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Three necessities reign supreme when delivering successful Out of Home: agility, efficiency and quality. Rapid Versioning (RV) by Grand Visual, is a solution that stands to change the game in the realm of OOH marketing. It promises a streamlined solution to the complex and outright annoying challenges advertisers face in adapting digital OOH creative, whilst achieving all three necessities simultaneously. 

So what is Rapid Versioning? It’s a semi-automated service that streamlines the traditionally labour-intensive and time consuming task of reversioning. The process begins with the supply of master files from the client. From there, Grand Visual’s team takes charge, converting these into responsive layouts that automatically adjust to any scale, height, and width. But it doesn’t stop there. This process works whether it’s for full motion, static, or subtle motion ads; ensuring fast, high-quality, and cost-effective reversioning of OOH creative. 

It all started back in lockdown. “We were afforded some time to work out how we could find efficiencies in our process,” says Grand Visual creative director, Ric Albert. “It came about when we were making the largest ever digital OOH campaign, which was called ‘Sending Love’. The campaign was shown in 38 countries and 178 cities at the same time, and meant the team needed to make thousands of files. That’s when they came up with the idea to simplify the process. “I started developing some simple tools and automations within our system. Then Freddie Pearce came along and applied his utter genius to create something completely unique and distinct that has never been done before.”

RV works to deliver campaigns within less than 48 hours, without compromising quality. The swift pace not only meets the demands of pace but also provides advertisers with a competitive edge by enabling them to capitalise on timely opportunities that they may not have been set to grab before. 

The pricing structure is something to be noted too. It’s based on the number of creative masters and formats required for versioning, offering not only transparency, but the kind of predictability that is compelling for business. This departure from traditional pricing models, which often leave clients grappling with unexpected costs, enhances trust and confidence in the process. By aligning costs with specific deliverables, RV empowers advertisers to budget effectively and allocate resources where they are capable of yielding the highest returns. “You still have all of that granular creativity, but at the end of the day, the product you’re getting is being done quicker and cheaper, which in today’s day and age is huge. It means you can take advantage of digital out of home in a better way and be smarter about it,” we’re told. 

The significance for potential clients however, extends far beyond its expediency and cost-effectiveness. It addresses a fundamental challenge inherent in the evolution of digital OOH – the complexity of asset production. With the proliferation of digital OOH formats across diverse media landscapes, advertisers often face a daunting task in ensuring creative assets are tailored to each and every specification. RV’s semi-automated approach works with intricate code to streamline this process, freeing advertisers from the quite burdensome task of manual reversioning. This means freeing up time to focus on more strategic initiatives.

What’s more, RV’s integration with programmatic advertising opens up new possibilities for advertisers seeking to maximise the overall impact of their OOH campaigns. By generating a comprehensive set of creative assets that are optimised for programmatic platforms, it facilitates seamless execution enabling advertisers to capitalise on the efficiency and targeting capabilities of programmatic OOH. 

The RV process unfolds in four key stages:

1. Dream

This initial phase is all about feasibility working to assess the ask based upon the supplied master layouts. 

2. Create 

This covers RV setup. The creative masters already supplied are then converted into responsive masters, laying the groundwork for the reversioning process. 

3. Build

Now we enter the rollout phase. Mass automation comes into play here, as the campaign creative is generated across various specifications outlined in the media plan. 

4. Activate

It's showtime. The team carries out a manual quality assurance process. It’s a crucial step where testing and delivery of campaign artworks are meticulously carried out. 

“The favourite part of anyone working with RV is once the dynamic master is set up, it’s so easy to move into the versioning stage. So, with the click of a button, you can change shapes, sizes, and all of the creative responsibly adapts to it.” says Freddie. “The great part is that you can see in real time how all of the different elements are reacting. You can spot what is and isn’t behaving how you want it to.” They work to ensure that there’s a fine balance between automation and creative eye.

When I sat down with the pair, Ric was sure to emphasise just how much of this project is down to Freddie’s skill. “He’s the details guy,” he said. “It’s his talent to be able to look at things logically, intelligently and creatively that’s been a unique factor in helping drive this forward.”

What they’ve achieved so far is remarkable, but Grand Visual isn't stopping there. They’ve begun looking into how they can use RV on a multimarket and multilanguage opportunity and not just in the UK. They’re already doing that with their work with Warner Brothers, but now they're looking at how that can be achieved with other brands, on a much wider scale. 

“We’ve used the decades of experience we have of creating different shapes and sizes, and the logical decisions we make every time, and turned it into formulas, algorithms and code,” says Ric. “Reversioning and scaling creative is not subjective. It’s objective. There is a logical process behind it.” They’ve harvested all of their learnings and produced something that will help businesses achieve even their most demanding goals. 

There’s a lot of incredibly techy stuff that goes into RV. Grand Visual, and specifically, Freddie, have truly cracked the code of programmatic and much more. They worry about the nuts and bolts, so you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of it.