Toronto-based adbeast’s online common operating platform for the advertising industry has only been operational for less than a year, but it has already generated quite a buzz amongst post houses.

On the post side, adbeast offers itself as an online screening room where post houses can present rough cuts of their work on their own individual site within the system, allowing clients, directors and production houses to see the work in progress anytime from anywhere.

‘The post houses control and manage it, and they can invite their clients to view [their work] online,’ says Steve Hancock, adbeast’s CEO and cofounder. ‘The quality is there and most companies seem pretty comfortable when looking at rough cuts.’

Hancock says he has heard nothing less than rave reviews about the service since it went online in late spring/early summer 2001. It allows everyone involved with a production to effortlessly keep up to date with the work in its various stages.

‘The agencies like it because they can see the stuff without having to schlep to the editing house,’ says Hancock. ‘It saves them time, money and travel costs. For the editing houses, I think it gives them more time because they don’t have to worry about the logistics of how they get the work to the client to view.’

Toronto-based Third Floor Editing’s senior editor Barry McMann used adbeast over the Christmas holidays to work with a director in Aspen, who set up shop temporarily in a Kinkos to view a rough cut of a commercial he had helmed. He says the director was able to get in touch with McMann within the hour to talk about what he saw on adbeast.

‘The big bonus is the creativity there, because it allows the director to be involved from a long distance,’ says McMann. ‘My concern when we first started with [adbeast] was what if I get a cut at midnight and I have to put it up? They’ve managed to find ways around staffing issues to do that and make sure they’ll be able to accommodate us. It’s not to be said in the future that we won’t be doing that ourselves, but as a service provider it guarantees [the cut] will get up there without any hassles, and it allows us to focus on our other clients’ needs.’

As McMann hints, some post houses could feasibly set up their own broadband systems and cut adbeast out of the mix in the future. It may not happen immediately, but as post houses become more Web-savvy, they could set up similar systems of their own to communicate with clients.

Toronto’s Stealing Time has had one in place for quite some time.

Stealing Time founder Alex Eaton says his shop’s broadband system makes it equally easy to communicate with clients. Although he hasn’t used adbeast, he says he and his clients have been pleased with the quality and ease of affered by Stealing Time’s own system, and he can see other post houses following suit.

‘It’s very easy for us to post things internally,’ says Eaton. ‘It takes five minutes, after the media is cleaned and compressed. Logistically, it’s on site so we can have a cut posted in a half-hour as opposed to having to courier it across town.’

Still, Hancock isn’t too worried.

‘I think we can provide a more effective, low-cost way of doing it,’ says Hancock. ‘For [post shops] to create the sort of technology we are offering would be a huge undertaking. It’s not what they do best. It’s not about compressing the videotapes; they can do that themselves. We are just providing an infrastructure.’

He goes on to say adbeast is advantageous to its users because it is a common operating platform and offers the same high-quality capabilities to all its subscribers.

‘It’s as predictable as shipping 3/4′ tapes around,’ he says. ‘You know they have a machine that will work and they’ll see it. We are here 24 hours a day, so if a client can’t see something, there is tech support here to help manage that.’

The other advantage of using adbeast, says Hancock, is that by having high-quality work online, post houses can also use the system as a promotional tool. The companies can move the cuts onto their own websites, whether it be for public viewing or in private rooms, and create, manage and archive their show reels from there. The reels are therefore ready should an agency need to see them immediately.

‘The editing house can transfer its past work directly into the agency’s project room and present it to the client,’ says Hancock. ‘It’s a seamless process, so in minutes the agency can call the post-production house and say, ‘I need to show your work to the client to get a final buyoff on you, to use you.’ ‘

Currently, adbeast is being used by agencies, clients, production and post houses in Canada, but thanks to some positive word of mouth, Hancock says there has been a lot of recent interest from the U.S. and elsewhere.

Bob Kennedy, senior editor at Toronto’s Flashcut, confirms this.

‘[Adbeast] seems to be working well and we’re just about to start a U.S. job where they’re really keen on it,’ says Kennedy. ‘For out-of-town jobs, it looks like it’s becoming quite an advantage.’

While Hancock is certainly enjoying the buzz about adbeast, for now, and in the short term, he says the company will primarily target Canadian advertisers and service providers.

‘We started out with a few charter clients and now we are beginning to ramp it up, with Canada being the primary focus right now,’ says Hancock. ‘We have learned what people are looking for so we can fine-tune it.’

(With files from Peter Vamos)

-www.adbeast.com

-www.stealingtime.com