After more than two decades in marketing and advertising, Rye Asuro, Creative Operations Resource Manager at Aviva Canada, has seen it all—new tools, new processes, and new ways of working. But experience has taught him that real progress in creative operations isn’t about chasing the latest technology. It’s about structure, clarity, and consistency.
“Every year there’s a newer software, every year there’s a newer thing to take a look at,” he said. “The issue is, how do I keep my team efficient in its working style, but not trip over themselves because there’s something new and shiny?”
Adapting Without Overcomplicating
For Rye, innovation always comes with a balancing act. He’s quick to explore new tools but just as quick to recognize when existing methods work best.
“If it works, it works,” he said. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. I’m okay to plan it out properly, use the right tools at the right time, and the right resources at the right time.”
That approach helps his team stay focused on results rather than trends. While the tools and formats evolve, the core creative work—like producing brochures, campaigns, and digital materials—remains consistent. What changes is how efficiently the team executes it.
Using RoboHead as the Source of Truth
Within Aviva’s creative studio, RoboHead serves as the central hub for all project work. Every request, file, and update lives in one shared space.
“My team is literally on it hour-to-hour,” Rye explained. “All of our instructions for what the team is supposed to do is in one spot.”
Instead of searching through old email threads, the team starts every inquiry with one simple question: What’s the RoboHead number? That identifier links each asset back to its full project history.
When someone needs to reproduce an older brochure, Rye and his team are easily able to locate the old materials based on their RoboHead project numbers.
“I can unarchive something from three years ago, four years ago, and it’s all there,” Rye said. “The system works as long as all the information goes in the right place at the right time.”
To make that traceability effortless, Aviva includes the project’s RoboHead code directly on every marketing piece, printed discreetly beside the legal copy.
“That code is the key to everything,” he said. “I can find all the working files, see who signed off on it, how much we paid for it—it’s all because of that code.”
Simplifying Complex Communication
Managing creative work inside a large insurance company means juggling multiple stakeholders, legal reviews, and bilingual requirements. Despite having tools for instant communication, Rye finds the hardest part of creative operations is keeping instructions clear.
“There’s such a complexity to our projects—specs, legal, translations—and we end up under-communicating,” he said. “I can Teams message somebody, I can email them, I can Skype them. But that clear communication and understanding is what needs to be fixed the most.”
That communication challenge extends beyond the creative team. Stakeholders often assume their project deserves top priority, which makes workload management a constant exercise in triage.
“A lot of my stakeholders will make the assumption that their request is the biggest request,” Rye said. “We’re basically firefighters. Wherever the hottest fire is, that’s where we’re pushing our resources.”
By managing all incoming requests and updates in RoboHead, the team ensures priorities are visible to everyone—helping balance workloads and reduce confusion.
Structure that Supports Creativity
At Aviva Canada, they don’t rush work, they do it right the first time. With RoboHead as their system of record, Rye’s team has built a creative operation that balances innovation with stability.
“It really shows that the system works,” Rye said. “As long as all the information goes into the right place at the right time.”
That philosophy reflects what many creative teams strive for: a process that protects the work, supports the people, and makes space for creative energy to thrive.
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