Brewers Association Case Study: From Bottlenecks to Brews with GoProof

The Brewers Association, a non-profit representing thousands of craft breweries across the US, faced mounting challenges as their organization grew. With a small creative team managing a wide range of marketing materials – from print publications and event collateral to digital campaigns – Brewers Association's traditional proofing process was becoming a major bottleneck.

The Challenge: Creative Chaos in a Growing Organization

Brewers Association used a combination of paper printouts and a project management application for managing their creative content. The printouts were passed around the office in a folder to those who needed to review them. Comments were written on them or post-it notes were applied, then larger discussions or comments were added to the project management app. The folder had a checklist of everyone on the team that needed to review and once a review was completed they would pass it along to the next person on the list, then finally back to the originator in the creative team.

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Pain Points of the Past

Endless Email Chains: Feedback was scattered across countless emails, leading to confusion and missed deadlines.

Lost in the Shuffle: Important comments and revisions would often get lost in the shuffle, causing rework and delays.

Version Confusion: Tracking multiple versions of files was a nightmare, especially with team members working both on-site and remotely.

Time Delays: Reviews would take multiple days, when the timescale should have been, and needed to be, much shorter.

Disjointed Communication: Questions asked on proofs were not answered before content was being passed to the creative team.

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The Solution: A Smarter Way to Approve Creative Content

GoProof streamlined the review and approval process, saving time for both reviewers and the creative team. Everyone is informed when a review has started, and are sent reminders, and prompts, when the review is completed. Now, users are able to review content when it is convenient for them, instead of having to wait for the previous reviewer to finish their comments and forward the physical printouts on.

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The Impact: How GoProof Transformed their Workflow

GoProof saved more than an hour a day when reviewing. Between conversations amongst reviewers live in the review, to not having to spend time combining edits from multiple review types, and no longer needing to comb back through multiple posts in the project management system that were not correlated to the creative content.

In addition, GoProof has opened up more time for the creative team to be creative and allowed reviewers to be more flexible with their time. The @mention functionality, and reading through others comments, has helped to increase collaboration.

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Key Benefits Realized

Centralized Feedback: All comments and annotations are now gathered directly on the creative assets, eliminating the need for physical print-outs, and ensures that feedback is clear and actionable.

Version Control Mastery: GoProof's automatic version control confirms everyone is always working on the most up-to-date file, reducing confusion and rework.

Improved Collaboration: The @mention feature enables direct communication and faster feedback loops, even with remote team members.

Reduced Review Timeframes: GoProof's streamlined proofing process has drastically reduced review times, allowing the Brewers Association to be more agile and responsive to their members' needs.

Increased Efficiency: The ability to attach files and make text amends directly within proofs has eliminated errors and streamlined revisions.
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GoProof: The Perfect Proofing Tool for Creative Teams

"GoProof has been a game-changer for us," says Jason Smith, Art Director at the Brewers Association. "It's a time-saver, and it's made the sign-off process so much easier for our clients. We've seen a huge improvement in our ability to streamline the review process and bring our review time down."
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Whether you're a small design team or a large agency, GoProof can help you achieve similar results. Our online proofing software is designed to empower creative collaboration, streamline your workflow, and help you deliver exceptional work, on time and within budget.