make-static-ads-concept-grid v0.8.2A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/ee2cf1767b6be876.

---
name: make-static-ads-concept-grid
description: >-
  Step of make-static-ads: turns the chosen angles into messages, visual ideas and a template per ad, checks each against the brand profile and recent ads, writes the concept board and has a fresh critic attack it before any copy, prompt or spend. Run make-static-ads instead; not for direct use.
version: 0.8.2
---

# concept-grid

**Read first:** `../make-static-ads/references/ideas.md` §2 B–E and §3 (the method; §2 A is the material for step 2 below, §4 an example), `../make-static-ads/references/levels.md` (what each creativity level keeps from the template). This step is the order of work.
**Reads:** `profile.md` and what Step 1 found (product facts, customer words, history); the angles and level chosen in Step 2.
**Writes:** `board.md` (in the batch folder, or the batch file on a host with no files).

The order is fixed: **angle → message → visual idea → template.** The template never decides the message.

## 1. Angle

Each ad starts from the angle chosen in Step 2: one of the profile's angles, or a marked new one (at most one in five). Several ads may share an angle; they then need different messages.

## 2. Message

For each ad, the one thing it says, as a plain sentence, grounded in a product fact or customer situation with its source, or labelled **(hypothesis)**. Draft two or three messages per angle and keep the strongest. The message must sound like the brand (the profile's voice and positioning), not like a generic ad.

## 3. Visual idea

For each message: the tension (want / obstacle / why this product belongs), then the picture. At **bold**, a physical event (`ideas.md` §2 C). At **balanced**, an event or scene that fits a template's layout. At **close**, the template's own scene with this brand swapped in, so the idea is mostly in the message. Draft two or three for the strongest messages before choosing. Browse templates or references now if you need more devices.

## 4. Template

Every ad gets a template, picked after the visual idea so the layout fits it (the `make-static-ads-find-references` skill (`../make-static-ads-find-references/SKILL.md`)). Record what the level keeps from it (`levels.md`).

## 5. Tests

Run on each candidate, fix or drop failures:
- **Brand fit:** would this brand run it? It serves a profile angle (or is marked new), sounds like the brand, and its look fits the profile. An idea the brand's marketer would call "not us" fails, however clever.
- **No repeat:** against the brand's live ads and its last 5–10 ads made in GooseWorks, an ad may share an angle, but at least one of message, visual idea or template must change. Within this set, every ad has its own message. The same ad resized or for another platform is not a repeat.
- The six tests in `ideas.md` §3: swap, stranger, thumbnail, show-it, build, truth.

## 6. Choose the set

Five different messages, not five looks. At most one straight demonstration per five, and only if watching it answers the buyer's main question.

## 7. Write the board

```markdown
# Concept board — <brand>, <product>, <date>

Read: <what you actually read, with counts; what was skimmed; what wasn't checked>
Level: <close / balanced / bold> · Angles: <chosen, and who chose them> · Templates from outside the library: <which, or what was tried>

| # | Angle (profile / new) | Message (source) | Visual idea | On-image text (per slot) | Template (source, what it keeps) | Protect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ... | ... | ... | "..." / "..." | ... | ... |

## Critic notes and what changed
## Dropped ideas (why)
```

- **Visual idea:** one sentence a stranger could picture.
- **On-image text:** one working line per template slot; the ad-copy step finalises it.
- **Template:** where it came from (brand's own ad, library, another brand's ad) and what this ad keeps from it.
- **Protect:** the one detail that kills the idea if lost (`ideas.md` §2 E).

## 8. The critic

Give a **fresh subagent** only: the board (without the critic section), `profile.md`, the brand's own ads you looked at, the product photos, and the product records and claims on file as they came back (not your summary). Not your reasoning. Ask it to:
- name any row this brand would not run, judged against the profile and its real ads;
- name any row that repeats a live or recent ad, or another row, in message, visual idea and template together;
- run the swap and stranger tests on every row;
- name demonstrations dressed up as ideas;
- check each event is buildable (no small handwriting, long in-scene text, many hands, crowds or fragile physics) and readable at thumbnail size;
- name rows that look empty or bland: a headline on blank space, a symbol instead of the real thing, or the same text pattern as another row;
- check each source supports what the row implies;
- pick the two weakest rows and say why.

Fix or replace what it names; write its notes and your changes into the board. A row you keep against its objection says why. **New or rewritten rows go back to a critic** once. At most two critic rounds: objections still open after that go on the board for the marketer. No subagents on this host → show the board to the marketer and ask for their critique; your own review does not count.

**Done:** every row has an angle, a sourced message, a visual idea, a template and a protected choice, passed the tests, and survived the critic or was changed.