The Creative Clarity Report
You know the creative function is costing you. This puts a number and a sequence on it.
Three to four weeks. A fixed fee agreed before anything starts. A written document your team keeps, whether or not we work together after it.
What it is
A structured read on where it is costing you, and a sequenced plan to fix it.
The Report stands on its own. You are not committing to anything beyond it, and if the answer is that you do not need me, that is a legitimate outcome and I will tell you so in writing.
It is not a survey and it is not a workshop. I review what your team actually produces, read the briefs and the standards behind it, and interview the people on both sides of the work: your marketing lead, the executives who approve it, the creative team who make it, and your agency partners where that is useful.
The point is to triangulate. What leadership believes is happening, what the team experiences day to day, and what the output actually shows are rarely the same three things. The distance between them is usually where the money goes.
Investment
$5,000–$8,000
Fixed fee, agreed in writing before work begins. Credited in full against a retained engagement if you proceed.
Timeline
3–4 weeks
From kickoff to delivered document and a live walkthrough.
What you get
A written document, typically eight to twelve pages.
Structured so the person with ten minutes and the person with an hour both get what they need.
Executive summary
The three or four things that matter most, written for whoever reads only this section.
Current state assessment
Where the creative function actually stands across every dimension the diagnostic covers, evidenced rather than estimated.
Gap analysis
What is creating the most cost, the most friction, and the most missed opportunity, named specifically.
Prioritized recommendations
A sequenced plan with the reasoning behind the order. Not a list of everything that is wrong.
Engagement options
What working together could look like from here, including the option of handling it yourself.
How it runs
Four weeks, week by week.
Week 1
Document review
I gather and read what already exists: briefs, standards, recent campaigns, agency scopes and invoices, and the work itself. You send materials. Nothing is asked of your team beyond access.
Week 2
Stakeholder interviews
Structured conversations with your marketing lead, the executives who approve creative, the team producing it, and agency partners where appropriate. Roughly forty-five minutes each, scheduled around your calendar.
Week 3
Analysis and synthesis
The quiet week. I work the material, test what I heard against what the output shows, and build the sequence. No meetings required.
Week 4
Report and walkthrough
You get the document, then a live session to walk it through and argue with it. The document is yours to circulate internally with no restriction.
Who this is for
The right first step if any of these are true.
- You can tell something is wrong with the creative function but cannot name it precisely enough to fix it
- You are weighing an agency change, a hire, or a retainer and want evidence before you commit the budget
- Creative spend keeps rising and nobody can say exactly where it goes
- You inherited the function and need an honest baseline that is not your predecessor’s account of it
- Two people in the room have very different views of how well this is working
What happens after
Most Reports end one of three ways. Some name a specific build with a finish line, which becomes a project engagement. Some show the function needs holding week to week, which becomes a retainer. Some show you already have what you need and the problem is narrower than it looked, in which case the Report is the whole engagement and we are done.
If you proceed with a retained track, the Report fee is credited in full against it. That is deliberate. I would rather you buy a small piece of work first and decide with evidence than sign a retainer on a good conversation.