Creative Management Guide

This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough of creative management in the Scope3 Campaign API, following AdCP (Ad Context Protocol) standards and integrating creative agents for AI-powered creative generation.

Table of Contents

Quick Start

1. Create Your First Creative (5 minutes)

👤 You: "Create a creative called 'Holiday Sale 2024' for buyer agent ba_123 with a banner image and headline text"

🤖 Claude: I'll create a creative with multiple assets for your holiday campaign.

*Uses: creative/create*
- creativeName: "Holiday Sale 2024"
- buyerAgentId: "ba_123"
- assets:
  - Banner image (1200x628)
  - Headline text: "Save 50% This Holiday"
  - CTA text: "Shop Now"
- advertiserDomains: ["yourstore.com"]

✅ Creative "Holiday Sale 2024" created successfully!
Creative ID: creative_abc123
Assets: 3 (banner image, headline, CTA)
Status: Draft

2. Assign to Campaign

👤 You: "Assign that creative to campaign camp_456"

🤖 Claude: I'll assign the Holiday Sale creative to your campaign.

*Uses: creative/assign*

✅ Creative assigned successfully!
The Holiday Sale 2024 creative is now active in campaign camp_456

3. Check Performance

👤 You: "Show me all creatives for campaign camp_456"

🤖 Claude: Here are the creatives assigned to your campaign.

*Uses: campaign/list_creatives*

📊 Campaign camp_456 has 1 creative:
🎨 Holiday Sale 2024 (v1.0.0)
   📈 Performance: 12,450 impressions, 234 clicks (1.88% CTR)
   🎯 Primary Asset: Banner image (1200x628)

Understanding the Creative Hierarchy

AdCP Creative Structure

Following AdCP standards, our creative management uses a Creative → Assets hierarchy:
Creative (Container)
├── Primary Asset (hero image/video)
├── Companion Assets (additional images, text)
└── Metadata (domains, categories, audience)

Key Concepts

Creative: A conceptual advertising unit that contains multiple assets
  • Has a name, description, and version
  • Contains 1+ assets that work together
  • Can be assigned to multiple campaigns
  • Owned by a buyer agent
Asset: Individual files or content pieces
  • Images, videos, text, audio, HTML, native components
  • Has specific technical properties (dimensions, duration, format)
  • Can have different roles (primary, companion, fallback)
  • Reusable across creatives
Buyer Agent: The advertiser account that owns creatives
  • All creatives belong to a buyer agent
  • Campaigns can only use creatives from their buyer agent
  • Enables resource sharing and brand consistency

Core Workflows

Workflow 1: Create Creative from Scratch

1️⃣ Upload Individual Assets (Optional)
👤 "Upload a logo image for buyer agent ba_123"
🤖 Uses: creative/upload_asset
📎 Asset uploaded: logo_image_001

2️⃣ Create Creative with Assets
👤 "Create a display creative called 'Q1 Campaign' using the logo plus headline 'New Products'"
🤖 Uses: creative/create
🎨 Creative created with 2 assets

3️⃣ Assign to Campaign
👤 "Assign creative cr_789 to campaign camp_123"
🤖 Uses: creative/assign
✅ Assignment complete

Workflow 2: Campaign-Centric Approach

1️⃣ Start with Campaign
👤 "Attach creatives to campaign camp_456 for buyer agent ba_123"

2️⃣ Choose Approach:

Option A - Use Existing:
👤 "Attach existing creatives cr_111 and cr_222"
🤖 Uses: campaign/attach_creative

Option B - Create New:
👤 "Create a new video creative called 'Product Demo' and attach it"
🤖 Uses: campaign/attach_creative (with newCreatives)

Option C - Natural Language:
👤 "Create banner creatives for our spring sale targeting millennials"
🤖 Uses: campaign/attach_creative (with prompt)

Workflow 3: Bulk Creative Management

1️⃣ List All Creatives
👤 "List all creatives for buyer agent ba_123"
🤖 Uses: creative/list
📦 Shows all creatives with campaign assignments

2️⃣ Filter and Search
👤 "Show me all video creatives not assigned to any campaigns"
🤖 Uses: creative/list with filters
📹 Filtered results: unassigned video creatives

3️⃣ Bulk Operations
👤 "Assign creatives cr_001, cr_002, cr_003 to campaign camp_789"
🤖 Uses: campaign/attach_creative
✅ Multiple assignments completed

Creative Sync System

The enhanced creative management system now includes automatic creative sync to sales agents, ensuring creatives are distributed and approved before campaigns launch.

