Large global brands with decentralized marketing teams often struggle to stay aware of all messaging and promotions going to the market, especially digital and social media.
Even if a central team is in place to review these, we’ve learned that much of the discussion and review process is scattered across the Inboxes of people in different creative, legal, and communications departments.
As a result, regional marketers get frustrated. Inefficient processes like these often add days or even weeks to already tight production schedules, for just a single project. Some may decide to only submit high-visibility items for corporate blessing, and let the more immediate materials get by with local or regional review. This leads to an increasingly scattered presence, with different messaging and creative ultimately eroding brand consistency across markets and media. That lack of consistency in messaging or pricing offers can also be a risk factor, especially for regulated markets or industries.
We helped one global company get a handle on these below-the-radar projects with a cloud-based brand control process, to review all outbound marketing prior to release. It includes the same team members who were part of the manual process. The difference now is that they are notified automatically only when a project needs their input. All creative concepts or examples are uploaded in the central system. Feedback, revisions, suggestions, and version updates from the reviewers are also captured in the system, so people aren’t clogging up InBoxes. The flow through the “gates” of the process is automated, and marketers are notified at each step.
Prior to this online process, the team reviewed around 100 projects a month from the different business units and regions. Each project typically spent up to a week in review. Today, reviews are completed in 24 hours, and the team is reviewing more than 1,000 projects a month, but the size of the team hasn’t changed.
Are you seeing everything your team is putting into the market? If so, are you seeing it in advance so you can correct any issues? Or are you putting out fires after the fact?
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