Is your marketing team harnessing the power of Creative Automation?
Empower your marketing teams and benefit from significant time and cost savings
We often think of automation as a tool for taking on tasks that can be monotonous and simplistic, such as file renaming, or administrative chores. But automation can also be utilised for more complex creative tasks to improve speed and efficiency across teams, streamlining processes and yielding significant time and cost savings. Use it to revolutionise your online briefing processes, online approval, digital asset storage and retrieval, even your advertising production.
ONLINE BRIEFING
Briefing is a major pain, let’s be honest. Everyone has a different way of approaching a brief, and a different take on the hierarchy of information required. It’s also hard to apply accountability at briefing stage as often things are handled verbally, or between two or three parties and not inclusive of the whole team. An online briefing platform simplifies and expediates the process, capturing project details, preferences, and reference materials in one place for everyone to see, eliminating the need for multiple meetings, ensuring everyone has accurate information from the off, and minimising miscommunication and errors.
Pain points:
Hard to get all parties involved at brief stage
Errors in content or missing assets can lead to unnecessary amendment reloops
Poor accountability or ownership between team members
Benefits:
Streamlined communication gets everyone on the same page at the start of every project
Project initiation is more formalised, and requirements are clearer and more accurate
Better communication and reduced content errors leads to faster turnaround times and less amendment rounds
ARTWORK MANAGEMENT
Version 3? Version 7? Has this one been through QC? I don’t think this is the latest iteration...
Automation tools that centralise the design process are revolutionary for artwork management, with cloud-based collaborative platforms allowing marketing teams to seamlessly collaborate with designers. This allows for real-time feedback, revisions, and eliminates the need for lengthy email chains and miscommunication. Team members can simultaneously work on different aspects of the project, speeding things up, and automated version control ensures that everyone is working on the latest iteration, fostering efficient collaboration and reducing the risk of errors creeping in.
Pain points:
Outdated versions that lead to errors and missed amends
Poor collaboration and slow progress waiting on colleagues to finish tasks independent of one another
Long email chains and poor accountability for review and QC
Benefits:
Improved collaboration and team productivity
Clear version control and simplified file management
Streamlined review and approval processes
ONLINE APPROVAL
Reducing amendment rounds can cut your project spends by up to 30%.
Online approval platforms enable swift and efficient approval of design concepts, eliminating delays by physical proofing and manual sign-off procedures. Workflows can be directed at relevant team members depending on the stage of the project, with proxy approvers allocated to cover sickness, leave or changes in staffing. Plus, with approval provided in real time, regardless of location, you can involve international teams easily and efficiently. Amendment notes are easily seen, with full accountability as to who requested changes and amendments, reducing errors and misunderstandings that lead to unnecessary internal reloops.
Pain points:
Poor paper trails mean that team members don’t take ownership of requested amends
Extra time has to be allowed for the shipping of proofs, and feedback to be received
International communication can lead to miscommunication errors
Benefits:
Accelerated approval cycles reduce project timelines
Enhanced satisfaction and engagement from all parties
Minimised risk of miscommunication or errors
DIGITAL ASSET STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
Marketing teams often handle a vast number of digital assets, including logos, images, POS, and brand guidelines. Automation simplifies the storage and retrieval of these assets by providing a centralised digital asset management system or DAM. With intuitive search functions, marketeers can quickly locate and access required files, saving time that would otherwise be spent searching through folders or requesting assets from colleagues. Moreover, automation ensures proper file organisation, reducing the risk of misplaced or lost assets. Finally, sophisticated systems allow assets to be downloaded specific to usage requirements, meaning file formats can be supplied as required without having to involve artwork to change formats to suit.
Pain points:
Lost and misplaced assets that take time and effort to collate
Multiple format versions that cause confusion and poor synergy across touchpoints
Time wasted dealing with asset requests from colleagues, and having to share multiple files by email
Benefits:
Efficient asset organisation and accessibility
Time savings in locating and retrieving digital assets
Minimised risk of assets being lost or misplaced
AUTOMATED BANNER AD PRODUCTION
Automation presents a significant time-saving benefit for marketing teams through automated banner ad production.
With the proliferation of social media and web platforms, advertisers require ad designs tailored to different sizes and formats. Automation tools enable designers to create a master design and automatically resize it to fit various platforms, eliminating the need for manual resizing. This significantly reduces the time and effort required to produce multiple versions of an ad.
Pain points:
Creating multiple sizes of banner adverts takes up valuable time
Designs have to be resized and adapted to suit each format, using up precious artwork allocation
Any changes made to messaging means having to update dozens of adverts manually, which can be hugely time consuming for your team
Benefits:
Rapid production of ad designs for multiple platforms
Consistency in design elements and branding across platforms
Time and cost savings through automated resizing
Automation has emerged as a transformative force for marketing teams, revolutionising workflows and empowering them to achieve better results. By leveraging automation tools and processes such as online briefing, artwork management, online approval, digital asset storage, retrieval, and automated banner ad production, marketing teams can save time, reduce costs, and drive impactful campaigns. Embracing automation not only improves efficiency and productivity but also enables marketing teams to focus on strategic initiatives and achieve their marketing objectives with greater ease.
Talk to us about our range of automated workflows designed to service Marketing Teams for general marketing communications and packaging, where large volumes of packaging artworks need to be managed.