What is Creative Sync?

Creative sync automatically distributes creatives to relevant sales agents (publishers) for approval:
👤 "Update the video creative with a new version"
🤖 Updates creative content and triggers automatic re-sync

Behind the scenes:
1. Creative updated with new content
2. System identifies previously synced sales agents
3. Automatically re-syncs to those agents for re-approval
4. Notifications sent if any issues occur

✅ Creative updated and re-synced to 5 sales agents
⏳ Awaiting approval from sales agents for new version

Automatic Sync Triggers

The system automatically triggers sync in these scenarios: Creative Assignment
👤 "Assign creative cr_123 to campaign camp_456"
🤖 Uses: creative/assign

🔄 Automatic sync flow:
1. Creative assigned to campaign successfully
2. System gets campaign's active tactics and sales agents
3. Syncs creative to format-compatible sales agents
4. Background approval process begins

✅ Creative assigned and syncing to 3 campaign sales agents
Content Updates
👤 "Update the creative with a new headline and video"
🤖 Uses: creative/update

🔄 Automatic re-sync flow:
1. Creative content updated (triggers re-sync)
2. Only metadata updates (like name) don't trigger sync
3. Re-syncs to previously approved sales agents
4. Sales agents review the updated version

✅ Creative updated. Re-syncing to 5 previously approved agents.
New Tactic Creation
👤 "Create a mobile video tactic for the campaign"
🤖 Uses: create_tactic

🔄 Automatic sync flow:
1. Tactic created with sales agent
2. System finds campaign's existing creatives
3. Syncs format-compatible creatives to new sales agent
4. Tactic ready with pre-approved creatives

✅ Tactic created. 3 compatible creatives syncing to new sales agent.

Manual Creative Sync

Use the dedicated sync tool for full control: Smart Auto-Detection (Recommended)
👤 "Sync creative cr_123 to relevant sales agents"
🤖 Uses: creative/sync_sales_agents

🎯 Smart sync process:
- Analyzes past 30 days of brand agent activity
- Finds sales agents used by recent tactics
- Filters for format-compatible agents only
- Provides detailed approval status

✅ Creative synced to 6 relevant sales agents based on recent activity:
• Premium Video Agent: ✅ Approved
• Mobile Display Agent: ⏳ Pending approval
• CTV Premium Agent: ❌ Rejected (format incompatible)
Manual Override
👤 "Sync creative cr_123 to specific agents: agent_1, agent_2, agent_3"
🤖 Uses: creative/sync_sales_agents with explicit agents

Direct sync to specified agents (skips auto-detection)

✅ Creative synced to 3 specified sales agents
Campaign-Specific Sync
👤 "Sync creative cr_123 to only the sales agents used by campaign camp_456"
🤖 Uses: creative/sync_sales_agents with campaignId

Syncs only to sales agents actively used by the campaign's tactics

✅ Creative synced to 2 campaign-specific sales agents

Sync Status and Health

Enhanced tools now show sync health across campaigns and creatives: Campaign Health
👤 "Show me campaign status"
🤖 Uses: campaign/list

📊 **Campaign Summary**
✅ Summer Sale Campaign - Healthy (8/8 tactics synced, 12/15 creatives approved)
⚠️  Holiday Campaign - Warning (3/5 tactics synced, sync issues detected)
❌ Spring Launch - Critical (0/3 tactics synced, missing creative approvals)

Each campaign shows sync health and notification counts
Creative Sync Details
👤 "Show me details for creative cr_123"
🤖 Uses: creative/get

🎨 **Holiday Video Creative**
🔄 **Sync Status Summary**: 6/8 agents approved, 1 pending, 1 rejected

📋 **Detailed Status**:
• Premium Video Agent: ✅ Approved (ready for campaigns)
• Mobile Video Agent: ✅ Approved (ready for campaigns)
• CTV Agent: ⏳ Pending approval (under review)
• Display Agent: ❌ Rejected (video format not supported)

💡 **Recommendation**: Creative ready for video campaigns, consider alternative for display

