A couple of years ago, GTN decided to overhaul many years’ worth of workflow process with our clients in Detroit’s thriving automotive advertising production community. We decided to take part in a large-scale pilot program with WAM! NET, provider of business-to-business electronic network, storage, application and hosting services, and to take eight of our clients down the test road with us. I am always looking for ways to improve our process. So together with WAM!NET’s e-services operation, we enlisted our ad agency client base to experience and participate in a seamless digital workflow, migrating our traditionally tape- and film-based work to a fully digital networked environment.
We decided to participate in this project, because we were already experiencing the advantage of having a completely digital workflow pattern in-house, between departments. The challenge was in convincing our clients that this could work across other business environments. We had to prove to our clients that working digitally, with file-based content, would make them more capable of controlling various aspects of their productions. We had to frame the trial period in such a way that they would feel comfortable in trying out working digitally, and would not feel pressured by implementing the new technology. This included installing dual T-1s and desktop hardware at each of our customer test sites, allowing files to be transported securely and quickly, directly from GTN to the agencies via the WAM!NET network.
The pilot program started with some of the top advertising agencies in Detroit, including BBDO Detroit, Campbell Ewald, Darcy, FCB, J. Walter Thompson and Y&R Detroit. Kutz and STS are two creative film editorial houses that are also on the network, and not only use it to communicate with those involved in our pilot program, but with other companies worldwide that are connected to the WAM!NET network. We encouraged the participation of our direct competitors as well, since our belief from the beginning was that essentially the network is only as valuable as its industry penetration. Our goal was to truly allow market-wide participation and utilization.
The challenge for us in getting started was to not only prove the effectiveness in connecting our facility directly to the advertising agencies, but to create an understanding of how they could leverage the network to collaborate internally and directly with their customers and other vendors. The goal is for the advertising agencies to also adopt this for their internal purposes, thereby saving valuable production time. Instead of shuttling tapes around for legal, network clearance, etc., agencies can adopt the digital workflow so that they can send the spot anywhere, anytime from desktop to desktop.
Since the trial was technical in nature, we proposed basic services that included encode, deliver and digital storage services. So in practice, when there is a spot for review at an agency, we will encode and deliver it, and keep the encoded version archived and linked to the traditional physical elements in our library digitally. In the past, if clients wanted to check on the color of a car or another specific detail within an archived spot or piece of footage, they would call our librarians—who would spend a lot of time jogging through master tapes to answer the clients’ inquiry. Now, with digital archiving, we no longer have to scan a physical tape. When we encode a digital file, it goes into the archive managed by browser-based tools. Once archived, the network is searchable through password-protected partitions, both externally by our clients, and internally by our librarians.
Everything in automotive advertising operates on very tight deadlines. Content is being re-purposed on a daily basis with the changing of each new incentive program—so for this environment, direct results and "just in time" review and approvals are a daily requirement. We are constantly renewing content with new incentives, offers, messages and voiceovers. Typically we use the same basic visual content and customize from there. In the automotive marketplace, dynamic "just in time" workflow saves us a lot of unnecessary headaches. In one scenario, client FCB-Detroit completed a Chrysler campaign, working with production company Animal Logic in Australia. Animal Logic needed to get files back to the Chrysler agency in Detroit; they used the GTN/ WAM!NET network connection to transport files back and forth, shaving several days off the production schedule.
All-digital workflow is inevitable; it is where our industry is headed. We elected to participate in a pilot program that connected us with our clients. Soon everyone will need to work this way as mean-time-to-delivery service expectations accelerate. Companies remain concerned about the investments required and the amount of change to the workflow "status quo" involved in implementing this technology. Creating an environment that is rich in enterprise-based digital workflow, and demonstrating the power and creativity of these solutions to our customers, will allow our industry to increase the "value added" service proposition for post-production in the new world economy.
