REEL PROMOTE
Reel Promote is the ad campaign platform within the Reel Talk, built for local film studios to promote trailers and sell tickets to cinephile audiences.
B2B
Campaigns
Entertainment
OVERVIEW
Reel Promote empowers local film studios to quickly create effective ad campaigns on Reel Talk, a social platform for movie lovers. To compete with larger ad platforms, we focused on simplicity and speed, eliminating complex setup and introducing film-specific targeting tailored to local studio needs.
ROLE
Product Designer
TEAM
Product Manager, Engineers, B2C Product Designer, Marketing
RESPONSIBILITIES
Research, Product Design, User flow, Wireframe, Iteration, Prototyping, Content Design
TIMELINE
Jan 2025- April 2025 (10+ sprints)
BUSINESS NEED
Streamlined ad creation increases adoption rates and contributes to overall revenue generation.
GOAL
Enable local film studios to efficiently launch targeted ad campaigns through Reel Promote.
CHALLENGE
How can we empower local film studios to create and launch a new campaign confidently and efficiently-in under 10 minutes?
RESULT AFTER 10+ SPRINTS
Ad Creation Time
67%
Reduced setup time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, enabling studios to launch faster.
Advertiser Retention
55%
Repeat campaign creation increased, boosting long-term revenue potential and platform growth.
To reduce setup friction and boost efficiency for film studios, I partnered with a cross-functional team to design the ad creation flow for Reel Promote from the ground up. We built two streamlined paths:
Manual Creation for Full Control
AI-Assisted Creation for Speed and Guidance
DESIGN PROCESS
As an entertainment startup, the team adopted a rapid and lean approach.
Designing, testing, and iterating quickly to validate ideas and improve the product.
RESEARCH
I learned that most ad platforms are built for broad advertisers, making them time-consuming and overwhelming for local film studios with irrelevant features and limited industry-specific support.
Collaborating with the PM, we developed a focused research plan to understand ad creation pain points for local film studios. Once aligned on key objectives and a discussion guide, I conducted interviews and audited platforms to surface workflow gaps and usability challenges.
Our users
Research goals
Understand how users launch a new campaign and what challenges they face.
How do producers and marketers create film campaigns on the platform?
Which parts of the campaign creation process take the most time or cause frustration?
What steps feel repetitive or could benefit from automation?
Research Findings
Reel Promote skips the traditional “Ad Set” layer
Pre-Targeted Audience
Reel Promote is built on Reel Talk, already focused on cinephiles and movie lovers, so broad audience targeting isn’t necessary.
Simple Campaign Goals
Small film studios typically promote trailers or ticket sales, so there’s no need for complex ad sets or multiple product variations.
Trade-off Behind this decision:
We streamlined the flow by removing the “Ad Set” layer, since our current focus is on film studios who don’t need complex targeting, such as selecting industries like tech or e-commerce. This simplification reduces setup friction and avoids overwhelming Reel Talk’s consumer users with irrelevant ads.
If we expand to support broader advertiser types in the future, we may reintroduce the layer to support their needs.
Streamlined Workflow: Project → Ads
Ad-Level Targeting
Studios can still define location, genre, age, gender, and device per ad, keeping targeting flexible without added layers.
Ideate
I created user flows to uncover core needs in the film market vertical and explored multiple design directions. These flows helped the team evaluate feasibility, align with business goals, and anticipate potential edge cases early in the process.
Mid-fidelity Prototypes
After collaborating with the team to align on design goals, I created a mid-fidelity design focusing on core setup features for film studios. We streamlined the flow, from selecting an ad objective to adding media, while preserving personalized options to maximize flexibility. made a trade-off to provide personalization with location, genres, languages, devices, and budegets for users to adjust for their ads.
Validate
As a team, we validated the mid-fidelity design with five film studio managers.
While creating a new ad averaged around 12 minutes, we still uncovered three key needs:
Time-specific ad scheduling.
More ad formats
Clearer visuals.
Iteration
These refinements reduced setup friction while balancing speed and customization.
Added day-part scheduling to give users more control over when their budget is spent.
Expanded ad format options to support more types of posts and increase flexibility.
Improved visual hierarchy to enhance clarity and guide users through the flow.
Results
Enabled film studios to launch ads in 12 minutes, boosting repeat campaigns and reinforcing Reel Talk’s niche positioning and long-term growth.
Turning to AI to Meet the Goal
The team decided to pivot to AI-powered creation to speed up campaign setup.
As a designer, I pitched the idea of using AI to streamline the ad creation process after research showed it still took users 12 minutes on average—2 minutes over our 10-minute goal. I shared insights with the team and proposed integrating AI to reduce repetitive steps and speed up ad setup for film advertisers.
The team supported the AI feature, but we needed to conduct further research to understand how users perceive AI as an assistant and assess potential feasibility challenges.
Brainstorm and Team alignment
To help advertisers launch campaigns faster and with greater precision, I explored 3 mid-fidelity concepts for AI integration. Each one approached user needs and technical feasibility differently. Through trade-off discussions and team alignment, we ultimately chose Design 3 as the most effective and scalable direction.
Design 1
AI Chatbox Assistant (Pop-up)
I introduced a floating AI chat assistant to guide advertisers through the process. While it was helpful for answering questions contextually, the team was concerned that a pop-up could distract users from the main workflow and lengthen setup time.
Design 2
Fully Automated AI Flow
This concept removed all manual input—AI would automatically handle the setup based on a few initial inputs (goal, image, and content).
However, in user interviews, 12 out of 15 users said this made them feel like they were “in a black box,” lacking control or clarity over what was being created.
💡 Design 3
Conversational AI Workflow
This design offered a structured yet flexible conversation with AI. Users could describe their campaign goals, audience, and creative details, while the AI guided them through setting it up.
🎯 This approach was:
Less interruptive than a pop-up.
Clearer than the black-box experience.
Most preferred by users and the team.
Final Version
Introducing the
"Create Ad with AI" option
To streamline the setup experience, we introduced an AI-assisted ad creation flow alongside the manual option. Users can describe their campaign goals, and the system auto-generates ad configurations, cutting the average setup time down to just 9 minutes.
🛠️ Full control: Before launch, users can review and edit AI-suggested content in the preview step.
🔄 Balanced experience: Combines automation with manual flexibility to accommodate different user preferences.
Retro
Holistic View
As a B2B designer, I needed to take a broader perspective by considering how ads on the studio side would appear on the B2C product. Ads should engage cinephiles without feeling intrusive or annoying. I should have collaborated more with the B2C design team on layouts and options to maintain consistency and avoid errors across both products.
AI Assistant Trade-off
Designing the AI assistant required balancing automation and user control. While full automation could speed things up, users wanted to stay involved in campaign decisions. I learned the value of co-pilot experiences, giving users guidance without removing transparency or flexibility.
If I Had More Time
I would design a mobile version of the platform so film studios could edit and manage campaigns more easily, giving smaller teams greater flexibility.
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