Condé Nast Britain

With a focus on high-quality content and design, Condé Nast is always looking for ways to streamline their workflow and improve efficiency in their advertising production process.

Background

The company traces its roots to 1909, when Condé Montrose Nast, a New York City-born publisher, purchased Vogue, a printed magazine launched in 1892 as a New York weekly journal of society and fashion news.

The company also introduced British Vogue in 1916, and Condé Nast became the first publisher of an overseas edition of an existing magazine. Its magazines focus on a wide range of subjects, including travel, food, home, and culture, with fashion the larger portion of the company's focus. In 1922, he incorporated Condé Nast Publications as the holding company for his interests.

In 2011 Condé Nast Britain began the search for a partner to facilitate spec distribution, ad delivery and workflow automation across their UK publications.

Evaluation

Condé Nast initially approached Specle with the goal of improving the quality and consistency of the advertising materials they receive from clients. With Specle's ad creation tools, clients can easily create and customize ads to meet Condé Nast's specifications, ensuring that each ad meets the company's high standards for design and layout.

Incoming ads were being delivered with varying specs via multiple channels and the workflow to process these was manual and time-consuming; “We were using Repro Houses to flightcheck and proof our printed advertising.” Condé Nast Britain had to copy-chase the ads, deliver them to Repro Houses for validation and wait for the ads to be sent back before sending them to print. As they did not have the means to automate this process, they could not improve efficiency.

The main goals were:

• Manual workflow to process ads arriving via multiple channels
• Ads failing against specifications
• High levels of support requests

The company's vision is to “be synonymous with engaging, visually arresting and innovating publishing.” The objective in collaborating with an ad validation and delivery provider was to make the submission of print and digital advertising easy for clients and to retain the highest quality control possible.

They wanted a 'one-stop shop' with the ability to manage and check all print and digital advertising. To achieve this, they required a partner with expertise, understanding and commitment and in 2012 they started working with Specle.

Solution

Our solution was:

• Automated workflow to process ads delivered via one channel
• Validation process for every ad
• Prepress support team

For Condé Nast Britain the Specle portal decreases their manual workload and makes it easier for advertisers to deliver verified PDFs that will print as expected. The portal connects to their internal workflows and third-party systems and Specle's team of prepress technicians offers technical support to the publisher's advertisers if they require help producing print-ready ads.

Additionally, Specle's automated preflight checks help to catch any potential errors or issues in the advertising materials before they are sent to Conde Nast, saving both time and resources for the publishing company. This has helped Conde Nast to reduce the number of revisions needed for each ad, resulting in faster turnaround times and improved client satisfaction.

Furthermore, Specle's seamless ad delivery platform has made it easier for Conde Nast to receive and review advertising materials from clients. With Specle, clients can easily upload and submit their ads directly to Conde Nast, eliminating the need for manual file transfers and reducing the risk of errors or delays in the delivery process.

Recommendation

Now Specle displays Condé Nast Britain's requirements on a globally accessible platform, providing a customisable and comprehensive ad validation and delivery portal.

“Specle really has made a world of difference to us.”

Production Director, Sarah Jenson, remembers that the communication between Specle and Condé Nast Britain was integral to the publisher's successful trialling and testing of the portal. Demos on how to use the portal were offered to advertisers and agencies during the transition period and Specle's support team has assisted advertisers with portal and prepress queries following its implementation.

All incoming ads are now validated against Condé Nast Britain's requirements to ensure a faster internal workflow.

For Condé Nast Britain the best aspects of working with Specle have been a collaborative and proactive approach, a trusting relationship built on regular communication and adaptability to growing requirements. Condé Nast Britain and Specle will continue to work together to optimise the publishing process and to make it as easy as possible for brands to advertise with them.

Overall, the partnership between Conde Nast and Specle has proven to be a success, with Conde Nast seeing significant improvements in their advertising production process. By leveraging Specle's ad creation tools, preflight checks, and ad delivery platform, Conde Nast has been able to streamline their workflow, improve efficiency, and maintain their reputation for high-quality content and design.