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The pressure for advertisers to get their campaigns out to the masses quickly has increased over the years. It’s a race against time to get the very latest marketing drives out to newspapers, magazines or retailers – especially if there’s a big event on like the World Cup, which presents a huge opportunity for brands.

But it’s an opportunity that can easily be missed if the channels to get an ad into a publication are slow and clunky. On the other side of the fence, publishers are faced with a raft of PDFs that don’t match their strict criteria. It’s a challenge that some vendors are rising to, with the aim of curing the headaches of creatives, publishers and printers alike.

Version three of Adstream’s AdBuilder product is designed to make life easier for publishers, brands, printers and agencies. Essentially an online verification and templating system, AdBuilder creates, validates and delivers press-ready PDFs. The company claims several advantages for its product: it saves time, enables brand consistency in any publication and ensures that everyone in the process knows exactly what they’re working to.

"We can deliver a press-ready file," explains Kirk Brauch, Adstream product manager. "The system can take artwork, validate it and send it. On top of that the system can actually create the artwork."

Debt to Quickprint
AdBuilder owes a lot to Adstream’s Quickprint. This is designed to automatically check and validate every print job sent to a publisher. Adstream claims it’s a powerful system that takes advantage of the "world’s largest database" of publishing production details. The product can export direct to PDF from Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress, and that PDF can then be sent to multiple destinations.

The AdBuilder product takes this idea further by allowing the user to create their own item of artwork, albeit within the guidelines set out by the publisher. The product is suitable for publishers, repro houses, agencies and printers – pretty much any organisation in the production chain.

"In many instances you can lose control over how an advert can be reproduced," adds Brauch. "This product gives a level of control on how the brand message is delivered and reproduced. Previously the ad would be put onto a CD and shipped to the publisher or a location like a retailer. At that point the lead agency loses control on what goes out."

Control is a key word: AdBuilder not only gives the relevant agency control over what goes across to a publisher but, according to Adstream, it allows them to build their own ad through a template. "We can step through every object on the page," adds Brauch. "There are a lot of objects the user can incorporate and it gives them the power to decide what template will be made."

Creating a template
Essentially a template can be created by the brand or central agency. In addition, the user can refer to a set of approved images – for example, product shots – that can be placed into the image container, and has a selection of approved fonts for use. The user can control the font size and ensure that the text fits correctly.

It’s these features that ensure that there is brand consistency across any print campaign. However, there is another practical reason for ensuring that ads are created in a highly controlled way. Each user is able to check that the file they’re set to forward to the publisher or printer is appropriate.

Getting it right first time cuts the need for players in the production chain to ping files back and forth. The publisher or end-user stipulates the exact requirements and what parameters need to be considered. This includes ink weight limits and JPG file sizes. In total there are more than 380 separate parameters on a single file and Adstream has access to 50,000 publication specifications, from 5,000 customers.

"It can prepare a PDF that can be printed," adds Brauch. "The specifications come directly from the publishers and show exactly how the ad needs to be constructed. If not every­thing is completed, the file won’t be able to move forward. AdBuilder is a simple tool but the template side has significant rules that allow someone to modify the artwork. Also, as it incorporates an artwork maker, the user no longer needs to know exactly how to operate InDesign or Quark."

On the other side of the fence, the publisher, printer or repro house is able to view the artwork and spot whether the file adheres to the rules. It also allows anyone in the workflow to see where a file is in the queue, whether it’s been passed or pending approval. A list details whether the file has hit its targets in style, width or height.

"The rules rescale everything automatically, so you don’t have to spend hours reworking an InDesign document," explains Brauch. "It also creates some very dynamic workflows. You can see the relevant artwork that is pending for review and view each page individually, checking all the rules have been followed."

Adstream general manager Angus Fear adds that AdBuilder can be integrated into a company’s existing workflow. The aim is to make the system as flexible as possible for the user and to ensure that it’s easy to use.

New features
Currently at version three, AdBuilder is expected to be upgraded in the next few weeks. According to Brauch, new features are added around four times a year and any small upgrade is immediately made available to users. "We don’t offer one upgrade every 12 months with lots of different features," he adds. "It means that it’s not such a big jump."

There are two price models. A transactional price costs less than £100, while a licence fee ranges from £2,000 to £3,000 per month, depending on the application. AdBuilder is based on the software as a service (SaaS) model and, as its browser-based, there’s no additional software needed. It’s multiplatform and can run on either Safari or Firefox.

"The template maker has all the relevant components and AdBuilder supports Flash," explains Brauch. "In addition there is support for HTML 5 – which looks like the technology that could replace Flash."

Sizeable database
Adstream believes its sizable database gives it an edge in the ad delivery market. While Vio Worldwide claims to be the most advanced web-based delivery system for PDF press ads (PrintWeek, Product of the Week, 15 May 2009), Adstream counters that its database gives it a worldwide reach, which comes in handy for publishers and repro houses handling a raft of files from different continents. "There is a growth of globalised brands," adds Fear.

But Adstream sees the product’s major appeal as the time it takes out of the production process. While brands might want more control over what goes into publications, being fleet of foot is crucial. Promotional marketing often has a short lead time. Ferrying CDs or Zip discs around takes time; the theory is that AdBuilder saves a huge amount of time and means the speed to market has improved considerably.

"In just 10 minutes you can prepare a file, send it to the agency for approval and then forward it to a target publication," says Brauch.

All of which means that if a brand wants to react to, for example, a result in the World Cup, it can prepare a file with a relevant promotional offer and send it over quickly. In addition to the speed advantages, agencies, printers, publishers and repro houses are also saving quite a significant chunk of money in courier costs.

And there are environmental benefits, as every part of the production chain gains an opportunity to reduce its carbon footprint.

The message from Adsend is that the latest version of its AdBuilder product speeds up the production process as well as improving the channels of communication. And with a global reach, the company believes that it can assist brands and publishers in any market.

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SPECIFICATIONS

Contact Adstream 020 7539 8383 www.adstream.com

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THE ALTERNATIVE

 

Vio Adsend

Browser-based Adsend is designed to be simple to use as it applies the same principles as the likes of Amazon or eBay. From a sender’s point of view a PDF file can be sent to a publication with the relevant specifications. Adsend is able to analyse the file and check specifications including correct ink weight, colour space, image dpi, fonts, vector objects and PostScript data. The product can go deeper and indicate the correct trim, bleed and type size as well as recording the correct Photoshop settings. It’s available in AML, AdsML, JDF and XML job ticket metadata exchange formats. Multiple users can work simultaneously. In addition Adsend can assist in billing, factoring invoicing which should, in theory, settle any costly disputes.