settings automatically apply to any Event Time Merge Tag used inside your banners. Event times will be displayed in the selected format, locale, and time zone before the banner is delivered to the customer.
Before and After
Without this configuration, raw timestamps from the inventory may appear confusing to users.
Before (Raw Data):
The event time appears as a raw data string with time zone offsets (e.g., 2025-11-26 20:00:00+00:00).
After (Formatted):
The event time is converted to a user-friendly format (e.g., 26/11/2025, 20:00).
How to Enable This Feature
There is no self-service option for this setting. To activate Time Format, Locale, and Time Zone control for your Banners:
- Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to open a ticket.
- Specify your required settings:
-
Time Format Locale (e.g.,
en-GB) -
Time Zone (e.g.,
Europe/London)
-
Time Format Locale (e.g.,
How It Works in Banners
Once your brand configuration is updated:
- Automatic Conversion: When using the Event Time Merge Tag in a banner, the system automatically converts and formats the timestamp to match your selected brand settings.
- Short Format: The formatting always uses the short format (e.g., 5 Jan 2025, 15:00).
- No Code Required: No developer or template changes are required on your end.
Configuration Examples
Refer to these examples to help you choose the correct settings for your region.
| Region | Settings | Input Time (Inventory) | Display Result |
|---|---|---|---|
|
North America (12-hour format) |
Zone: America/New_YorkLocale: en-US
|
2025-10-13 20:15:00-04:00 |
10/13/25, 8:15 PM |
|
United Kingdom (24-hour format) |
Zone: Europe/LondonLocale: en-GB
|
2025-10-13 20:15:00-04:00 |
14/10/2025, 01:15 |
|
Germany (24-hour w/ dots) |
Zone: Europe/BerlinLocale: de-DE
|
2025-10-13 20:15:00-04:00 |
14.10.2025, 02:15 |
|
Australia (12-hour format) |
Zone: Australia/SydneyLocale: en-AU
|
2025-10-13 20:15:00-04:00 |
14/10/2025, 11:15 am |
|
Japan (24-hour format) |
Zone: Asia/TokyoLocale: ja-JP
|
2025-10-13 20:15:00-04:00 |
2025/10/14 9:15 |
Technical Reference: Time Zones and Locales
Time Zones
Time zones are defined using the IANA Time Zone Database. Common examples include:
-
America/New_York(Eastern Time) -
Europe/London(GMT/BST) -
Asia/Tokyo(Japan Standard Time)
For a complete list of valid time zone identifiers, refer to the IANA Time Zone Database.
Locales
Locales follow the BCP 47 standard (typically language-REGION). This determines the date format and clock style:
-
en-US(English, United States) -
en-GB(English, United Kingdom) -
en-AU(English, Australia) -
de-DE(German, Germany) -
fr-FR(French, France) -
es-ES(Spanish, Spain) -
ja-JP(Japanese, Japan) -
pt-BR(Portuguese, Brazil)
For more information on locale identifiers, see Wikipedia's IETF language tag article.
Important Notes
- Scope: This setting applies only to Banners.
- Brand-Wide: The configuration is brand-wide—if you operate multiple regions within one brand, the setting will affect all regions. We do not yet support assigning time zones per end-user.
- Support: You must contact your CSM to change or update these settings.