FAIR USE POLICY
Both MMD PRO and MMD SYSTEM clients enjoy the benefit of our all-inclusive graphic design service as part of their monthly retainer.
Instead of charging you an hourly rate, we have estimated the amount of artwork you will require throughout the year and made an allowance for this.
Naturally, a fair use policy applies to ensure we can continue to keep our retainers at a competitive rate.
What’s included: MMD SYSTEM
The annual design, photography and website inclusions for all MMD SYSTEM clients is listed HERE. There are 3 different levels of service outlined;
The Usual
Mid Level
Stacks On
Each level includes a combination of calendar campaigns, promo campaigns, seasonal menu changes and a venue choice of either annual report and / or function pack updates.
What’s included: MMD PRO
Our estimation of required graphic design output for most medium sized venues has dictated the annual design, photography and website inclusions for all MMD PRO clients:
15 “calendar” campaign artworks
25 promo campaign artworks
4 seasonal menu changes
2 function packs or annual reports
Basic website updates
6 photo shoots
All campaign artworks (both calendar and promo) include a full suite of resized graphics to suit socials, TV, till screens and web use. MMD PRO clients have already had the number of resizes required assessed as part of their retainer quoting process. Generally we limit to number of resizes to 6 specified sizes per campaign.
Explainers:
A calendar campaign is a standard annual calendar event like Mother’s Day, Australia Day, State of Origin etc. For these events you’ll receive a full suite of graphics for print and digital use, made to your required specifications. By our count there are 14 or so that live on most venue calendars - we’re rounding it up to 15 to make sure all the regular events are covered.
A promo campaign might be anything from a new regular Monday steak night to a special wine dinner. Again, the graphic output includes a full suite of graphics for print and digital use, made to your required specifications.
Menu changes cover off all your seasonal menu updates, including the choice of a fresh new look OR keeping the look you already have in place.
Function packs often change throughout the year. Sometimes a new vibe is required, but it’s completely up to you.
Annual reports are included for Clubs who want to look their best at reporting time.
A web update covers us making basic updates to your website, like changing the home page image, basic text or adding an event to your existing What’s On page.
Photoshoots are booked as 2 hour shoots. Editing is completed off site and all images returned to you within 72 hours. A call sheet will be completed by your account manager to ensure the photographer and your on-site team are both fully briefed and time can be maximised.
What’s not included
7+ resizes: In circumstances where additional multiple resizes are required at any point throughout the year we may need to revise our retainer price to accommodate. Our general allowance is for 6 resizes per campaign artwork.
Working files: Access to working files is not included in our fees. An additional charge may be negotiated and agreed upon for access to these if required. Whilst it isn’t customary to hand over working files, we occasionally do so upon approval from our CEO in good faith, under agreement that the artwork won’t be reproduced or redesigned for another purpose apart from basic changes.
Major changes once we’re at the resize stage: Our design process dictates that we’ll start working on the piece of collateral that has the most detail, and strip the detail back with subsequent resizes. Once we’ve received approval from you about the concept and commenced resizing, any fundamental changes to the design will be charged as a re-design.
ORDERING ARTWORK
ORDERING PROCESS
The process for ordering artwork differs depending on your service level.
ACTIVATE clients go to ACTIVATE ORDER in the top right-hand corner of this portal and enter the password that you received when your venue qualified for access to ACTIVATE pricing.
SYSTEM clients SIGN IN to your venue portal in the menu bar on this website, visit INFORMATION HUB and click ORDER ARTWORK. Completing this form will generate a request directly into our design management system called Wrike. You will also be notified via email of your request.
PRO clients have 2 x options:
SIGN IN to your venue portal in the menu bar on this website, visit INFORMATION HUB and click ORDER ARTWORK. Completing this form will generate a request directly into our design management system called Wrike. You will also be notified via email of your request.
OR
Make the request directly to your account manager via email using your dedicated venue@mmd.com.au email address.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Turnaround times for first drafts are generally within 5 business days.
Once we receive your feedback any changes should arrive to you within 24 hours.
Please alert your account manager if you require shorter lead times than these, and we’ll try our best to accommodate.
Whilst hospitality is known for its “fast & furious” style of putting activity together, we like to think that our involvement with our clients fosters a more planned approach. We’ve built our entire business on a structured, systemised working style that should help your venue to plan further in advance the longer you work with us. Less headaches for all!
For PRO and SYSTEM clients at the start of the year, your account manager would have confirmed your key campaigns for the year and created your 12 month annual planner.
This planner contains everything we know about calendar, sporting and venue specific annual events and can be found in the INFORMATION HUB of your PORTAL. It allocates sufficient lead times for the 4 phases of planning:
Agenda
Confirmation
Design & Print
Campaign Activation
We will usually alert you as the Agenda phase approaches, prompting you and your team to start discussing the event details.
There will be additional major events and activities that crop up from time to time. Your account manager is standing by to help make these events happen as quickly as required.
