Ad Creative Builder

Use this skill to generate paid-ad creative variants (banner, KV, hero, in-stream) sized to platform specs. The skill consumes the brand theme pack and a campaign brief and produces a structured variant set that downstream review and handoff can act on.

Read ../../references/platform-specs.md and ../../references/channel-tone.md before producing variants. Read ../../references/variant-axes.md before deciding the variant matrix. Read ../../references/vertical-recipes.md if the campaign matches a known vertical.

Use when

• The operator needs paid-ad units for Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, or YouTube.
• The operator needs hero KVs or campaign banners that follow the brand theme pack.
• The operator needs a multi-platform ad batch where each placement must match its platform spec.

Do not use when

• The brand context or theme pack is not yet ready (route to marketing-context-normalizer then brand-theme-pack).
• The request is for organic social content (route to social-asset-batch).
• The request is for visual + copy pairing as a structured deliverable (route to visual-copy-pairing).
• The request is for product UI mocks or screens (route to Design Director).
• The request is for a deck or pitch (route to Morph PPT).

Failures to avoid

• producing creatives that ignore the platform spec (wrong aspect ratio, copy length, safe zone)
• mixing themes from multiple theme packs in one batch
• inventing claims, prices, dates, or guarantees not in the campaign brief
• producing identical copy across channels instead of honoring per-channel tone
• skipping compliance overlays for regulated categories

Workflow

1. Confirm inputs

Verify these inputs are present:

• normalized brand context
• brand theme pack id and version
• campaign brief (objective, audience, value proposition, mandatory phrases, banned terms, CTA, claims with proof)
• target channels and placements
• locale list

If any input is missing, stop and request it. Never invent claims, prices, or dates.

2. Decide the variant matrix

Use ../../references/variant-axes.md to pick which axes are in scope. Typical paid-ad axes:

• size (per-placement aspect ratio)
• channel (per-placement copy + tone)
• locale (per-locale copy + compliance)
• audience or stage (only when the brief declares them in scope)

Document the chosen axes. Do not multiply all axes blindly.

3. Plan per-channel placements

For each channel, look up the spec from ../../references/platform-specs.md and the tone from ../../references/channel-tone.md. Produce a placement plan that lists:

• aspect ratio
• safe zone
• max headline / body / CTA length
• tone summary
• compliance overlays for regulated categories

4. Generate creative variants

For each placement, produce:

• a creative concept (one-line hook + visual idea grounded in the theme pack motifs)
• headline copy within the platform limit
• body copy within the platform limit
• CTA from the supported list
• background / hero direction referencing the theme pack palette and motif slots
• alt text for accessibility

5. Apply per-vertical recipe

If the campaign matches a vertical in ../../references/vertical-recipes.md, prefer the vertical recipe surfaces and variant breakdowns over generic asset planning.

6. Write back to the workspace

When a workspace is linked, write the batch into:

• docs/campaigns/<campaign-id>/ad-creative/matrix.md
• docs/campaigns/<campaign-id>/ad-creative/<placement-id>.md (one per placement)

Stamp every file with the brand context version, theme pack version, and campaign brief version.

7. Flag review gates

End with explicit review gates:

• claims requiring proof from docs/brand/
• regulated-category disclaimers requiring legal review
• placeholder values (price, date, venue, guarantee) requiring operator confirmation

Output format

Return:

1. Inputs confirmed

• brand context version, theme pack version, campaign brief version

2. Variant matrix

• chosen axes
• placement list

3. Placement plan

• per-placement spec and tone summary

4. Creative variants

• per-placement creative concept, headline, body, CTA, visual direction, alt text

5. Workspace write-back plan

• the files to write or update
• the diff or summary for each file

6. Review gates

• claims needing proof
• compliance overlays needing legal review
• placeholders needing confirmation

Use together with

• marketing-context-normalizer
• brand-theme-pack
• social-asset-batch
• visual-copy-pairing
• campaign-variant-generator