Back to all solutions

AD DESIGN WORKFLOW

The ad was sold on Tuesday. Design found out on Thursday.

AdScout gives every sold ad a spec, a due date, and a place in the designer's queue — and the Digital Asset Manager keeps the logo, the photo, and last year's version where the designer can actually find them.

Book a DemoSee how the Production Suite works
AdScout working inside Adobe InDesign: a panel of order detail on the left listing the advertiser, who ordered it, the ad size, section, number of runs and run dates; the ad itself being built in the centre from the advertiser's logo and product photograph; the linked assets beside it; and the AdScout script menu open on the right.

Runs on

AdScout + DAM

Specs, assets, designer queue

See how the Production Suite works

THE PROBLEM

Designers end up doing account management.

The handoff between sales and design is where most publications lose the most time, and almost none of it shows up in a report. A rep sells a half page. The specs arrive as a forwarded email with the subject line "ad for Friday." The logo is attached to a message from two years ago. Nobody is sure whether the client approved the headline or just liked it.

Designers chase the rep for copy, chase the client for a usable logo, and rebuild artwork that already exists somewhere on a shared drive under a filename only one person understands.

Then the same ad runs again next month, and the whole cycle repeats, because there is no record that the finished version was ever the finished version.

THE ASSET LIBRARY

The logo is on the account, not in an email from two years ago.

Logos, product photography, and prior creative live against the advertiser. The designer opens the current approved file instead of searching a shared drive for a name only one person understands.

  • Assets attach to the advertiser, so the approved version is the one found first
  • A repeat or pickup insertion reuses the real file rather than triggering a rebuild
  • At renewal the artwork is already there, so nobody asks the client for it again

One stored file

One stored file, three orders a year apart. At renewal it is already there — nobody has to ask the advertiser to send their logo again.

WHAT CHANGES

The job arrives complete, and the artwork comes back.

  • Every sold ad arrives with size, colour, placement, issue date, and copy attached
  • Designers work from a queue ordered by deadline instead of an inbox
  • Logos, photos, and prior artwork are stored against the advertiser, not on a drive
  • Repeat and pickup ads reuse the approved file rather than getting rebuilt
  • Sales can see where an ad stands without walking over to ask

HOW IT WORKS

From sold order to finished art, without the email thread.

The order carries everything design needs, and the finished file goes back where the next insertion will find it.

  1. 1

    The order carries the spec

    When the ad is sold, size, colour, section, issue date, and instructions travel with it. Design does not have to reconstruct the job from a forwarded message.

  2. 2

    Assets attach to the advertiser

    Logos, product photos, and prior creative live in the Digital Asset Manager against the account, so the current version is the one the designer opens — not the newest email attachment.

  3. 3

    The queue is the to-do list

    AdScout shows what is due, for which issue, and what is still waiting on the client, in deadline order. The designer stops triaging and starts designing.

  4. 4

    Status is visible to everyone

    Sold, in design, out for approval, approved, placed. The rep can answer the client's question without interrupting the designer.

  5. 5

    Finished art goes back on the account

    Next time that advertiser runs, the approved file is already there, ready to pick up or revise. The rebuild stops happening.

PROOF

A weekly paper using the Fake Brains production tools cut a single issue's ad and page work from nine hours to five and a half — about 182 hours a year returned to the production department.

The publication asked to stay anonymous. The figure comes from the published PageScout case study, measured on the same production workflow.

9 → 5.5 hrs
Ad and page work for a single issue, before and after.
182 hrs
Returned to the production department across a year.

WHERE IT CONNECTS

Design sits in the middle of the workflow.

Ad proofing and approvals

Send the finished ad out for client approval, and keep the record of who signed off.

Explore

Ad dummying and pagination

Place the approved ad on the page inside InDesign, from the real order.

Explore

Ad sales CRM

Where the order and the spec originate, before design ever sees it.

Explore

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions publishers ask about ad design workflow.

No. Your designers keep working in InDesign. AdScout and the Digital Asset Manager handle everything around the design work — the specs, the assets, the queue, and the record of what was approved.

The rest of the workflow

Sales & CRMPipeline, quotes, follow-ups, mobile accessMarketing OutreachAdvertiser email, campaign history, lapsed-account winbackProofing & ApprovalsRoute creative through approvalProduction & PaginationStatus, deadlines, page-ready handoffsBilling, A/R & PaymentsInvoices, ePayments, receipts, agingDigital Website & SubscriptionsCMS, digital editions, classifieds online

See It In Action

Walk us through one ad, start to finish

Sold on Monday, printed on Friday. Tell us every step it takes at your paper today, and we will show you which of those steps stop existing.

Book a Demo