Former Special Group talent launch ad spec start-up, The Spec Sheet
Sharon Gray and Jesse McLallen, former Special Group talent have launched a new tech start-up, The Spec Sheet to simplify and streamline the managing and sharing of ad specs between media owners, media agencies and creative agencies.
The idea for the platform was borne out of the frustration that the existing process for ad specs produced too many errors, omissions, out of date information, stress for juniors and generally, too much wasted time.
“I said to Jesse, this is ridiculous. We constantly keep redoing the same job task over and over again,” Sharon Gray, co-founder and CEO of The Spec Sheet told Mumbrella. “We see the same quality and standard of work from every media agency, surely there’s something out there that you can find the placements that you need and it has the ad specs behind it.”
Sharon Gray and Jesse McLallen
Gray, a former Special Group digital planner, and McLallen, a former digital creative at Special, created the platform in order to cut out the unnecessary wasted time that goes into preparing ad specs.
“We’ve talked to all the major global holding groups and they’re very keen and interested to track more efficiencies, and to make sure their media planners are not worrying about ad specs, but more concerned about making sure that they’re servicing their clients in a better way,” co-founder and COO, McLallen said, speaking to Mumbrella.
The Spec Sheet said that media owners representing more than 90% of advertising spend in Australia have signed-on to use the tool to support and manage ad specs, while Gray said from the agency side there are “nearly 100-plus users using it in trials” at the moment.
“It’s looking really healthy,” said Gray. “We’re seeing some of those agencies now starting to share them as real documents.”
Paul Brooks, director of sales, Nine for Brands, said that the media company was happy to align with The Spec Sheet, supporting its media and creative agency partners by supplying its ad placement specs on the platform.
“Nine for Brands has an array of traditional, new and innovative ad placements and The Spec Sheet offers another streamlining point for media planners to get the campaign delivery process started as quickly and accurately as possible,” he said.
The founders call it a “world-first tech solution”, and the initial feedback, Gray said, is that “juniors are finding it really easy to use”, creating time savings as high as 70%, leading to those juniors being able to spend more time with their managers “learning more about the business and being tasked with other jobs that they typically may not have ever had time to do”.
McLallen believes that in the long run, the client will end up getting better value for their money, with the planners able to spend “more doing what they do best, which is planning and buying media”.
The platform has been in the works for several years, after being put off, due to the size of the “enormous undertaking”.
“It’s a fit for purpose tool in terms of getting to a production ready spec sheet. It’s a collaboration point between the media agency and the creative agency. It sort of acts sort of handoff so that the key differences is the media planner can add things like creative targeting.
The start up hopes that its new technology will allow agencies and staff to focus their time on developing quality products and results for clients rather, and in turn reducing what has caused stress previously, with unnecessary hours being spent on a “laborious, not so fun task”.
“Our dream is, on Friday afternoon, you just get to go home at regular time, that you’re not stuck agonising over a spec sheet, waiting for someone to check it, no one’s there to check it so you just send it and then it blows up,” said Gray.
McLallen also hopes that it will help fix industry “churn out”, by focusing on the reasons juniors came into the industry, which will “upskill and empower”them.
Trent McMillan, founder and chief digital officer at independent agency, Kaimera, has also adopted The Spec Sheet.
“With The Spec Sheet we are now able to spend time on thinking, rather than doing repetitive, mundane tasks such as ad specs updates,” he said. “Being able to know that we have a single source of truth that can be updated in real-time via the online platform, allows us to spend more time on our clients, actually extracting insights to further improve campaign performance.”
Right now for the pair, the aim is to continue getting The Spec Sheet off the ground, and to get its Australian customers “settled and happy”. Beyond, there are plans for New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, with the United States being “Everest”.
The current revenue model is consumer based, with a “flat production fee”.
“We call it a micro-charge,” said Gray. “When you create a spec sheet, that’s when the client is charged for that particular spec sheet.”
Looking forward, McLallen said there is a “long roadmap” of different products The Spec Sheet is looking to utilise going forward, including machine learning and AI, which ” is going to really speed up and be more accurate in terms of getting the media owners ad units into our system”, he said.
Got a tip?
Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
Linkedin
topics
ad spec
creative agency
Jessie McLallen
Media agency
Nine
Sharon Gray
Tech Start-Up
The Spec Sheet
This sound incredible!!! Wish it was around in my junior days!
User ID not verified.
Media is where agencies make most of their money. It is often booked before the creative process begins, which makes it difficult for the media to be the message. And when you see the same ad in every commercial break or at 3am in the morning, you just know the agency has little idea who they are talking to and used a shotgun (not a rifle) to target their consumers. Yet for decades, clients have believed the so-called ‘media plan’. Then sign off and pay up because they trust the agency. So I hope this is a little media is more bespoke.
User ID not verified.
Jesse and Sharon, you are brilliant! So proud 👏 of you even though I don’t understand it!
User ID not verified.
Nice work Jesse. a long but passionate slog to get to where you are.
Sounds fantastic, efficiency at last! Well Done & Good Luck
User ID not verified.
Have your say