Despite standards, best practices and comindustry guidelines, it can be hard to develop an engaging rich media campaign when you are managing ad types, load size, assets, social components and platforms. You can burn a lot of hours making sure your meeting publisher specs.

Not meeting spec the first time can be a comoccurrence in the rich media world. With so many moving parts in the process, it’s hard to keep track. Breakdowns in communication, mind-boggling spreadsheets, the never-ending emailing for revisions- the list of potential culprits grows as we move through the process. Unfortunately, any “go back and fix this” moment requires more hours and more dollars, often leading to tighter margins and shorter turnaround times.

Who’s at fault when we fail to meet specs? Media didn’t provide the right level of detail. Creative didn’t follow the spec sheet. The publisher didn’t mention that format. We can try to pin the blame on someone or we can fix the process.

To meet spec the first time, and deliver a great rich media campaign, all parties involved must get aligned early and often. Teams can no longer live in role-based silos. We wont always be able to buy every perfect placement and wont always be able to build that perfect (read: huge) creative unit. We must find a middle ground-a lowest comdenominator- with everyone on the same page before significant dollars start being spent. Plus, this will make the lives of our buddies over in production and workflow much, much easier.

All that said, it’s important to not ignore the fact that meeting spec the first time is difficult. It’s also something that needs to be done if we’re going to reach get the greatest return. If only there was a way to streamline the process.