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Creative Studio End-to-End How-To Guide

Creative Studio: End-to-End How‑To Guide

Audience: Media buyers, creatives, and strategists at Creative Engine who need to build, preview, approve, and deliver dynamic creatives at scale in Alli.

This practical guide walks you through Creative Studio’s core workflow: from preparing brand inputs and data feeds, to creating templates, generating previews, routing approvals, and delivering assets. It incorporates the current product direction and proven practices from Dynamic+ migrations so teams can move fast with confidence.

What you’ll accomplish

  • Centralize brand standards (logos, colors, fonts) and creative inputs

  • Connect structured data feeds (products, locations, promos)

  • Upload or select templates, bind inputs, and version at scale

  • Generate previews for QA, share for review, and track approvals

  • Deliver creatives to destinations or export as needed

Terminology: “Template” refers to a reusable creative wireframe (HTML/ZIP or compatible format). “Variant” refers to a specific creative generated by applying inputs (copy, images, feed rows).

Before You Start: Requirements

  • Brand inputs available (logos, approved fonts, color tokens, and brand copy guidelines). If your brand uses themes, confirm theme groupings (e.g., Light, Seasonal, Sale).

  • Data feeds connected or accessible (Google/Product feeds, supplemental feeds for offers, locations, inventory). Align column names to the standardized schema when possible.

  • Template source files ready (e.g., Google Web Designer editable files and published files).

Step 1 — Access Creative Studio

Navigate in Alli: Side navigation → Creative → Creative Studio. You’ll land on the Creative Studio home, where you can browse existing templates or create new ones.

Step 2 — Configure Brand Inputs

Set a single source of truth for brand assets and rules. This ensures every template and variant adheres to guidelines.

  1. Open Brand Inputs in Creative Studio. Upload or reference assets from the Alli Creative DAM (logos, font files, color palettes).

  2. Define theme groupings if applicable (e.g., Primary, Secondary, Seasonal). Themes map to reusable sets of colors, typography scales, and component styles.

  3. Add copy guardrails: max lengths for headlines/body, CTA patterns, capitalization rules, and brand tone notes.

Best practice: Treat themes as “brand presets.” Name them clearly (e.g., “Retail-Holiday”), and limit to essentials to reduce sprawl.

Step 3 — Connect Data Feeds

Creative Studio works with standardized inputs and feed-based inputs. Connecting feeds unlocks at-scale variant generation and QA.

  1. Open Feeds. Connect your primary structured feed (e.g., product, hotel, flight, geolocation). Verify access and freshness.

  2. Optionally connect supplemental feeds (e.g., promos, price overrides, localized copy). Document join keys (e.g., SKU, location_id).

  3. Align columns to Creative Studio’s schema: Settings columns (status/labels/approvals), Standard creative inputs (headline, image_url, price), Feed-based inputs (structured attributes), and any Custom columns.

Schema tip: Keep names stable and consistent across feeds. If you change a column, update mappings in your templates to prevent rendering errors.

Step 4 — Add or Select a Template

You can upload a new template or start from an approved standard template.

  1. Choose “New Template.” Provide a clear name and description (include channel/placement: e.g., Meta Feed, Display 300x250).

  2. Upload editable files (e.g., GWD) and the published package. Creative Studio stores both in versioned S3 storage.

  3. Bind inputs: Map template fields (headline, image, price, CTA) to Brand Inputs, manual fields, or specific feed columns.

If your team migrated from Dynamic+, replicate the familiar column bindings to minimize retraining and reduce mapping errors.

Step 5 — Generate Previews and Variants

Quickly render representative variants for QA and stakeholder review.

  1. Select Preview. Choose data slice: a single row, filtered set (e.g., category = “Sale”), or a random sample.

  2. Apply a theme (optional). Toggle auto-fit rules to test layout resilience (long headlines, missing images, price lengths).

  3. Render previews. Review responsive behavior and platform placement frames if available (e.g., Feed vs. Story).

QA checklist: truncation behavior, fallback image rules, price formatting, CTA legibility, accessibility contrast, and brand-safe color usage.

Step 6 — Share for Review and Capture Approvals

Route previews to internal or client reviewers directly from Creative Studio. Keep the full approval trail centralized.

  1. Open Share/Approve. Select recipients and permission level (view/comment/approve). Add context on what changed since last review.

  2. Send review request. Reviewers comment inline; resolve threads as you iterate.

  3. Capture approval. Status and approver details are recorded for audit and future reuse.

Notifications: Automated reminders help prevent stalls. Use them to keep cycles short and predictable.

Step 7 — Deliver or Export Creatives

Once approved, deliver creatives to destinations or export files as needed.

  1. Select Delivery. Choose destination (e.g., Alli-integrated channels) or Download package for external trafficking.

  2. Set delivery filters (e.g., category, top SKUs, location subsets). Confirm counts of variants to be delivered.

  3. Deploy. Track delivery status and logs. Version metadata remains attached for traceability.

Governance and Version Control

  • Versioned storage: Both editable and published files are stored with version history. Roll back if a regression is detected.

  • Approval trail: Keep status, approvers, and diffs centralized to satisfy compliance and reduce rework.

  • Schema stability: When feeds change, update mappings and revalidate previews before delivery.

Pro Tips and Patterns

  • Start with standard templates: They encode proven bindings and layout rules; customize only where it adds performance value.

  • Small, meaningful themes: Limit theme variants to those your brand truly uses. This keeps preview sets scannable and QA efficient.

  • Name everything clearly: Include channel, placement, and objective in template names; include key filters in preview names.

Troubleshooting

If a preview fails to render, check mappings first: the most common cause is a mismatched or renamed feed column.

  • Feeds connected but data missing in previews: Verify filters; confirm join keys for supplemental feeds; test with a single known-good row.

  • Images not loading: Confirm asset URLs resolve and that fallback imagery is configured in Brand Inputs or template defaults.

  • Copy overflow/truncation: Adjust max-length rules or enable auto-fit in the template; consider shorter CTA variants.

  • Theme color contrasts failing: Update the theme tokens for accessibility or switch to a compliant preset.

FAQ

What’s the difference between Brand Inputs and Themes?

Brand Inputs are your global, approved assets and rules (logos, fonts, colors, copy guardrails). Themes are named presets that bundle a subset of those inputs for quick application to templates (e.g., “Holiday Sale”).

How should I structure feeds for scalable variant generation?

Use a primary key per row (SKU/location_id), keep column names stable, and separate supplemental logic (e.g., promos) into focused feeds joined by the same key. Avoid mixing presentation fields (e.g., headline) with raw attributes (e.g., price) unless the field is intentionally curated.

Can I reuse a template across channels?

Yes. Start from a standard template family per channel/placement and share mapped inputs where possible. Use channel-specific variants for dimensions, safe areas, and platform conventions (e.g., Meta Feed vs. Story).