With leaders who have actually worked on both the agency and corporate sides of

the business, MORE helps organizations identify if in-housing is right for them, how to structure a group to develop work that performs, helps creative teams identify a mission and be deliberate about their culture to attract and keep great talent and much more.

CONTACT:

TERESA HERD

Teresa@moreforyourbrand.com

617-875-3126

IN A FEW WORDS

• Help determine the right work (remit) for internal creative teams
  
• Develop multiple organization options to execute the work
  
• Set up an infrastructure that supports great creative work
  
• Develop a process to move work through creative and marketing teams
  
• Attract high-level talent to execute the work
  
• Foster great partnerships with your external agencies
  
• Build credibility for your internal team
  

WHY THIS?

The ability to make great work both with an internal organization and your external resources,

requires the infrastructure and process to allow creative people to be supported to do their best work and marketing teams to have input over how their budgets are being spent. Companies that are not marketers by trade often have wonderful intentions and plans to in-house creative, but often don’t realize these benefits early or easily. All of the benefits and savings are very appealing, but sometimes companies don’t exactly know what it will take to set up an agency inside their business. We can help with each step of this process.

We also know every business is different. There is no one size fits all org or process. Based on the size of the company, the volume and type of work a company does and the channels where their brand lives, helps us determine what is right for your company.

CAPABILITIES

To decide if you even need an in-house team or should expand the team you have, we dig into your current agency spend with your finance team and find the right opportunities to “in-house” work. We initially do this with three things in mind: the overall cost of hiring internal talent (including benefits), the cost of hiring an external agency with the same level of talent, and the number of people it will take to execute a specific body of work. We can also help evaluate what kind of space and equipment you will need to execute the identified remit. These capital costs help in the consideration of your ROI goals.

Creative organization architecture

Depending on the ROI outcome, available talent, and volume, we’ll help you determine what roles you’ll need to execute the defined body of work. There are many ways to approach org design, we’ll give you a couple of options to consider, so you can approach your new team with confidence.

Creative and Marketing workflow

Bringing in great talent does nothing if there is not an agreed upon system for working between your marketing department and internal creative department. We’ll work with your marketing team and new team to find the best process for your creative and marketing workflow, considering your brand, channel and BU teams, so the work gets through as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Marketing brief development

Not all marketing briefs are created equal. We develop briefs that are cohesive, yet streamlined and provide the right information to all teams including creative, PR, media, etc. We can then train your teams on how best to deliver a strategic business case and compelling request.

Creative brief development

In our experience, marketing folks can often articulate business needs well, but sometimes struggle when they have to turn them into inspiring creative briefs. We can help you develop and train teams to write compelling creative briefs for seamless execution for your integrated campaigns.

Job description development

After you understand the work that needs to get done and what your dream team will look like, we can help you write job descriptions that attract the right talent for your internal team and culture.

Interviewing and hiring

Your recruiting team is probably excellent at hiring the right talent for the roles that have made your company successful. It’s a little more difficult to find the right creative talent if your recruiters aren’t familiar with the advertising and branding industry. They may not know exactly what you’re looking for or where to search. We can bring in creative recruiters for high-level positions, as well as assist internal recruiters to screen and interview candidates that best fit your goals.

External agency assessment

We’ve had a lot of luck getting internal and outside agencies to not only co-exist, but also to help each other in the best interest of the brand. If your current agencies don’t have that mindset, we’ll help you find external agencies that can work with your internal teams to deliver integrated campaigns in service of your brand, not theirs.

External agency resourcing

Depending on your current roster, we can help flesh it out with additional capabilities. Lots of agencies take a collaborative approach in working with brands, and while we won’t run your RFPs for you, we know people that can until you’re ready to take them on yourself.

Creative and production skill assessment

You may have a current team that you are trying to fit into a new organization. Evaluating a creative team is time consuming, especially if you don’t have direct experience with the roles. If you have an existing internal team and are unsure of their actual skill set, we can be a neutral party to assess skills and fit for your new team. We evaluate the existing team and identify areas that may need some training or expertise that is missing all together. We will work with your HR team on skill assessment criteria to ensure we are following your hiring policies and establishing good transitions for your employees and your company.

WHO WE’VE WORKED WITH

We have worked with large and small brands. We have helped assess, build and rebuild teams and process across packaged goods, skin care, health care, technology, gaming, real estate and the beverage industries.

CONTACT:

TERESA HERD

Teresa@moreforyourbrand.com

617-875-3126

CASE STUDIES

We have worked with large and small brands. We have helped assess, build and rebuild teams and process across packaged goods, skin care, health care, technology, gaming, real estate and the beverage industries.

THE ASSIGNMENT

The Boston Beer Company, parent company to Samuel Adams, Truly, Dog Fish Head, Wild Leaf, Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard had an existing creative studio that handled a huge volume of low tier, quick turn projects, approx 4,000 projects a year. They also had numerous external agencies for each of their brands. They came to us looking to expand their internal agency hoping to save money and gain efficiencies with a larger in-house team.

