Foreplay

Foreplay is a swipe file for ads with a library attached. You browse ads other brands are running, save the ones you like to a board, tag them, and hand the board to whoever makes your next creative. Before it, my swipe file was a folder of screenshots with names like final2.png. That folder is gone.

How I use it

Boards are the unit. For every product I work on there is a board of competitor ads that run long, split by format: static, UGC, talking head, story. When I brief a video edit, the brief is the board link plus three sentences about what to keep and what to change. The editor sees the references at full size, with the transcript next to the video, instead of guessing from my description. That alone pays for it.

The second use is slower: once a week I look at what a handful of brands have added, through the feature that tracks a brand over time. New ad from a competitor who tests carefully is a signal. The same ad still running after six weeks is a louder one.

What surprised me is the transcripts. Every saved video comes with its text, so a board of thirty ads becomes a page of openings I can read in two minutes. Hooks are easier to compare as sentences than as thumbnails.

What annoys me: the price ladder. The entry plan is fine for one person, the next step up costs three times as much, and the features I would want from it are only a few. The trial needs a card and charges automatically, which I understand and still dislike. And the library skews toward brands that spend; the small, odd advertisers who sometimes have the best ideas often are not in it, so for those I go to the ad library directly.

Who it is for

Anyone who briefs creative work from references: buyers, editors, small brand teams. If you only research once a quarter, the ad library and a screenshot folder will do. If references are part of your weekly work, this is the tidy version of what you are already doing badly.