Digital Ad Lab completes first test

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1997 by Jennifer Sucov

Digital Ad Lab, a testing lab dedicated to making digital advertising a reality, completed the first of four case studies in January. The goal was to electronically transmit digital ads for placement in multiple publications. Despite a few bumps in the process, says Glenn Frazier, case study chairman and director of advertising and production quality for Meredith Corporation, participating members were pleased with the outcome.

Due to complications setting up the WAM!NET network (the communications backbone of the Digital Ad Lab project) and logistical problems between the publications, not one of the nine ads transmitted was actually shared between publications. Says Frazier: "That's what we were attempting to do, but the main focus was transmitting in a standard format, which we did."

The mission

Meredith Corp., Gruner Jahr, Heinrich Bauer Publishing Co., Hearst Publications, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, World Color, WACE, Leo Burnett, Foote Cone & gelding, Euro RSCG Tatham and J. Walter Thompson agreed to participate in this part of the Digital Ad Lab project. Select ads from the four agencies listed above were supposed to be transmitted to the Chicago-based WACE pre-press facility (the hub) in digital format and then sent to the above printing plants for publication in the March issues of the following magazines: Ladies' Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, McCall's, Family Circle, Redbook, Woman's World and First For Women. WAM!NET, a closed loop, high-speed networking-solutions provider, was to set up the transmission lines between WACE and the Donnelley and World Color plants.

The elaborate designs of the Digital Ad Lab project to send a handful of ads for CTP reproduction might seem a bit overwrought in light of all the current computer-to-plate (CTP) activity (see FOLIO:, "The walls came down, " March 1, 1997, page 44). But, as Mary Bukowski, digital ad specialist, Donnelley, explains, "There's plenty of CTP going on right now, but most of it is dependent on film scanning. We're talking about a true digital workflow--without film."

The intricacies of this initial Digital Ad Lab test reveal just how much is involved in the successful transmission of four-color advertising, and just how far the industry has to go before film disappears.

Making a connection

In early December 1996, a couple of weeks before the magazines were set to print, problem number-one occurred: WAM!NET was unable to set up connectivity between WACE and World Color in time for the test. Rather than postpone the entire experiment, World Color and Bauer Publishing were omitted from the test group, and the remaining ads were scheduled to be sent to two Donnelley plants, in Mattoon, Illinois, and Des Moines, Iowa.

In late December, the project encountered another problem. Local telecommunications complications at the WACE hub in Chicago prevented the files from being sent directly to the plants. Instead, files were delivered from the ad agencies and other service providers to WACE on optical disks; the files were then sent via WACE's internal WAN (wide area network) to its San Francisco site, where WAM!NET's network was operational. At this point, the files remained in their native Scitex format. Once in San Francisco, the files were converted to TIFF/IT (Tagged Image File Format/Image Technology) and sent over the WAM!NET network to Donnelley's Elgin, Illinois, plant. Finally, the files were routed on Donnelley's internal network, still in the TIFF/IT format, to the Mattoon and Des Moines sites.

According to Bukowski, there was a type change in one ad, which was retransmitted, but the files maintained their integrity--a critical issue for advertisers.

"What scares me with electronic files is that they come out differently, depending on which device they're sent to," says Joe Engel, production director, Foote Cone & gelding. As Engel explains, the Chicago agency has been sending digital files to Donnelley since 1993 for reproduction in books printed gravure, but they had not transmitted them. "Going filmless isn't new to us," says Engel, "but the digital transmission is."

All ads in the project were accompanied by film and proofs for backup, but Kodak Approval proofs were used to verify the digital files. The Kodak Approval system RIPs the data and creates a halftone proof similar to the paper proofs agencies are comfortable with. Says Bukowski, "They're really not that different. We wanted to show the agencies that the process is very similar to what they're doing today."

Of the nine ads transmitted, three wound up not being used in production because the sections of the magazines they ran in were not being printed CTP. The remaining six ads were successfully reproduced completely digitally in Ladies' Home Journal (2), Better Homes and Gardens (2) and McCall's (2).

When phase two of this case study is conducted with the April issues of the participating magazines, says Bukowski, more attention will be given to ad positioning to ensure that all ads transmitted can be run CTP.