The Challenge
Before using Focal, Alinea’s process was spread across several tools that didn’t connect. Each campaign involved switching between platforms for ideation, feedback and delivery, which slowed the team down and made it difficult to keep visibility across projects.
“Our biggest pain point was working across platforms that didn’t talk to each other. We constantly switched between tools, which created bottlenecks and slowed everything down.”
Alinea's creative and marketing teams work in tight weekly sprints, producing and testing more than 400 ads every month. To maintain that pace without losing structure, they needed a workflow that connected every step from concept to delivery in one place.
The Solution
Alinea moved their entire creative production system into Focal. Every brief, asset and round of feedback now lives in one shared view, creating an easy workflow between Copywriters, Designers and Media Buyers.
Their process is designed around tight, repeatable sprints with a constant flow of new concepts entering production each week. Every ad begins with a clear hypothesis about what is being tested, whether it is a new message, visual direction or format. Media Attributes are used to tag the specific creative element they are testing, which helps the team stay focused on learning and iteration rather than simply output.
Alinea’s creative taxonomy is a key part of their system. Each asset is tagged with detailed attributes such as style, theme, hook and language, making it easy to understand what is being produced, why it was created, and how it performs once tested. Using AI Attributes, Focal automatically analyzes visuals, audio and text, and then applies the team’s own taxonomy on upload.
The Impact
With Focal, Alinea has built a creative system that scales without adding complexity. The team now spends less time on admin and more time on creative strategy and analysis. They move faster through reviews, collaborate in real time and have complete visibility across every stage of production.
By automating what used to be manual, Alinea has turned their workflow into a repeatable system that combines speed, structure and data-driven decision making.
