Streamline your creative review process with our enhanced Production Automation Workflow. The new Creative Asset Approval Workflow enables:
- Multi-stakeholder reviews including clients, legal teams, and other stakeholders
- Simple asset sharing via email for both internal and external reviewers
- Centralized feedback tracking in a single platform
- Seamless integration with existing Ad Ops review processes
- Ensure quality and compliance
Example Use Cases
- Client sign-offs: Ensure your advertisers and agencies are satisfied with creatives that require approval
- Network creative reviews: Get additional buy-in from stakeholders inside of your network
- Legal compliance checks: Ensure legal compliance by sharing creative with your attorney.
How it Works
- Enable Creative Approval Workflow
- Configure a custom approval workflow (up to 10 reviewers)
- Send creative assets
- Track progress and decisions
- Save creatives to your asset library 🎉
How to Enable Creative Approval Workflow
To enable Creative Approval Workflow, click on a Production Request and toggle ‘Requires Creative Approval’ to ‘Yes’.
Have an OMS Integration with Frequency?
If you do, you can pass the “Requires Creative Approval” data along to our system as a true/false value. If “Requires Creative Approval” is true, then creative approval flows will be automatically visible on the production request. If it is false, then the Creative Approval section will be hidden.
Once toggled on, you'll be prompted to set up your approval steps
Select the type of approver and add in their email address. If you do not have an email address you can leave it blank and copy/paste a link via email.
📋 Workflow Configuration Rules
- Maximum of 10 approval steps
- Can include internal and external approvers
- Custom label names can be up to 25 characters (e.g. “CEO Review”)
Once a script has been uploaded and any special instructions, Ad Ops will send the Production Request to the Show Host/Producer. When the Show Host/Producer sends the Creative Asset(s) back for QA, Ad Ops will have a chance to do an initial review before sending it for approval.
Sending the Creative Asset for Approval
To initiate the Creative Asset Approval Workflow click on the ‘Pending Review’ dropdown and click ‘Ready for Approval’.
Click ‘Send’ in the Creative Approval window.
Add an Email Note that will appear in the body of the email for the approver.
You have the option to ‘Send for Approval via Link’ if you prefer to send it in a separate email.
Click ‘Send Email’ and the approver will receive an email requesting their review.
PRO TIP: Click the kabob menu on a review step to quickly Copy Share Link.
Creative Asset Review Process
The Approver will receive the following email and will click on ‘Review Creative’.
The Approver can listen and/or download the creative asset. Once reviewed they can select Approve or Decline. A comment is mandatory if the asset is declined. They will then ‘Submit Review’ and the Production Request will update showing what they selected.
If there are multiple Approvers, the Production Request will need to be sent to the next in line. The Production Request will remain in the ‘Ready for QA’ status until all approvals have been completed.
Once the creative asset has been approved, the Production Request can be marked as ‘Complete’.
Tracking and History
Frequency lets you view a detailed timeline of creative review process, see when files were sent, reviewed, and decided upon, and track comments and feedback.
This creative approval history can be found in two places:
- Creative Approval History
- Production Timeline
1. Creative Approval History
Click view history on the creative approval modal to open a detailed history of the creative approval steps, without being distracted by other comments or status changes.
2. Production Request Timeline
The production request timeline appears at the bottom of the production request page and gives a detailed look at all the key actions taken on a production request. This includes:
- Comprehensive log of all actions
- Includes file status changes
- Shows who took what action and when
FAQs about Creative Approval Flows
What happens when creatives get declined?
No problem. The network (specifically ad ops) stays in control. Ad ops can decide if they want to make an edit themselves and re-submit the file to the third-party for re-approval, or if they want to “send for revision” to the assignee show.
If you want to fix the file without sending to the show, simply:
- click on the kabob menu of the creative file that was declined
- Create New Version
- Upload new file
- Mark the file as “Ready for Approval”
- Click “Send” to send it back to the reviewer
If you want to send the declined file to the show for review, simply:
- Click “Send for Revision”
- Leave a note explaining what needs to be fixed/changed
- Wait for the show to respond
Can I send multiple files for review?
Not yet, but we plan to add this ability soon in Summer 2025.
What happens when files are rejected?
Rejected files go back to Ad Ops who can then decide to revise the file themselves and resend to the approver, or to request a revised recording from the show/talent.
Can shows see when files are approved or rejected by approvers?
No. The system is purpose-built to support ad ops workflows. The shows will only be notified if ad ops team members at a network choose to share that information (e.g. requesting a revision and explaining why they need one).