CREATIVE IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

THE TRADITIONAL AGENCY MODEL IS DEAD. THERE I SAID IT.

Inflation, the cost of living crisis and lower consumer confidence is hitting consumer brands hard. In fact, many fear we’re on the brink of a recession - and as a result CMO’s, Brand and Marketing Managers are cutting costs left, right and centre - all in a bid to save the pennies and hope that the pounds will look after themselves. What’s more, we’re finding that more marketing departments are bringing services in-house, using freelancers and “up-skilling” existing teams.

Today, content remains the name of the game. More content. Faster.

Agencies, as well as brands, need to adapt to this new reality… Gone are the days of agencies delivering content services in silos, instead agencies need to provide value-added extras and become a truly valuable extension of brands’ in-house marketing team.

IN A RECENT 2022 GARTNER REPORT ON CMO SPEND AND STRATEGY SURVEY - CMOS IN CONSUMER GOODS SAW BUDGETS DECREASE FROM 11% IN 2020 TO 6.4% IN 2021. MOREOVER, “58% OF CMOS REPORT THAT THEIR TEAMS LACK THE CAPABILITIES NEEDED TO EXECUTE ON THEIR STRATEGY.”

BRIDGING THE AGENCY GAP

We don’t have a crystal ball but if we did we’d say Marketing Managers need to SPEND SMARTER, NOT HARDER. Likewise, agencies need to be more reactive, more agile and find more innovative ways to create content - for less.  

At CCW, we bridge the “agency-gap” by combining creative ideas with technology and automated content production. We have a simple philosophy… produce amazing content, at speed and scale, delivered by experts.

As THE technology-driven creative production business, we’re not just ‘doers’ but strategic, creative thinkers, tech innovators, game changers and rule breakers.

DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT…

Here are just a few examples of how we’ve been agile, innovative or worked in partnership with in-house teams to help them make their content go further than with an above the line agency.

FUNKIN COCKTAILS DRIVE SALES BY 23% WITH CHRISTMAS AD

Funkin Cocktails, the UK’s leading cocktail brand, makes great tasting, bar-quality cocktails available anywhere. They wanted to capitalise on the booming demand in the UK ‘ready-to-drink’ market and sought our help. We were set the challenge to create an amazing, attention-grabbing Christmas TV advert in JUST 6 WEEKS to maximise the potential sales opportunities ahead of the busy festive period.

We provided the entire end-to-end content production from creative direction and strategy, to production and the edit. Our fast paced, agile planning and hybrid production meant we delivered ahead of schedule. What’s more, our ad generated a 23% uplift in sales over the Christmas period. The client loved every aspect of the production, praising it as “seamless”!

The campaign was rolled out onto Channel 4, Sky and ITV with a focus on the brand’s “ready-to-drink” Passion Fruit Martini, their take on the classic Pornstar Martini.

KRAKEN: AWAKEN THE BEAST AR APP

In the height of lockdown, we were asked to come up with some creative ideas to help bring the Kraken to life and reignite user and brand engagement in bars and restaurants in a post-covid world.

We came up with a number of ideas but the winning concept was an interactive AR experience that would awaken the beast and place it into the users’ environment - thrashing around and making the perfect serve of Kraken’s black spiced rum. Or when in selfie mode, the Beast’s tentacle reaches around the user’s neck - the perfect recipe for user generated content.

Point your camera here, if you dare!

Using a combination of CGI, technology and web app development - we took the concept through to delivery without needing to outsource a thing. This provided a unique and cost-effective route to market. Not to mention a shareable experience that caused a (terrifying) buzz on social media.

NESTLE

Nestle Professional, the B2B division of Nestle, provides food and catering solutions to businesses of all shapes and sizes across the globe. Earlier this year, they were launching a new plant-based milk and needed a creative partner to help them to create content to help get the product “out there” in front of their trade audience.

We worked to Nestle’s strict brand guidelines on everything from Creative Direction, Strategy, Graphic Design to create a series of Key Visuals and Videos for the product launch.

‍

‍

What’s more - we provided the marketing team with a templated solution meaning they could be self-sufficient in creating content in-house going forward (across all their channels - online, social and print). These templates were also scalable for different regions and markets.

CREATIVES AS EASY AS 1, 2, 3…

1. SET THE CHALLENGE
2. WE’LL COME BACK WITH 5 IDEAS
3. CHOOSE 1

+ WE’LL MAKE IT A REALITY …ALL IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

At CCW, we do things differently. It all starts with the idea! That’s how we started working with the likes of JD Sport, Brewdog, Kraken Rum, Dreams, Funkin Cocktails and many more. That’s why we offer 5 ideas for free!

Get in touch and if we’re a fit we’ll listen to your challenges and come back with 4-5 ideas that work, if you like them - great we’ll explore how to make them a reality, all in time for Christmas!

‍

FURTHER READING

HOW NOT TO SPEND £1,000,000 ON TV ADS - https://www.creativecontent.works/blog/tv-advertising-strategy

Gartner CMO Spend and Strategy Survey - https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-marketing-budgets-look-like-in-2022

This 2022 survey from Gartner show that budgets are starting to recover with the average marketing spend increasing from 6.4% to 9.5% of company revenue across almost all industries. While this is a significant uptick, budgets still lag behind pre-pandemic levels — between 2018 and 2020, they averaged 10.9% of a company’s total revenue. What’s more CMOs in consumer goods saw budgets decrease from 8.3% in 2021 to 8% in 2022.

‍