Special offers, promotional activities and all other items requiring design collateral should be submitted via the normal ordering process according to your service level as outlined above.
BEST PRACTICE BRIEFING GUIDELINES
To get maximum impact from your graphics, we’ve put together this guide to help explain how much or how little should go on what, and why.
Generally if you provide us with all the detail we will use our own discretion to then separate the information based on the rules and examples below:
OUR 5 GOLDEN RULES:
People don’t read. Apart from on your website where more lengthy descriptions might belong, long sentences or paragraphs should not generally appear on any printed or digital collateral. Further to this, you should say what you need to say with the least amount of words possible. Be direct, punchy and to the point if you want people to notice. Your job is to stop the scroll, or to halt someone walking past a poster in your venue. What will it take?
Branding is everything. Sticking to your Style Guide and having your logo in a set position will ensure your venue is instantly recognised. But we don’t need your logo twice. It’s already in the header of your website, it appears next to your social posts. We’ll make sure it goes in the right place on the right graphics.
All roads should eventually lead to your website, where the maximum amount of detail should be found. When small things like menu inclusions, ticket links or COVID related items change, your website is the easiest place to reflect these changes.
People don’t read, but they’re not stupid. They can Google you to find out your exact location or your phone number. These details rarely need to live on anything except a flyer that by nature is transportable and may find itself far away from your venue. Cutting back on the detail will help alleviate clutter.
Adjust the copy for each application. The level of detail on a flyer should be very different to what’s on an outdoor banner. Scroll through these examples to understand our design rationale:
APPROVING ARTWORK
We use an online mark up and approvals system to avoid emails going back and forth and to streamline communication between our design team and our clients. The system is called WRIKE.
When artwork is ready for your approval, you’ll receive an email to your nominated email address with a link to view the artwork that you have requested. If you’re expecting an update but haven’t received one, search your inbox including your junk folder for an email containing the word “Wrike” and mark the sender as not spam.
Simply click on the PROCEED TO REVIEW link within the email to open up the online editor.
At the bottom of your screen you will notice a toolbar that allows you to mark up the document directly on to the image. Each tool has a different purpose, but they all allow you to digitally mark the document and provide written feedback simultaneously.
Close up of the toolbar you’ll see at the bottom of your review window.
Simply select your tool, add your comments, and press return to lodge the comment. There are various tools that you can select from. You can use multiple tools on the one artwork, by switching between them on the toolbar. Simply select your tool, add your comments and hit SEND. You can also change the colour of the tool you are using so that it stands out against the artwork.
If there are no changes to submit, click APPROVE.
If the document requires changes then once you have marked it up, mark the document as CHANGES REQUIRED.
Our team will receive the changes and be notified automatically, immediately after you hit either APPROVED or REQUIRES CHANGES. There is no need to follow up up with an email or a phone call.
You can download a copy of the document at any time, but keep in mind that often you are seeing a low res version of the artwork. We will advise you once the print ready, final document is ready for you to download.
In most cases, we allow a maximum of 3 rounds of changes before additional fees may apply, so we encourage you to allow time to focus when you’re submitting any changes to our design team.
MENU DESIGN
Menus are notorious for taking longer than expected, but there are several factors that will ensure smooth sailing when it comes to ordering your next new menu print from us.
The single biggest mistake we see is when a designer is asked to start working on a “draft” of the menu before it’s content is finalised.
HERE you’ll find a fun blog that you might like to share with your team that outlines the basics, but read below for more detail about ordering your menu from MMD.
What we need from you:
A finalised menu, submitted as a Word doc, with no formatting, preferably using THIS TEMPLATE HERE
NOTE: In order to keep our rates competitive, we will not start the design process until we have the FINAL copy that has been proofed by your team for inclusions, descriptions and pricing. Making a menu look attractive is easy, but asking our designer to go back and forth with tiny changes over and over is where time and costs blow out significantly.
An indication of which items are high selling and high profit, that you would like to highlight on the menu
The format that you will be presenting the menus in-house. Ask us if you need ideas - we’re happy to share success stories we’ve had with other clients.
Submission of the above to our team varies based on the service model you’re on:
PRO clients simply email the above to your dedicated venue email address (venuename@mmd.com.au) and an MMD representative will handle the rest.
SYSTEM clients SIGN IN to your portal (via the link in the navigation on this page) and submit an artwork request via the form in your INFORMATION HUB.
ACTIVATE clients go to ACTIVATE ORDER (via the link in the navigation on this page) and submit an artwork request via the a-la-carte menu.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US:
Please allow at least 5 business days to receive the first draft of your menu.
All MMD clients regardless of your service model should expect to receive the draft via our digital approval software WRIKE direct to your nominated email address. If you’re expecting an update but haven’t received one, search your inbox including your junk folder for an email containing the word “Wrike” and mark the sender as not spam.
Click here to learn more about how to mark up the document and approve or send for changes live into our system.
FUNCTION PACK DESIGN
Coming soon…