Fireboy Creative

Fireboy Creative

The challenge

Fireboy Creative Inc. were contracted by the Elections BC agency of record, Elevator Strategy,  to implement a workflow for producing 700+ pages of individual newspaper advertisements for the British Columbia General Elections.

Due to the legal nature of the project, Fireboy were also set the target of 100% accuracy.  Although produced on a fixed schedule around government election dates, the flexibility of an automated solution would also mean that they would also be able to respond quickly in the event of an unexpected election being called.

Client:

  • Elections BC (British Columbia, Canada)

Document:

  • Newspaper Adverts

Size:

  • 700+ Pages

Software:

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We used to spend days formatting and prepping content. It's now literally minutes per ad. From connecting the data to posting PDFs for publications to pick up from our DropBox location - less than 10 minutes. Prior to EasyCatalog, it was hours before we could deliver ad material.
Jeff Kew, CEO Fireboy Creative

Previous Workflow

Data would be provided in a series of spreadsheets that would be mass formatted using InDesign's nested styles within paragraph styles.

This data was then proofed, before being copied and pasted into the individual advertisements where it would be proofed again.

The whole campaign would require four full-time print production artists two weeks to produce.

Finding a solution

"We realised that there must be a better, more accurate, solution out there," said Jeff Kew, CEO of Fireboy Creative. "We looked at a number of InDesign-based products but most were just far too complex for our needs. EasyCatalog worked perfectly for our experience level."

Using EasyCatalog, along with the Relational Module to structure the data and the Pagination Module to automatically produce the adverts, one person is now able to produce the whole campaign in the same two week time frame.

Future Plans

EasyCatalog has also opened new business opportunities for Fireboy Creative.

"The entire workflow is very different. Building templates, processing data, delivering ad files - it's all very very different. Our studio is expanding into developing workflows for the retail market building product catalog flyers and sell sheets."

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Because of my location - Vancouver, BC, Canada - there's a significant time zone difference. When their office opens at 9am it's actually 1am for me. They end their workday when I'm starting mine. 5pm for them is 9am for me. The nice thing about this is I know any emails I'm sending to their support at the end of my workday will have answers in my Inbox the next morning.
Jeff Kew, CEO Fireboy Creative

About Elections BC (British Columbia, Canada)

Elections BC is an independent and non-partisan Office of the Legislature responsible for administering electoral processes in British Columbia, Canada.  Elections BC administers provincial general elections and by-elections, recall petitions, initiative petitions and initiative votes, the conduct of referenda and plebiscites, and local elections and assent voting campaign financing and advertising rules.