Adobe InDesign

More than the sum of its parts

Top agency expresses ideas in new, more efficient ways with the Adobe Creative Suite, including Adobe InDesign CS software.

When he started his business in 1948, David Ogilvy intended to build a different kind of company. To be successful in the United States he would need a strong agency brand: respectable, high-quality, highly creative, and intelligent.

To that end, Ogilvy worked to instill the belief that the agency had to make advertising that sells, and the advertising that sells best is advertising that builds brands. Over the past 50 years, the company Ogilvy founded has helped build some of the most recognizable brands in the world: American Express, Sears, Ford, IBM, Kodak, Shell, Barbie, Pond's, Dove, and Maxwell House among them.

Ogilvy is now one of the largest marketing communications networks in the world, serving more Global Fortune 500 companies in five or more countries than any other agency according to a ranking in "Advertising Age" magazine. The agency's invention and guiding principle is "360 Degree Branding™": the concept that all communications should connect with consumers at all points of contact, from annual reports and radio to direct mail, and even to the retail environment. Telling a compelling brand story strengthens a company's brand.

"The benefits of integration among Adobe applications can't be overstated," says Lopez. We can execute creative ideas faster and with fewer limitations. It's easier to realize concepts, and the creative team faces fewer technical interruptions and hurdles."

—John Lopez
Studio Manager, West Graphics Services
Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles

Integrated tools for integrated communications

To express big ideas in an integrated way across a variety of media, Ogilvy & Mather, the worldwide advertising arm of Ogilvy, has standardized on an integrated suite of design and publishing tools: the Adobe® Creative Suite, including Adobe InDesign® CS software. "InDesign software offers exceptional integration with Adobe Illustrator®, Adobe Photoshop®, and Adobe Acrobat® applications, so it feels like one big design environment. Our ad campaigns and other materials can be produced faster than ever before because it feels as if we're working in one program," says John Lopez, Studio Manager, West Graphic Services for Ogilvy & Mather in Los Angeles. "With consistent branding for our clients top in mind, consistency and integration in our technology is an essential ingredient."

Producing the best

Among the largest clients in Ogilvy & Mather's Los Angeles office is Cisco Systems, for which the agency handles strategy, branding, and advertising. Ogilvy & Mather used the Adobe Creative Suite, including InDesign, to produce an integrated 360 Degree Branding campaign across all of Cisco's business units. The campaign, known as "Powered by Cisco," uses engaging images and stories to demonstrate how networks make companies more efficient and productive. More than the sum of its parts, the network changes the way people work, live, play, and learn.

Since transitioning its workflow, Ogilvy & Mather has discovered that the Adobe Creative Suite is also more than the sum of its parts. The software suite is changing the way the agency works, from the initial creative concept through to production for clients like Cisco. Art directors can now work faster, with fewer interruptions to the creative flow, by placing native Photoshop and Illustrator files in InDesign without being concerned with having to save and track flattened TIFF or EPS files.

Using the Adobe Creative Suite, staff at Ogilvy & Mather combine engaging images and stories to demonstrate how Cisco networks make companies more efficient and productive. The agency’s guiding principle is 360 Degree Branding: the concept that all communications should connect with consumers at all points of contact, from annual reports and radio to direct mail, and even to the retail environment.

In addition, art directors can often experiment by using InDesign layers to turn on and off different copy or effects ideas. Using layers, they can manage concepts for Cisco's ads in one central file, rather than working with 20 different files, and still have the flexibility of trying ideas like new logo sizing, text effects, and copy changes on the fly.

"The benefits of integration among Adobe applications can't be overstated," says Lopez. "We can execute creative ideas faster and with fewer limitations. It's easier to realize concepts, and the creative team faces fewer technical interruptions and hurdles."

Removing the barriers to creativity

InDesign also offers the creative team a host of built-in tools and more ways to lend visual appeal to materials without having to engage in complex technical workarounds. InDesign makes it easy to create effects that include blending modes, transparency, and sophisticated type effects using the advanced typographical controls in InDesign.

"Ogilvy & Mather staff and clients are sticklers about type," says Lopez. "With support for OpenType® glyphs in InDesign CS, we can elevate type to a fine art and finesse ads using optical kerning and hanging punctuation."

Using InDesign CS, designers at Ogilvy & Mather can create blending modes, transparency, and sophisticated type effects.

Seamless transition, from design to print

According to Lopez, the migration to InDesign was exceptionally smooth. Some early training helped the staff quickly become comfortable with working in InDesign. KnowledgeWorks, a local trainer, followed up with a comprehensive, two-week InDesign training so the team became completely at ease using the new software.

Before sending the Cisco advertising pieces to the printer, the agency packages and preflights files within InDesign, using built-in tools to check that the fonts, colors, image formats, and print settings are correct. The agency then hands off the native InDesign files to the printer, Primary Color, for output.

"Adobe has been wonderfully supportive and enthusiastic. It’s clear that Adobe is truly committed to our success."

—John Lopez
Studio Manager, West Graphics Services
Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles

"From an output standpoint, Ogilvy & Mather's transition to InDesign was seamless," says Mike Kirby, Primary Color sales manager. "They didn't skip a beat, and there was no additional work on our end to produce the InDesign files. It was as if Ogilvy & Mather had been using InDesign for years."

Primary Color uses a workflow based on Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and converts Ogilvy & Mather's InDesign files to PDF/X-1a for outputting on Prinergy systems. A simplified PDF standard for reliable data exchange in a prepress environment, PDF/X-1a locks down linked files, proper color profiling, image resolutions, and fonts so that PDF files print predictably and consistently. According to Kirby, InDesign files convert to PDF/X-1a in a fraction of the time that other types of files take to convert, saving roughly half an hour on every InDesign job. Because of these workflow benefits, Primary Color actively encourages clients to adopt InDesign.

"Adobe InDesign files make up 50% of our work," says Kirby, "and, among higher end clients, the percentage is roughly 80%. We see the use of InDesign growing rapidly and we actively encourage it."

Further refining the workflow

Now that Ogilvy & Mather has standardized on InDesign and the Adobe Creative Suite, the agency has discovered other potential benefits. For example, the agency plans to use Adobe support for XML across applications to automate content repurposing for electronic delivery. "Often clients want the copy of an ad, independent of the ad layout," explains Lopez. "By tagging content in ads using XML, extracting text will be fast and easy."

Lopez and his team are also leveraging robust support for scripting in InDesign to create custom AppleScript routines that will automate job ticketing. Once basic specifications such as ad size and date are entered into the system, a FileMaker database will generate a document with job information. Ultimately, InDesign will be scripted to automatically generate ads to a target publication's specifications as well as a slug that meets each publication's requirements.

For Ogilvy & Mather, the move to the Adobe Creative Suite and InDesign CS has been well worth the effort in terms of improved creativity and efficiency. What's more, the agency has found that Adobe is supportive and has consistently reinforced Ogilvy & Mather's decision to transition to InDesign by addressing the agency's ongoing support needs. "Adobe has been wonderfully supportive and enthusiastic," says Lopez. "It's clear that Adobe is truly committed to our success."