A two lane video compliance approval workflow starts with one question
Quick answer
A video compliance approval workflow is the route a video takes through review before anyone can share it. One national carrier's marketing team splits that route with a single question, whether the video touches a product. Internal and non advertising video takes the short lane. Product video picks up disclosures and more approvals.
What decides whether a video needs compliance review?
At this carrier, whether the video talks about a product. A marketing and strategy lead there drew the line in one pass.
We are a very highly regulated industry, so we also have to go through compliance, and there's a lot of approval steps. Certain types of videos wouldn't necessarily need compliance if they're very much just non advertising, but once we get into products, then we have to add in a lot of disclosure and we have to get a lot of approval.
Marketing and strategy lead, national annuities and life insurance carrier
One question, doing the work of a routing table. Recruiting video, internal training, a field rep introducing herself: none of those touch a product. A feature explainer does, and it arrives carrying disclosure text and a longer list of names.
Where your own line sits belongs to your compliance team, and Capsule makes no claim about compliance outcomes.
How do you route videos through a two lane approval workflow?
Write the routing down before you build anything, because the routing is what makes the fast lane defensible. The version below is the shape this carrier described.
| Video type | Touches a product | Who reviews | Where the approval step lives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal training and enablement | No | Requesting team lead and brand owner | Next to the asset |
| Recruiting and culture | No | Brand owner | Next to the asset |
| Field rep introduction | No | Sales manager and brand owner | Next to the asset |
| Product explainer | Yes | Copy, proofreading, ad review compliance, brand | Your enterprise workflow tool |
| Sales enablement naming a product | Yes | Everything above plus the sales leader | Your enterprise workflow tool |
Where should the approval step live if you already use an enterprise workflow tool?
In the tool that already holds your creative governance. A brand and advertising lead at the same carrier asked the question directly.
Is there approval steps that can be built in, or is that something that we would do outside of Capsule.Video? We use Adobe Workfront as our enterprise workflow tool. Could the creative director have an approval step before videos could be used or shared?
Brand and advertising lead, national annuities and life insurance carrier
If Workfront is where your creative director signs off today, leave the sign off in Workfront and let the video platform own the build. Two systems both holding the word "approved" is how a video gets shared in a state nobody cleared. Where a review step can sit next to the asset is a setup question for your CSM during rollout, and our piece on who owns video when everyone can make it covers how teams settle it.
What breaks at the seam between a video platform and your approval tool?
Version identity. Approval attaches to one specific cut, and a browser based template makes new cuts cheap, which is the point of it and also the exposure. The failures worth designing around before launch:
- Two places both claiming to hold the current version.
- A link approved in one system and a file downloaded from another.
- People with fill access in the build tool who never appear in the workflow tool's routing.
- A change small enough that nobody thinks to send it back to the approver.
Locked templates shrink the first three, because the only things a filler can change are the text and media in the fields your brand team left open. The fourth stays a people problem.
What does a two lane video approval workflow look like for one product launch?
Say a carrier launches one product feature and wants nine videos: one feature explainer for advisors, five field rep introductions, one internal training walkthrough and two recruiting spots.
The explainer takes the long lane, with disclosure text sitting in a locked field so the approved wording travels with every cut. The five rep introductions never mention the product, so under the routing above they take the short lane, and one template produces all five in a browser the same afternoon. The training walkthrough describes the product internally, so it goes to ad review alongside the explainer. Recruiting takes the short lane.
Two assets run the full course. Seven ship the week they were asked for. The formats teams set up for that split start with the product demo and explainer templates.
FAQ
Do all marketing videos need compliance approval?
The carrier in this post sends product video through ad review compliance and routes non advertising video without it. What needs approval at your company is a call for your compliance team, and Capsule makes no claim about compliance outcomes.
How do you speed up video approvals without skipping review?
Split the queue by whether a video touches a product. Product video keeps every step. Everything else follows a short route ending with a brand owner, so the long route runs on a fraction of your volume.
Can approval steps be built into a video platform?
Some governance can sit next to the asset and some belongs in the workflow tool your company already runs. If Adobe Workfront or something like it is your system of record, keep the sign off there and treat the video platform as the build step.
Who approves video at a regulated company?
At this carrier the named reviewers were proofreading, an ad review compliance team and a brand owner, plus a creative director sign off before anything could be shared.