The weekly doorstep brochure
Every week, Hoogvliet Supermarkets distributes a door-to-door brochure containing all the weekly offers. Various teams are involved in the preparation and planning of the weekly campaigns: marketing, category managers, photographers and designers. All disciplines regularly consult with each other, whereby new insights are constantly created. Changes to the layout are therefore often necessary. Because Hoogvliet has outsourced the creative process to her advertising agency, a well-oiled process and seamless collaboration are indispensable.
Optimizing the process
With that goal in mind, Hoogvliet joined forces with Qonqord. The goal: to largely automate the folder layout process. The software platform: Publication Organizer from Graphit. What does the new working method look like and what has it achieved?
Creation: three rounds, one process
Hoogvliet manages the product texts for the website and for all offline communication in a promotion system. An Excel file is drawn from this weekly. This contains all product descriptions, prices and image references for the weekly campaigns, including the correct positioning on the pages. The folder coordinator uploads this file to the platform. The system then generates an Adobe InDesign layout of the folder fully automatically. This is shared internally with those involved, who can make changes to the familiar Excel file.
This process is repeated three times, without the involvement of a designer. After that, a final version is automatically created in Adobe InDesign, in which specific wishes regarding the layout can be included as annotations via the supporting workflow.
Fine tuning: intensive collaboration on the layout
When the file is ready, the advertising agency will receive a notification via the workflow. It is time for the agency to further shape the Adobe InDesign file, so that the folder has the right look. The agency shares the files via the same workflow, so that Hoogvliet can view them in the web browser and (if necessary) provide annotations about changes. The digital shelf and workflow allow anyone to view and approve the status of the pages. The process is repeated until Hoogvliet is completely satisfied.
In addition, the Publication Organizer offers a complete image library based on Woodwing Assets . This is where all images for the folders, the POS material and the website are managed. Assets takes care of the automatic delivery of images in the correct format for all channels.
Result: more quality, consistency and flexibility
The process has progressed considerably with Publication Organiser . Hoogvliet and the agency work together seamlessly on the platform. With the push of a button, the many people involved can generate folder pages themselves to view them online and make changes. They can also request and approve changes to the layout.
Hoogvliet now has full control over the folder, which means it can monitor the quality and consistency much better. The degree of flexibility has also been increased enormously, because the implementation of (last minute) corrections takes place entirely internally.
In the words of the supermarket chain:
“Thanks to the Publication Organiser, we can collaborate very efficiently with our agency, without this being at the expense of creativity. This allows us to fully focus on the effectiveness of our weekly campaigns!”
– Anneke van Kempen, marketing manager, Hoogvliet Supermarkets
