Strategic Services

Our Strategic Services group will collaborate with your teams and MRA’s Production Advisors to identify (and execute on) opportunities to drive efficiencies across your entire production ecosystem. Common engagements include:

  • Content Needs Assessment: Identify high-level content requirements by brand or geography, categorizing needs into defined tiers for planning; assess the composition of work and volume of work by type.
  • Benchmark Investment & Budget Planning: Establish relevant spend levels for content tiers and volume using benchmark insights as a guide for achieving cost competitiveness to better understand the value of content production so you can direct agencies/partners and right-size cost investments.
  • Production Model Identification: Determine what production model(s) create the greatest efficiency and enable quality content at scale and speed across the multitude of channels, enabling you to evolve relationships with traditional production partners and uncover potential new content partners and solutions including creating or expanding in-house capabilities.
  • Workflow Optimization/Change Management: Define optimal production processes/handoff points and implement consistent standards; educate and communicate the benefits of change in a way that will set up initiatives for success, increase adoption and shorten onboarding cycles.
  • SOW Review: Identify opportunities for streamlining scope development, template creation, optimization of 3rd party fees, providing scope/deliverable clarity for external agencies and 3rd party vendors.
  • In-House Resourcing: Evaluate current capabilities and future needs that could be serviced by internal resources; identify various scenarios for servicing the work to determine any alternate model(s) to maximize efficiency. If desired, we can support (or even lead) the process of identifying and selecting those resources to operationalize the model.
  • Agency/Partner Staffing Model: Develop internal/external agency staffing plans that will enable agile production and supercharge productivity. As an example, this might involve resourcing multi-skilled designers who can work across video, interactive and photography. It’s a shift from the production mentality of making many singular things towards the cultivation of an ecosystem of things.
  • Cost Framework for Repeatable Deliverables: Review projects to establish cost standards or pro forma “archetypes” and scale-based production partnerships to drive efficiencies and guide optimized pricing for recurring work types.
  • Development/Coaching: Identify “knowledge gaps” to support Marketing, Center of Excellence, Sourcing, and/or Finance teams (as well as 3rd parties) in strengthening expertise and skills through training content that can be delivered in person, online or via webinar. Our MRAcademy™ curriculum helps put recommended best practices and processes into action and facilitate effective change management.
  • Tools & Technology: Define key technology solutions needed to increase operational efficiency, improve speed to market/speed to business, minimize risk, and reduce costs for creative/production ecosystem.