Discovery - Integrated Supplier Briefing

We are continuing our series examining the possibilities of how you can configure and utilise the bethebrand system. This time we look at how bethebrand can help you get the most from your partner and supplier relationships.

Operational Challenges

In a busy marketing department, many programmes are worked on at the same time. Different members of the team work on different programmes in different combinations. When you add to that a variety of external agencies, printers and other suppliers, a spider's web of briefing, development and approval emerges. This needs careful oversight, project management and cost control.

Whether you are looking at print quotations, DM assembly, website updates, minor amend requests or lead creative, the quality of the outcome is maximised (and the level of frustration minimised) if requirements and instructions are clearly communicated.

Furthermore, diligent and inspiring briefs are the most important element in the creation of great creative. Frustratingly, however, these briefs can all too often be reduced to snatched moments at a meeting or on the telephone. This can be the pathway to delay and confusion, and, ultimately, creative elements that do not meet the brief.

bethebrand System Solution

With bethebrand, you are able to request, create and approve work quicker and with fewer resources. It allows multiple teams and external agencies, suppliers and partners to work together, following standardised processes, via one collaborative online workspace. Initiate creative projects; allocate resources and users to tasks; manage deadlines, approvals and signoffs; and track status - all with a clear audit trail

This process instils a discipline and focus on briefing and collaboration, both internally and externally, that acts as a firm bedrock for superb creative that is also efficient in terms of both time and cost.

Client Outcomes

Discovery is a South Africa-based financial services group that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with its headquarters in Sandton. A long-standing bethebrand client, Discovery engages in long and short-term insurance, asset management, banking, investment, wellness programmes and employee benefits through its various brands. The Group has subsidiaries in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Singapore and Australia.

Through its journey with bethebrand, Discovery has developed a comprehensive and highly sophisticated system. An important element of its system is how teams collaborate creatively with each other and the external agencies.

Senior Marketing Manager Sylvia Torannini said: "We have been working with bethebrand since 2012. We started with a specific goal of further improving our review and signoff process. We then expanded the system through workflow and asset management right across our businesses, and married it perfectly to our processes."

Sylvia added: "We have a sophisticated marketing programme spanning five brands, all of which is managed by a centralised marketing team. As you can appreciate, the creative development process driving five brands is equally sophisticated, necessitating close and detailed agency relationships. With our bethebrand system, which we call 'Trending' internally, we are able to create and track every agency project within the system."

"With Trending, we have an end-to-end workflow process that touches multiple department within the business, as well as marketing and systems teams. To cater for specific business processes, we use the workflows that were specifically designed for various marketing areas. Each brief is carefully developed, checked and distributed to the agency. The agency's own system dovetails with 'Trending', enabling seamless workflow management and close partnership"

"We use the system to initiate workflows to review, approve and sign off all communications and creative elements. This allows us to build a repository of completed work and - most importantly - create a reliable audit trail for governance purposes."

"Our bethebrand system therefore delivers highly efficient working practices that creates outstanding creative, plus the management oversight for both operational and cost optimisation."

Would You Like to Know More?

If you would like to unlock the potential of brand management for your organisation, contact Chief Executive Adam Hainsworth at adam@be-thebrand.com