The consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry has been facing a problem in recent years. With stagnating wages and rising prices on goods, many consumers are turning towards challenger and store brands instead of the brands owned by the large multinational corporations. Younger audiences are up for grabs as Generation Z is starting to develop their own brand loyalties.
Many of these corporations are looking to become lighter, more agile and streamlined, and are moving a lot of their agency work in-house as a result. As an external agency focused on branding, this presents a problem to our team and teams like ours around the world. If our clients are inclined to go in-house, what can we propose as a mutually beneficial solution?
Outsourcing does not go far enough. For us, it was developing and implementing an on-site model. After running this program for a year, we have seen positive results worth sharing.
An Innovative Model to Solve Brand Challenges
It is important to know that the on-site model is not a novel idea. Many industries, especially IT, have used it over the years, although that tends to be the onshore variant. However, the on-site model is rarely used by marketers and design agencies, although taking this idea and tailoring it to each agency’s needs can increase its adoption.
Our on-site model works by placing an implant at the workplace of a client. So far we have a pair of clients that house a member of our agency. This proximity serves to bridge the communication gap between brands and our internal team, ensuring that the projects we handle are completed exceptionally fast while not compromising brand equity. I will take you into the finer points of this model’s structure further down, but it is important to understand the need for it first.
From the client side and consumer goods industry at large, we were hearing some complaints about external agencies. External agencies are creative and offer fresh perspectives, but lack of brand experience, constant revisions and straying from brand principles get in the way of their effectiveness. If you are a brand manager, when you need projects delivered yesterday, it can be an avoidable headache. The CPG industry relies on speed, and we needed to adapt our processes to match this demand.
On-site Model Cell Structure, Explained
It is important to create a structure that fits the existing cell structure we already have in place. So how is an on-site model arranged? For our agency, it looks like this:
Each implant operates as the client’s shadow. The goal is to have the implant as well-versed in a brand as possible. We place a high level of importance on this understanding from our team. Many of the brands that are our clients are well established and have spent many years building their brand equity. Our implants go to daily creative sessions, briefs and other activities that provide them with a deeper understanding of the client, leaving very little wiggle room for miscommunication.
This on-site implant has a mirror that works in our office. The communication between the two is seamless: what the implant sees and hears is what the mirror sees and hears. The function of this mirror is to internalize and relay the information from the on-site to the team leads that are responsible for each account.
From there, the teams get to work, producing whatever the client requires. All of this happens at high speed while maintaining the brand’s needs at the top of mind. In effect, each brand with an implant has a full design team at their immediate disposal. When developing this model, we wanted each client to feel as if they have an in-house agency working with them at all times.
At this point I am sure you may be wondering if the results are actually there. Is this program effective? Could it be viable for other external agencies? After reviewing a year of results and comparing them against different factors from years past, I can confidently say the answer to that question is yes. Let’s take a look – we will dive into the quantitative side first.
Quantitative Benefits of the On-Site Model
We have noticed a couple of trends in output and efficiency in the first year of adoption of this model. In the following model, you will see a very stark contrast between the first three months of 2018 and the following four months of the year.
The effect was almost immediate. The jump in assets delivered from 200 to close to 1400 between March and April 2018 was unexpected, representing an increase of almost 600 percent in production during this time period. With more effective communication between the client and our internal teams, work efficiency skyrocketed and continued to increase.
A not so large yet significant portion of the process in client work is the debrief and planning stage. We have seen that by placing an implant with a client, our teams can get the job done faster by reducing the time needed for this step. For our brand partners without implants, the difference in communication is noticeable.
An increase of 20% in efficiency is nothing to sneeze at. The amount of designing and execution as a result of planning and debriefing has increased since the start of the program.
Since the implant is within the creative sessions of our clients, they know exactly what is expected and required for each deliverable. Being part of our agency means that they are not handing off these tasks to strangers, but to members of a team that they are well familiar with. In short, every hour worked for a client with an implant is made more effective as more of that hour is spent on work.
Qualitative Benefits of the On-Site Model
Proximity to the client has improved one crucial area of our client service: relationships. Starting and maintaining these relationships is critical for external branding agencies. Results from our surveys have shown that implants develop a bond with clients that result in increased trust in our agency. The reason for respondents revolved around improved communication and increased speed. For all agencies, these are important factors to boost for improved client relations.
If your agency is looking to grow, going on-site can help. We noticed an uptick in the amount of work received from clients with an implant. The quality of your output may be high, but as humans, we connect more when there is a personal link. Offering a way to improve communication and a physical representative of the company pays dividends.
Characteristics of the On-Site Implant
The team member assigned to take on this role is the largest factor in this model’s success. Our office is packed to the walls with talent, and I am sure yours are too. But for this position we recommend having a relatively narrow profile. The ideal implant for us is one that encompasses the full range of the below qualities.
We decided to focus on these qualities to offer the most benefit to the client, but we also asked ourselves a few questions. Who in your workplace can sit in on a creative meeting and identify the type of work that suits the agency? Is there someone that can maintain the values and culture your agency while not disrupting the culture of your client? Can they be organized, think strategically and analytically, and understand the design side? Asking these questions made sense for us when choosing an implant, and they might be a good jumping off point for other agencies.
When faced with problems in a shifting marketing landscape, getting a little creative is essential. Agencies like our own are full of talented and wonderful people, but our utility has been questioned recently. As we are into our second year of our on-site model, we are looking to scale up, and hope that this can be an example for the industry.
About the Author: Francisco Serrano is the CEO at 121, a branding powerhouse with offices in the USA and Mexico. Under his leadership, 121 has created a disruptive branding model based on SPEED, becoming the go-to day-to-day branding partner for Fortune 500 companies like Reckitt Benckiser, Hershey’s and Audible, to name a few. As a team leader, team player, and as an entrepreneur; and by sharing his passion and fervor for branding through SPEED, Francisco has become a reference in the industry.