Variety SA: one place for briefs, artwork and approvals across every event, department and sponsor
Variety SA, a South Australian children’s charity, uses Simple Admation to manage briefs, artwork, feedback and approvals across its fundraising events and campaigns. A marketing team of three coordinates reviews with internal departments, sponsors and external partners, and every comment, revision and approval now stays attached to the job rather than scattered across email and Teams.
“Simple Admation keeps our briefs, artwork, feedback and approvals all in one place, making the whole process much easier to manage. Plus everyone is accountable, with a clear trail of who said what, who approved what and when.”
Georgia Firth, Marketing & Communications Manager, Variety SA
About Variety SA
Variety SA is a not-for-profit organisation that supports children who are sick, experiencing disadvantage or living with disability. It raises most of its funds through motoring events and functions, each with its own audience, sponsors and creative requirements.
The marketing function is three people. The workload is not. “Each event you could consider a ‘client’, all with different needs,” says Georgia Firth, Marketing & Communications Manager. Work rarely involves only her team: internal departments raise requests, sponsors and partners need to see how their brands are being used, and every piece of collateral passes through several sets of hands before it goes out.
The challenge: briefs on sticky notes, feedback across email and Teams
Before Simple Admation, there was no single way to receive a brief. “We had tried different ways to brief and nothing seemed to work,” says Georgia. “If we got a brief from another department it could have been verbal, in an email or even a sticky note.”
Artwork and feedback ran through email and Microsoft Teams, so comments and versions scattered across threads and channels. With several events running at once and multiple reviewers on each job, nobody could be certain which file was the latest version, or who had actually approved it.
“Version control and scattered feedback were probably the biggest frustrations. There was also less accountability around approvals.”
Why Variety SA chose Simple Admation
The team wanted one central place to manage the entire creative process, from the initial brief through artwork, feedback and final approval — and less admin for everyone involved.
Simple Admation is a marketing approval workflow and online proofing platform that brings briefing, artwork review, feedback and approval into a single system, so that every comment, revision and sign-off stays attached to the job it belongs to.
Simple Admation is configured to each organisation’s own approval process, and Variety SA was working in it immediately. “After the training by the Simple Admation team our team was ready to jump into using it. It was implemented straight away.”
How Variety SA uses Simple Admation
Approval checklists. Variety SA produces a wide variety of collateral, and Simple Admation’s approval checklists ensure the details that matter to each job have been considered before anything is signed off. “Having a checklist helps us make sure the important details have been considered before a job is approved.”
Consolidated online proofing. All reviewers mark up the same artwork in the same place. “Everyone can comment on the artwork in the same place, so it’s much easier to follow and there’s less chance of something getting missed.”
A complete approval trail. Every comment, change request, revision and approval stays attached to the job. “Having a trail of every comment, change request and approval is really useful.”
Visibility across concurrent work. With several events and campaigns running at the same time, the team can see the status of every job at a glance rather than reconstructing it from inboxes.
For the design side of the team, the value is simpler still. Demi, Variety SA’s digital designer, notes that work can be forwarded on and reviewed in the one spot — and that there is no longer any room for feedback left on sticky notes that get lost.
The difference it has made
“It’s hard to put an exact number of hours on it, but it definitely saves time, particularly on jobs that have a lot of people involved. We’re not searching through emails trying to find feedback, working out which artwork is the latest version or chasing down who has approved what. There’s much less back-and-forth.”
The bigger change is structural. Variety SA now has a defined process and a record of how each job progressed from start to finish. That has not changed the volume of work the team takes on, but it has changed how manageable that volume feels — and Georgia has already recommended Simple Admation to the other Variety states.
“Clearer accountability means less stress.”
Georgia Firth, Marketing & Communications Manager, Variety SA
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Variety SA use Simple Admation for?
Variety SA uses Simple Admation to manage briefs, artwork, feedback and approvals for its fundraising events and campaigns. The three-person marketing team runs every job through one workflow, so comments, revisions and approvals stay attached to the artwork rather than scattering across email and Microsoft Teams threads.
What is Simple Admation?
Simple Admation is a marketing approval workflow and online proofing platform. It brings briefing, artwork review, feedback and final approval into a single system, giving marketing teams one place to manage creative work and a complete record of who requested what, who commented and who approved it.
Can Simple Admation work for a small marketing team?
Yes. Variety SA runs Simple Admation with a marketing team of three across multiple concurrent events and campaigns. Small teams tend to benefit most, because the administrative load of chasing versions and sign-offs falls on the fewest people. Simple Admation has a minimum of ten users.
Is Simple Admation suitable for not-for-profit organisations?
Yes. Not-for-profits often coordinate approvals across internal departments, sponsors and external partners, which is exactly the situation Simple Admation is built for. Variety SA, a South Australian children’s charity, uses it across its motoring events and functions, and discounted pricing is available for not-for-profit organisations.
How long does Simple Admation take to implement?
Simple Admation is configured to each organisation’s own approval process, and configuration is typically completed within one to two weeks. Variety SA was using the platform immediately after training. The main adjustment is usually organisational rather than technical, as wider teams move to submitting briefs through a single system.
How does Simple Admation improve accountability over email approvals?
Simple Admation keeps every comment, change request, revision and approval attached to the job itself. That creates a permanent trail showing who said what, who approved what and when — something email and chat threads cannot reliably provide once feedback is spread across multiple inboxes and channels.