Notification-Driven Workflows

The sync system generates actionable notifications:
🔔 **Sync Failure Notification**
Type: creative.sync_failed
Message: "Creative sync failed: format not supported"
Action Required: "Update creative format or exclude this sales agent"

🔔 **Campaign Health Alert**
Type: campaign.creative_sync_unhealthy
Message: "Campaign has 3 tactics with sync failures"
Urgency: High
Action Required: "Review sync failures before campaign launch"

🔔 **Approval Success**
Type: creative.approved
Message: "Creative approved by Premium Video Agent"
Action Required: "Creative ready for campaign deployment"

Smart Format Matching

The system automatically matches creative formats to sales agent capabilities:
Creative Format: video/mp4
✅ Video-capable sales agents: Will sync
❌ Display-only sales agents: Will be skipped

Creative Format: image/jpeg
✅ Display and video agents: Will sync
✅ All format-compatible agents receive it

This prevents incompatible sync attempts and reduces rejection rates

Sync Best Practices

For Campaign Managers:
  • Monitor campaign health dashboards regularly
  • Address sync issues before campaign launch
  • Use pre-sync for critical campaigns well in advance
For Creative Operations:
  • Design creatives for maximum sales agent compatibility
  • Monitor approval rates to identify problematic sales agents
  • Use batch content updates to minimize re-sync overhead
For Performance Optimization:
  • Track sync success rates across different creative formats
  • Analyze rejection patterns to improve creative strategy
  • Use campaign health data to prioritize optimization efforts

Creative Agents Integration

Creative agents provide AI-powered creative generation following AdCP PR #23. Here’s how they integrate:

What are Creative Agents?

Creative agents are AI-powered tools that can:
  • Generate creatives conversationally through natural language
  • Create both static assets (images, text) and dynamic code (interactive ads)
  • Optimize creatives in real-time based on performance data
  • Understand brand guidelines and maintain consistency

Integration Points

1. Manifest Mode (Static Asset Generation)

👤 "Use a creative agent to build a banner creative for our coffee brand"

🤖 I'll engage a creative agent to generate assets for your coffee brand.

*Behind the scenes:*
1. Creative agent generates asset manifest
2. Assets are created (images, text, layouts)
3. Manifest feeds into creative/create
4. Creative is ready for campaign assignment

✅ Creative generated via creative agent:
- Primary: Coffee cup hero image (1200x628)
- Text: "Premium Coffee, Premium Experience"
- CTA: "Order Now"
- Brand colors and fonts automatically applied

2. Code Mode (Dynamic Creative Generation)

👤 "Create a dynamic video creative that personalizes based on viewer location"

🤖 I'll deploy a creative agent to build a personalized video creative.

*Behind the scenes:*
1. Creative agent writes executable creative code
2. Code handles real-time personalization logic
3. Dynamic creative deployed to AdCP publishers
4. Real-time inference for each impression

✅ Dynamic creative deployed:
- Base video template with location placeholders
- Real-time city/weather data integration
- Personalized call-to-action based on local offers

3. Conversational Creative Refinement

👤 "I don't like the blue color in the banner, make it more green"

🤖 I'll refine the creative using the creative agent.

*Creative agent conversation:*
🎨 Agent: Analyzing current banner design...
🎨 Agent: Shifting color palette from blue (#2196F3) to green (#4CAF50)
🎨 Agent: Maintaining brand contrast and accessibility
🎨 Agent: Generating updated banner version

✅ Creative updated:
- New version with green color scheme
- All brand guidelines maintained
- Ready for A/B testing against original

Integration Architecture

Our creative management system integrates creative agents through:
1. Natural Language Interface
   User Request → Claude → Creative Agent → Asset Generation

2. Asset Pipeline Integration
   Creative Agent Output → creative/create → Campaign Assignment

3. Performance Feedback Loop
   Campaign Performance → Creative Agent → Optimization → New Variants

4. Brand Consistency Engine
   Brand Guidelines → Creative Agent → All Generated Assets

Creative Agent Tools

When creative agents are available, these tools will integrate seamlessly: build_creative: Conversational creative generation
  • Natural language creative briefs
  • Iterative refinement through conversation
  • Brand guideline adherence
  • Multi-format output (static + dynamic)
manage_creative_library: AI-powered asset organization
  • Auto-tagging of assets
  • Content similarity detection
  • Usage pattern analysis
  • Asset recommendation engine

