Diagnosis
Two to four weeks inside the numbers, the sales pipeline and the customer conversations. We do not propose spend before we understand where the business actually earns.
Approach
Judgment first. Systems second. Reporting that survives scrutiny.
Our method has not changed much since 2003, though the tooling has. The sequence matters more than the technology.
The written argument
A short document setting out what we recommend, what it costs, what we expect it to return, and what would make us wrong. If we cannot make the case on paper, we say so.
Governed systems
We build the marketing machinery — campaigns, content pipelines, AI-assisted workflows — with named owners, review gates and an audit trail. Automation without accountability is just faster error.
Quarterly review
Every quarter we revisit the argument against the results. Where the assumption failed, it gets retired. This is the part most agencies skip.
Operating principles
We will tell you not to spend.
A recommendation to hold budget is a legitimate outcome of an engagement, and a frequent one.
Senior people do the work.
The person who wins the engagement is the person who runs it. No handover to a junior pod.
AI is a tool, not a service line.
We use models where they measurably improve output quality or cost. We do not bill for novelty.
Plain reporting.
One page a month that a non-marketer can read and act on. Dashboards on request, not by default.