How Automation Leads to Creative Confidence

It's crunch time on a creative project .

Your client needs something " ASAP " and they haven't properly filled out the creative brief. You're running around trying to gather all the information needed to finish the project. If that's not enough, there's a constant flood of daily ad-hoc requests. Not to mention, the tedious admin tasks that must be done.

Constantly working under the gun doesn't inspire the most successful work.

Don't panic just yet.

Automation can alleviate your workload so you can focus more on creative aspects of your work. It eliminates mundane tasks while establishing structure and consistency in your processes.

Let's take a look at how automation frees you up to focus more on the more impactful, fun stuff.

Why Automation Matters

You're probably thinking "but automation doesn't apply to me" or "won't it take away my job? " But automation isn't ominous as it has been made to be in all those prophetic science-fiction stories.

Ok, maybe that's a little bit of a stretch. The bottom line: Automation is not a robot doing your job for you.

Think of it more as solving your problem of time-consuming, routine work. Getting that out of the way allows you to maximize the repeatability and predictability of results. Now more of your attention will be on work that's more impactful and drives results.

How Automation Helps Creative Teams

1. Automation Streamlines Requests

Ad-hoc requests are inevitable, even when there's a process in place. Once those requests come in, you need to ensure you have all the information you need to fulfill them.

Missing information is the number one cause for stress in the workplace, according to our Work Management Survey . If request details are scattered across multiple sources (email, chat, etc.), it can be difficult to gather it quickly.

You can automate those last-minute requests . Online request forms with fields asking for specific details ensures you get everything you need up front.

At Ogilvy-Australia , the creative team was facing issues with their creative requests. Pedro Da Palma Rosa, Digital Operations Director, wanted to enable his creative team to spend more time creating and looking for ways to buy them back time. And, at the same time, he wanted to allow account managers to build more relationships and achieve client goals.

Ogilvy-Australia now manages creative projects using a Creative Brief Request Form.

"Previously all dealers used to email an account manager with their requests. All requests used to come through in different formats. Now, the forms essentially go from the dealers directly into production, and that's where we're saving a lot of time and effort," says Da Palma Rosa.

Automating requests has eliminated the back-and-forth on projects while getting Da Palma Rosa's team all the information they need.

Check out the full Ogilvy-Australia Case Study >>>>>

2. Automation Breeds Quality

Mistakes are bound to happen when there's a high volume of work and everything must done manually. Quality suffers when your team is swamped with busywork. Automation ensures the ball is never dropped, and the quality is consistent since there is little room for errors.

Take Airbnb , for example. Creative Production Manager Hoon Kim invested time and effort into researching software capable of automation. Kim's creative team needed a work tool that provided a snapshot of work being done worldwide, and ensure it was meeting his high standards.

The Airbnb team built and deployed custom workflows in UDN Task Manager for every Trip Experience feature. This allowed them to track the production of every asset. But even better, the unprecedented visibility into production across the globe gave them a way to improve the quality of their work.

"With everything contained in UDN Task Manager ," Kim said, "We were able to leverage UDN Task Manager ’s functionality to increase the quality of our assets across the board, make sure they were consistent, and also see where we were being efficient."

Check out the full Airbnb Case Study >>>>>

3. Automation Builds Confidence

Wouldn't it be nice to have some peace of mind knowing that nothing is falling through the cracks? That's what happens when you embrace automation. You have confidence that everything you produce is on track and upholding the expectations you set for your deliverables.

That's what Jenny Sagström, CEO and Co-Founder of Sköna, found when she invested in automation . Before, she was so wrapped up in making sure work was meeting her high standards that she couldn't focus on moving her business forward. After using UDN Task Manager , she now has confidence that her team has everything they need to be successful.

"Since I don't have the bandwidth to look at everything, I can make sure that we are maintaining our high standards," says Sagström. "Just seeing them interact as a team gives me confidence that I don't have to micromanage. I can focus on the big picture. And I don't think I would be able to do that with any other project management system ."

Check out the full Sköna Case Study >>>>>

4. Automation Allows You More Time for Creativity and Impactful Work

OK, by now, you're probably thinking—I get it, automation gives us eliminates the mundane, mind-numbing admin tasks. With those tasks out of the way, you and your team can spend more time on what they were hired to do.

After all, it's hard to be creative when you bogged down in status reports, project tracking, and spreadsheet updates.

Umpqua Bank found this out first hand. Projects scaled too quickly to keep up and the creative team found themselves enveloped in a communication breakdown. This involved a slew of forgotten emails, lost revisions, and time wasted in a scavenger hunt for project information.

They adopted UDN Task Manager 's status reporting software and automated the admin work so the creative team can focus on creativity, culture, and connecting with customers.

"When you do collaborate face-to-face, it's more on the creative elements of a project versus the procedural stuff," says Carrie Buttke, VP and Marketing Manager at Umpqua Bank. " UDN Task Manager manages the mundane part of the project for you so you can use that collaborative energy towards more creative things."

Check out the full Umpqua Bank Case Study >>>>

Join the Automation Revolution

It's time to stop thinking of automation as robots taking over the world, and start thinking about it as a way to make work easier and frees you up for the work you actually want to do. In the words of David Mekerishvili, UDN Task Manager 's Design Team Lead, "Automation is a process of delivering the sweetest part of a project directly to your desk."

So, I'll leave you with this: Are you fed up with spreadsheets? Not a fan of re-inventing the wheel? Join the automation revolution and start executing with confidence.