Brand governance, specified.

What is locked, controlled and generative in a Creative Workflow

Every part of an ad belongs to exactly one of three groups. The brand owner agrees the grouping before the workflow runs. The grouping is saved with the workflow as a numbered version.

What checks run on every piece

These checks run automatically on everything the workflow produces, before a person sees it. Anything that fails is held, with the failure recorded.

• Brand. The logo is present, unchanged and has clear space around it. Colours are from the brand palette. Type is set in the approved fonts.
• Product. The product matches the reference in shape, colour, labelling and proportion. No invented versions, no missing features.
• Claims. Only claims from the approved list appear, in the approved wording for the market. No superlatives or comparisons that were not cleared.
• Market language and disclosures. The text is in the right language and script for the market. Compulsory disclosures are present, readable and on screen for the required time.
• Channel requirements. Shape, length, the area where text may sit, file format and platform labelling for the channel that will carry the piece.

How rules flow from brand to piece

A rule is set once, at the highest level where it applies, and every level beneath inherits it. A lower level may make a rule stricter. It may never make one looser.

1. Global brand. Identity, product facts, tone, the claims policy that applies everywhere.
2. Regional campaign. The campaign idea, the creative directions, approved people and settings, campaign claims.
3. Market. Language and script, local offer, local disclosures, local legal wording, things the market must avoid.
4. Channel. Format, length, labelling, platform rules.
5. The piece itself. The one set-up that produced this file, tied to a numbered version of the rules.

Because rules flow down in this way, a market team can run the workflow for its own market. Nothing has to go back to head office piece by piece. The global rules travel with the workflow.

What is recorded for every piece

• Brief. The brief and the campaign behind the piece.
• Source files. Every reference used: product shots, brand files, references for people, data records.
• Model and version. Which model made each generated part, at which version, with which settings.
• Checks. Each automatic check, its result and the time it ran.
• Changes. Every edit and rerun, step by step, with who asked for it. If a reviewer changes one setting, only that step reruns, and the record shows it.
• Approver. Who cleared the piece for release, when, and against which version of the rules.

The record separates what the model generated from what was cleared for release. Audits ask about the second. The record also ties the run to a named template and a version of the rules. A reviewer months later can see exactly what produced the work.

Where a person must review

Automatic checks apply the rules. A person decides in the categories where rules alone are not enough.

• Financial services claims. In a regulated category, any piece that makes a claim about a product, its performance or whether it suits a customer goes to a named approver before release.
• An AI copy of a real person. Any piece that reproduces a real person's face or voice is checked against the consent on file, every time.
• Categories the client chooses. Markets, products or types of claim the client wants reviewed, recorded in the workflow.

Outside those categories, people review at three points: the concepts before anything is made, the first results before the full run, and the final cut before delivery. Clients sit at whichever of these they choose.

Proof

Sun Life's legal team is one of the most rigorous in financial services. It approved a personalised video programme across four markets: the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. More than 5,000 personalised agent videos went out under that approval. Read the Sun Life case.

Legal approves the workflow once: the rules, the templates and the way the disclosures behave. Every asset is then checked automatically against that approval. A person reviews the categories listed above, and a change to the rules sends the workflow back to legal before it runs again.