Our creative process: zero surprises

What does the process look like, start to finish?

It starts with a questionnaire, not a meeting. About 30 minutes, done at your own pace — we used to burn a 90-minute kickoff call on this, and the questionnaire is genuinely better, because you can pull in teammates for the parts you don’t know cold. Then we meet to walk through every answer. By the end we know your company and, more importantly, your customer.

Next comes Campaign Directions: who we’re talking to, what we’re saying, why — and the big creative concept. Here’s the rule that makes this step work: it’s pick-a-direction, not fix-a-direction. Either a concept hits and we run with it (with your tweaks), or none of them hit and we bring a fresh batch. We will not polish something you’re lukewarm on. Lukewarm doesn’t ship.

Then scripting — three rounds, though a lot of clients finish in two, because we live in B2B and speak the language already. This is where the jokes, the messaging, and the problem take shape. The filter every script has to pass is the Friday night test : would your buyer recognize this problem as the thing they’d complain about to a friend?

Then the Production Lookbook: the mood board for the world of your ads. Locations, wardrobe, props, tone. Is it shot like The Office? Like a movie? Mockumentary? You sign off on the vibe before we spend a dollar building it. And a dedicated graphics round — end card options, headline supers, logo bug, social cutdown frames — decided in pre-production, not bolted on in post.

What is previz, and why does it matter?

Step six is the one nobody else does like us. Our “storyboards” aren’t drawings. They’re 3D previz animatics — the same technique movies use. Pseudo-animated, with all the dialogue, graphics, and sound effects in place. You sit down and watch a lo-fi animated version of your finished ads.

Why go that far? Because the scariest moment in any agency relationship is the first-draft reveal — the room goes quiet, and someone finally says “this is... not what we pictured.” Our entire process exists to delete that moment. You saw the ad at the direction stage. You read it at the script stage. You watched it at the animatic stage. By final delivery, there is nothing left to be surprised by. Hence the promise on the label.

The previz also does the economics. We shoot almost 1:1 to the animatic — we know what’s needed down to the quarter second, and we don’t shoot past it. That’s how one shoot day captures an entire campaign. Want extra coverage or an added day? We add it on purpose, priced up front. It’s a big part of what you’re paying for

What happens with casting and the shoot?

Casting is regional, on terms we’ve already pre-negotiated with the talent agencies — so there are no talent-rights surprises mid-project. Plainly: your casting fee covers everything for the initial term. That’s 2 years of usage on digital platforms, worldwide, starting at first use (or 90 days after the shoot, whichever comes first). Non-exclusive, so you’re not paying a premium to lock talent away from other work. Talent has no approval rights over the final creative — you approve the ads, not the cast. And when the 2 years are up and your ads are still working (ours usually are — great creative doesn’t wear out, it wears in, as the LinkedIn B2B Institute puts it), renewal is a flat, pre-negotiated annual rate. No re-negotiation. No surprise increases.

Then the shoot: a stage with a built set, or a rented location. And we capture more than the scripts. Our team shoots video AND photography of every character — poses, emotions, pointing, delighted, defeated — so the campaign’s world extends past the ads into your emails, landing pages, and static campaigns. Sometimes the props become characters too: one shoot had a character stuck inside a big black box (locked into his vendor — you’ve met him), and the box itself became a recurring campaign asset.

What do you actually get at the end?

Post-production is short, because you’ve already watched these ads twice. What you’re reviewing now is the animatic with real footage and a real cast. Up to three rounds of feedback; plenty of clients sign off on round one with small graphics notes. Then VFX, color grade, and an audio mix that sounds right on every device.

Delivery is a library, not a file. Up to ~75 deliverables: every ad with and without baked-in subtitles (we bake them — platform subtitle handling is not to be trusted), web versions, masters, and clean no-graphics versions so your team can recut freely. Twelve retouched, cut-out character photos ready to drop into anything, plus the full photo library — often 100+ images.

And one structural advantage the library can’t show: our media partner is the one running these ads. When an end card or a CTA needs changing mid-campaign, that’s not a support ticket to a stranger at another company. It’s us, same roof, same day. Why that seam matters

Frequently asked questions