At automaton, we have a passionate team of people who work tirelessly to ensure that the user experience is at the heart of everything we do. It’s thrilling, then, when we get to see first hand how our solution – admation – is helping businesses to streamline their marketing processes.

In 2013 Ad Agency, Whybin \ TBWA Group, won the David Jones account to act as its new creative and production agency. The pitch also included the addition of a technology solution that would streamline David Jones’ marketing approval process. Whybin \ TBWA Group nominated admation, a solution it had utilised previously, as its preferred technology.

Yvette Henderson, Head of Operations at Whybin \ TBWA Group, oversaw the implementation of admation for David Jones. Primarily, the agency selected admation because of its simple and affordable implementation, and user-friendly interface.

“Those things are very important when you’re managing change,” says Henderson. “And with David Jones, it’s a business that has been operating in the same way for a very long time, so introducing new technology had to be simple.”

Prior to the implementation of admation, David Jones was using traditional methods for approving marketing collateral.

“The way that it was handled previously was that they’d mark it up on a board and then traffic between offices,” says Henderson. “Everything was handwritten, and often calls were made and emails were sent, etc. When you’re working with a many-page catalogue, trying to transpose those manually can be really time consuming. Multiple changes have an effect on budget.”

Henderson highlights that David Jones wanted find a technology that would improve its overall marketing approval process.

Enter admation.

“So putting things online with an approval process that has a hierarchy and also manages the collation of feedback allows for a more consolidated feedback system,” says Henderson.

Our team worked closely with Whybin \ TBWA Group to implement admation for David Jones. Henderson notes it was a highly successful implementation for a number of reasons. “One, as an agency, this is a contractual requirement as part of the pitch so we take it very seriously,” says Henderson. “Secondly, (David Jones) marketing supported this 110%. Everybody had training as it was mandatory to use the system. And we had dedicated kick off. We had people on the ground from automaton doing the implementation on the launch day. Any question and feedback were really easy to deal with.”

Additionally, Henderson says that her agency was notified by automaton about any developmental changes overnight and, if any issues did arise, such as setting business rules and the number of people approving collateral, they were all resolved promptly.

“The guys were absolutely great,” says Henderson. “It was that personal contact and their availability. Their response times have been great.”

So what are the key benefits of using admation?

“Being able to project manage very quickly and know the status of your job,” says Henderson. “Because there are a number of stakeholders on any given job, it’s having that one central place of communication.”

Henderson adds that she thinks the version compare tool is invaluable.

“That’s probably one of the best features,” says Henderson. “You can quickly find out what’s been instructed and what you’re getting back. The compare tool is priceless.”

So what are Henderson’s favourite features of admation?

“I think it is the version control,” says Henderson. “And also being able to track the history on a job, who’s approved it, when it was submitted, and so on, as you’re not trolling through emails to find the information. When you’re working on multiple jobs that can be really tiresome. So you’re going online and being able to action things really quickly.”

While the agency is still setting up the digital asset management component of admation, this added feature is another reason why the agency selected it.

“Having to find the assets, having to understand usage, that is really important,” says Henderson. “And also allowing the client to see what’s available very quickly and to be able to use it again. So for example, ‘I’ve got a fashion campaign, what can I use?’ That’s priceless.”

And, finally, how does Henderson think a solution such as admation is changing the way brands and agencies work?

“There’s less discrepancies,” says Henderson. “And there’s absolute transparency on any project. It makes people more honest, to be frank. It ensures that everything is recorded, not pending someone’s email or an individual’s opinion. If you search for something in August, all the work will be there. It gives you a good sense of how a business works very quickly.”