8
Apr
2009
AdWonder in 2009: Faster, Easier, Smarter!
As the AdWonder component approaches its 3rd birthday, the future has never looked brighter for our favorite ad creation tool. What began as a humble set of class files to open EyeWonder’s industry-leading API to the world has evolved into what we all know and love today, the AdWonder for CS3/4 Flash Component. Today I’m going to talk about a couple of upcoming features and improvements which are distilled from all the valuable feedback we’ve received—keep ’em coming guys!
Adobe LiveCycle
What’s one thing we can use more of? SPEED! This is a major performance-oriented improvement for faster workflow. As the number of ads and videos being managed by our component increases, ad/video list refresh speeds tend to suffer. With LiveCycle, instead of a constant call to the server to retrieve updated information, our servers will now “push” updated data out to individual AdWonder instances, dramatically lowering data overhead. Another added bonus is that our support staff will be able to make adjustments server-side, and those changes will auto-propagate to the client designer’s panel.
New Demo Creator
Ok, I’m not going to sugarcoat it: the current demo creation process in AdWonder can be described as “functional” at best. It doesn’t have the most user-friendly interface or a great degree of flexibility, but like my old car in high school, it got us places. Well, getting places is good, but getting there with style is better—ladies and gents, I present to you the new Demo Creator. We’ve put a ton of effort into this: it’s got a shiny new drag and drop interface, allows for custom backgrounds, custom ad positioning, multi-ad demos and various other improvements too many to list.
Campaign Status Page
Sounds boring right? WRONG! This is a feature everyone will enjoy—a page which consolidates all ads, demos and other creative assets which have been associated with a particular campaign, allowing everyone to easily review creatives, check ad progress and do a host of other cool things. Gone are the days of passing e-mails full of approval/staging links between designer, project manager and clients; simply bookmark this page and all the information for that campaign will be at your fingertips. The time saved from miscommunications/digging for the same info repeatedly can be put to better use such as beer pong or making cooler ads—either’s good.