We developed a compelling financial case for in-housing work, but first the CMO decided that before expanding internal agency, they needed to focus on marketing process and org structure. We believe the decision was a good one and helped get their infrastructure in order before adding more volume to the team.

Approach

• Gap analysis: Assessed current state and gaps in skill set and process
  
• ROI exercise: Determined financial feasibility for in-housing
  
• Creative org design: Developed options for staffing across all products and channels
  
• Stood up Project management team: Identified need for PMO. Pitched finance team, developed org and JDs.
  
• Process development: Marketing through creative development process and training
  
• Project tiers: Developed criteria and definitions to effectively staff and scope all projects
  
• Brief development: Marketing and creative brief development and training
  
• Process oversight: Managed new process across 2 major integrated projects to ensure new process was sustainable
  

THE ASSIGNMENT

• ROI exercise: Determined financial feasibility for in-housing and what pieces of the business made sense to bring in first. We also compared production cost to ensure we could find additional savings
• Creative org design: Developed options for staffing across all products and channels
  
• Financial case: Working with the financial team, we made sure our numbers we solid and ones we could achieve
  
• Mission & values: In order to get the new organization aligned, we developed a mission and values to support it. This drove our hiring practices, processes and culture. This was critical as we were setting up and adjacent center of excellence that was not part of the company’s core competence.
  
• Hired the best: Knowing the caliber of work that was expected from the team, developed JDs across all positions and brought in external recruiters for the high level positions. We hired a combination from top agencies, production companies and brands. We also developed a best practices hiring guide for our team so all future hires would have a consistent approach.
  
• Process development: Process was critical to allow the team to be as creative as possible and still get a big volume of work executed.
  
• Project tiers: Developed criteria and definitions to effectively staff and scope all projects whether they were executed internally or externally
  
• Brief development: Marketing and creative brief development and training
  
• Full Scale Production Department: Identified work space and production needs to house the team, but also attract talent in SF. Space included 8 edit bays, sound stage, recording studio, color bay, creative exploration spaces and enough room to house the team and future growth projections
  
• Mentoring program: We set up an mentoring program for under served talent from across the globe. We brought in 8-12 students 2x a year and gave them hands on experience. We ended up hiring about 50% of those who went through the program
  
• Expansion: With the success of the US team, we looked at standing up similar groups globally to accommodate GEO needs more quickly. We created teams that supported our Asian and European markets.
  

Recognition

We were recognized by AdAge as “Internal Agency of the Year” after only having our doors open for one year.

Additionally we received the following recognition: AdAge Top 50 Creative list, 14 Clios,

12 Cannes Lions, Emmy Nominated, 2 D&AD, 2 Official Selections to Brand Film Festival, 2 Webbys,1 Gold Hatch and Featured in Women of Impact publication.

THE ASSIGNMENT

• Gap analysis: Assessed current state and gaps in skill set and process
  
• ROI exercise: Determined financial feasibility for in-housing
  
• Skill assessment: Worked with HR to develop a skill assessment tool to give unbiased feedback on existing team skill set and ability to adapt to new marketing platforms and channels
  
• Creative org design: Options for staffing across all products and channels based on new direction of marketing
  
• Marketing process: Assisted in developing a marketing process that would yield the best creative product that allowed for testing and influenced by insights and data
  
• Creative process and workflow: Based on the marketing needs and process, developed a process for creative development and workflow
  
• MarTech expansion: The MarTech stack was outdated and underutilized. Worked on a cross functional team to bring data and creative together in a stack that could continue to grow with the marketing demand
  
• VP of Creative: Was asked serve as interim VP CD to oversee all creative to up-level and bring consistency across all channels
  
• Production space: Speced out tech and space requirements to expand and up-level video capability on the team
  
• Job descriptions: Developed new job descriptions based on the new org to hire the right talent for Zillow
  
• Creative competencies: Build creative competencies for each role and level to bring transparency to the growth and advancement on the team
  

THE TEAM

Teresa herd

Teresa is a creative and brand leader who has developed global integrated brand platforms, impacting both brand perception and company performance across retail, tech, skin care, health care and packaged goods companies. She has worked on both the ad agency and brand side of the business. This has given her a unique perspective on how to structure creative organizations to work in service of brands like Intel, Zillow, Yelp, Boston Beer Company, AMD, Fresenius Medical Care, Blue Cross of MA, TCG Player and Staples.

She has spent her career building integrated teams of writers, art directors, designers, UX, motion graphics, creative strategy, account services, operations and project management. To develop the best creative, Teresa cultivates inspiring cultures as well as infrastructures and processes that support creative teams and develop high performing work.

Elaine Smith

Elaine is a 20-year agency account management veteran, starting her advertising career at the Agency at Staples. After several years learning the ins and outs of the business on the brand side, she worked at various Boston and San Francisco agencies including Mullen, Carat, VML, Organic and Hub.

Process improvement and working efficiently has always been a passion of Elaine’s, so her move to More was a logical one. At More, she not only brings her agency and client-side experience to the table, but runs each assignment like the account person she is.

CONTACT:

TERESA HERD

Teresa@moreforyourbrand.com

617-875-3126