Best Practices

1. Organize with Buyer Agents

✅ Good: Separate buyer agents by brand
- Nike buyer agent → Nike creatives
- Adidas buyer agent → Adidas creatives

❌ Avoid: Mixing brands in one buyer agent
- Single agent with mixed brand creatives

2. Use Descriptive Names

✅ Good Naming:
- Creative: "Summer Sale 2024 - Video Series"
- Asset: "Hero video - Summer sale announcement (30s)"

❌ Poor Naming:
- Creative: "Creative_001"
- Asset: "video.mp4"

3. Leverage Asset Reuse

✅ Smart Reuse:
1. Upload logo once → Use in multiple creatives
2. Create brand text templates → Reuse across campaigns
3. Standard CTA buttons → Consistent experience

📈 Benefits:
- Brand consistency
- Faster creative development
- Lower production costs

4. Campaign Assignment Strategy

✅ Strategic Assignment:
- A/B test: Same campaign, multiple creative variants
- Seasonal: Rotate creatives by time period
- Audience: Different creatives for different segments

📊 Track Performance:
- Use campaign/list_creatives for performance data
- Monitor CTR, conversions by creative
- Optimize based on data

5. Creative Lifecycle Management

📅 Lifecycle Stages:
Draft → Review → Active → Optimized → Archived

🔄 Best Practices:
- Keep drafts until approved
- Archive old creatives (don't delete)
- Version creatives for major changes
- Tag creatives for easy searching

Advanced Features

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

When creative agents are integrated:
👤 "Set up dynamic optimization for creative cr_123"

🤖 I'll configure dynamic creative optimization.

*Configuration:*
- Template: Base creative with variable elements
- Dynamic Elements: Headlines, images, CTAs
- Optimization Goal: Click-through rate
- Personalization: Location, device, time of day

📈 Result: Creative automatically adapts for each user

Multi-Format Creative Packages

👤 "Create a responsive creative package for all screen sizes"

🤖 I'll create a creative package with multiple format variants.

*Package Contents:*
- Desktop: 728x90 leaderboard
- Mobile: 320x50 banner
- Tablet: 300x250 rectangle
- CTV: 16:9 video format

✅ All formats share brand assets and messaging
🔄 Automatic format selection based on placement

Creative Performance Analytics

👤 "Show me performance breakdown for creative cr_456"

🤖 Here's the detailed performance analysis:

📊 Creative Performance (Last 30 Days):
- Total Impressions: 847,392
- Clicks: 12,834 (1.51% CTR)
- Conversions: 432 (3.37% CVR)

📈 Performance by Asset:
- Hero image: 89% of impressions
- Headline A: 2.1% CTR
- Headline B: 1.8% CTR

💡 Optimization Suggestions:
- Test new hero image variants
- Headline A performing better - scale up
- Consider video format for mobile placements

Brand Safety and Compliance

👤 "Ensure all creatives comply with financial services regulations"

🤖 I'll check creative compliance for financial services.

*Compliance Checks:*
- Required disclaimers: ✅ Present
- Font size minimums: ✅ Met
- Required legal text: ✅ Included
- Prohibited claims: ✅ None detected

✅ All creatives compliant with regulations
📋 Compliance report generated for legal review

Common Questions

Q: How many assets can a creative have?

A: No hard limit, but we recommend 3-5 assets per creative for optimal performance and management.

Q: Can I use the same creative across multiple campaigns?

A: Yes! That’s a key feature. Assign one creative to multiple campaigns within the same buyer agent.

Q: What happens if I update a creative that’s assigned to active campaigns?

A: Updates create new versions. Active campaigns continue using the assigned version unless you explicitly update the assignment.

Q: How do I organize creatives for multiple brands?

A: Use separate buyer agents for each brand. Each buyer agent has its own creative library.

Q: Can creative agents work with my existing brand guidelines?

A: Yes! Creative agents can be trained on your brand guidelines, logo usage, color palettes, and messaging frameworks.

Next Steps

  1. Start Simple: Create your first creative with creative/create
  2. Explore Workflows: Try both creative-centric and campaign-centric approaches
  3. Leverage AI: Experiment with creative agents when available
  4. Monitor Performance: Use analytics to optimize your creative mix
  5. Scale Up: Build creative libraries and reuse assets efficiently
Need help? All creative management tools work conversationally with Claude - just describe what you want to accomplish!