Template Intake and Brand Lock (Onboarding)
A checklist with 7 steps: Collect the client's brand kit as machine-readable tokens before any template is built.
By InnovaAI ResearchPublished
What are the steps?
Template Intake and Brand Lock (Onboarding)
- 01
Collect the client's brand kit as machine-readable tokens before any template is built
Ask for hex codes, licensed font files, logo variants on transparent backgrounds, and legal disclaimers. A Figma-inspired editor such as Bannerify can only swap text and imagery reliably when the underlying tokens are fixed, so gaps here surface as broken assets at scale.
- 02
Inventory every asset size the account will ever need and map each to a named template
List ad placements, social ratios, app store slots, and print dimensions up front. AppScreenshots covers App Store, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery, and Chrome Web Store formats, which is the kind of platform matrix worth capturing in one sheet rather than rediscovering per campaign.
- 03
Define the variable fields and freeze the fixed fields
Separate what changes per run (headline, price, product shot, locale) from what never changes (logo position, legal line, safe margins). Ambiguity between the two is the most common cause of a bulk render producing 400 unusable files.
- 04
Set the naming and versioning convention before the first render
Agree on a pattern such as client_campaign_locale_size_v01 so retainer work stays traceable when a client asks which asset ran in which market six weeks later.
- 05
Confirm who holds the source files and who holds the API credentials
Decide whether the agency or the client owns the template library and the generation account. Ownership determines what happens at contract end, and it determines who absorbs a usage-based pricing increase.
- 06
Run a 10-asset pilot and have the client sign off on the rendered output, not the template
Templates look correct in an editor and fail in production. Sign-off on real rendered files catches font substitution, text overflow, and color shift before the pipeline is wired into a live campaign.
- 07
Document the approved template set in the client's knowledge base with a change log
Every later edit gets a date and a reason. This is the artifact that lets a new delivery hire produce on-brand assets in week one instead of week six.