Rebel is an Agency of Record (AOR) for a range of enterprise companies. We’ve learned that for global companies deploying regional marketing campaigns — especially those with distributed teams — there are resources and ideas that can be used to help drive new thinking and efficiency in marketing campaigns, improving efficiency and saving budget while raising the bar on results.
Below are five ideas that can help you put some of those resources into play.
1. Leverage Templates and Existing Materials
Providing materials to your creative agency that use your core layout, design, and language — or samples that illustrate what you’d like to see — can speed up the process of getting your projects completed.
If you have existing materials, templates, and either brand or messaging style guides, offer those as well. Once everyone understands some of those baseline needs or requirements, both teams have the opportunity to focus more on the creative aspects of the project and optimize any time and money spent on it.
Medium-specific templates often require more granular information than general templates might offer. In those cases, you can turn to your agency partner, who likely has an extensive library you can tap for formatted, project-based templates. These can cover everything from paid media (i.e., programmatic, responsive, Google ads, YouTube, and more) and organic media to blog, email, and website content. In many cases, you’ll find them pre-populated with key information sections outlining brief persona/messaging information for the audience you’re trying to reach, search terms, messaging purpose, and other information that can help optimize the impact of each. Your partner can help direct you in completing those sections.
2. Create a Resource Library to Share Work Across Teams
Finding direction and inspiration can sometimes be difficult, especially when you’re working with distributed teams that might be in different geographies or have other time constraints. A resource library of existing materials can sometimes kickstart inspiration for everyone. In addition to aiding ideation, building a well-organized resource library based on project type can help provide much-needed direction.
Give thought to the resources you’re developing. It’s one thing to include finished samples of the work; it’s another to include samples that show how you got to that place. In each case, consider taking an iterative approach to the resources you want to include. Including early versions of your work — from concept to completion — with comments and notes outlining why certain choices were made, etc. The more background you have, the greater the insight you have regarding previous choices (and why they may have or not have worked), which can help avoid potential mistakes going forward and help guide the creation of any successive materials.
If you are working with a marketing partner, they should keep every version of the work they share with you on file and can help you fill any gaps in your own library.
Having this sort of reference can help ground and make projects more efficient, especially for teams that can’t communicate as much as they’d like to.
3. Fail, Succeed, Share
The only way to see if a new platform, idea, or method works is to try it. What works for one region may not work for another. Don’t be afraid to try a new platform or approach, even if just as a test to measure a response. That’s especially applicable to the marketing materials you create. Trying different headlines and visuals to see what resonates with your audience can help you improve the effectiveness of your messaging and marketing going forward. And make sure you share your learnings, ideas, and results with your team and others.
While A/B, split, or bucket testing across any type of media, for example, can help show you which message or image is most successful based on your key metrics, it has an impact beyond the numbers. Repeated testing reveals the thinking behind the testing; how content and media teams utilize critical data and work collaboratively to create content that is as engaging and impactful as possible.
4. Share Work That Inspires You
Often, it’s the intangibles that spark great ideas. You never know where you might find unexpected inspiration or impact. Every time you listen to a favorite podcast (in or outside your industry), buzz through TikTok, stand in a subway, read a magazine in a doctor’s office… you get the point.
See a promotion you love in an unrelated industry? Share it with your teammates and send it to your agency partners. It offers insight into your creative preferences and can help lead to that next big breakthrough.
When you do pass your favorite campaigns along, remember to include some context. Let people know what worked for you:
- How did it add value for the intended audience?
- What makes the content and design unique or eye-catching?
- What about the hook made it stand out?
On the other hand, point out what didn’t work:
- What was the missing component(s)?
- What could have been done to add more value for the audience?
- What could have been improved to make this campaign more successful?
Ideas are everywhere and sharing them when you find them is among the best forms of proactive collaboration.
5. Utilize Trusted, Efficient Partners
The AOR structure works for a reason. Partnering with an AOR provides a dedicated, experienced team — one that works to understand your business — that brings strategic insights, creative expertise, and efficient execution, ensuring consistent and impactful marketing campaigns that drive results. In addition, collaborating with an AOR allows you to focus on your core objectives while leveraging the agency’s specialized skills, industry knowledge, and access to cutting-edge technology and resources.
Rebel has experience working with national marketing teams to create regional efficiencies. It’s our job to bring clients new ideas, think on their behalf, and use every marketing dollar wisely.
To learn more about the benefits of partnering with Rebel, contact us today!