Contents

1. The answer, on one page
2. How we got to these numbers
3. 1Your ratio
4. 1.1 Your initiatives
5. 1.2 Rent or own
6. 1.3 The ratio
7. 1.4 Kept, and worth passing on
8. 2What's in the way
9. 2.1 The blocker scores
10. 2.2 What we heard
11. 3Where to start
12. 3.1 Your moves, by floor
13. 3.2 Candidates for your first owned format
14. 3.3 Our recommended first format
15. 3.4 The case for the tour, in numbers
16. 4Recommended next steps
17. AAppendix
18. A1 The ledger
19. A2 Interview guide
20. A3 Team pulse survey
21. A4 Data request

The answer, on one page

One euro in eight of last year's €6m built something you still use, and the same eighth gives people something to pass on. The rest was rent.

How we got to these numbers

Eight weeks, four workstreams, and four rules agreed with your finance team in week one. Every number in this workbook follows them.

1. Spend

   Twelve months of brand and marketing spend from your invoices, line by line.

   Part 1
2. Rent or own

   Every line scored on five yes-or-no tests: what did it leave behind?

   Worksheet 1.2
3. People

   Six leadership interviews and fourteen director surveys, scored against six blockers.

   Part 2
4. Model

   What owning the tour would cost against rebuilding it, from real quotes.

   Worksheet 3.4

1. Real prices only. What rebuilding would cost comes from actual invoices or real quotes. Estimates are logged but never counted.
2. A signed baseline. The baseline is the twelve months to [month, year]. What counts as kept is defined in Worksheet 1.2.
3. Assets wear out. Every kept asset gets a useful life. Anything unused for two quarters, or past its life, is flagged and stops counting.
4. Word of mouth is designed in, not measured by us. We judge each line's potential to be passed on (Worksheet 1.4) and use it to decide what to keep. Whether people actually pass it on is for your own brand research, or an independent agency, to read. It is never part of the saving.

Agreed with your finance team in week 1 and signed off by your CFO in week 8. The same rules run the ledger from here (A1).

Your initiatives

Every line of brand and marketing spend in the last twelve months, what it cost, and how it was measured.

Rent or own?

An initiative counts as owned if it leaves behind something measurable that the business keeps and can use again, judged by the rules agreed with your finance team (page 4). Five questions, yes or no.

A

Owned. Did it leave infrastructure we own?

B

Reusable. Could we use it again for less?

C

Lasting. Is it still working now the spend has stopped?

D

Learning stays. Did the know-how stay with us?

E

Hard to copy. Would a competitor struggle to buy it tomorrow?

4 or 5 yes is own. 2 or 3 is part-owned, usually the easiest place to gain. 0 or 1 is rent, which isn't a failure if you chose it on purpose.

The ratio

Last year's budget, added up by verdict.

Kept, and worth passing on

A line of spend earns its place twice: once if you keep what it built, and again if people pass it on. Only two of your eight lines do both.

The blocker scores

Six statements, scored from 1 (not true at all) to 5 (painfully true). Six leaders scored them in interview, and fourteen directors in the team pulse survey.

Frame

No shared view of what the brand stands for, or would never do.

Permission

Too many sign-offs between a good idea and a yes.

Capability

The know-how sits with agencies, not in the business.

Measurement

Reports only count what happens while the money is spent.

Proof

No example inside the business that it works here.

Rituals

Briefs, reviews and rewards that pull people back to the old way.

What we heard

Patterns from 20 conversations and the survey comments. Quotes are anonymised and stand for a view held by several people.

Your moves, by floor

Not every move needs you. Some are for the team and take weeks; a few need you and the board. The numbers show the order we'd go in: start small and cheap, prove it works, then go bigger.

We only fill the floors your blockers point to. An empty floor is a finding too.

Candidates for your first owned format

Three things you already pay to rebuild every year that could be built once, owned and run again. Word-of-mouth potential is a gate: anything scoring under 3 isn't worth keeping, however much it saves.

Our recommended first format

The summer pop-up tour, designed to be kept.

The case for the tour, in numbers

Keeping the tour costs the same as rebuilding it in year one, breaks even at stop 6, and runs about 60% cheaper from year two. €1.46m saved over four years.

Assumptions: six stops a year, €740k when rebuilt, from last year's invoices. Kept: the same €740k in year one to own the build and bring the files in-house, then €296k in year two, falling as the team learns. Income from sponsors or tickets is not counted, and nor is word of mouth: it is designed into the format (3.3), not measured by us. Year one is about savings.

Recommended next steps

The first 90 days end with the first format ready to run and measured from day one.

The ledger

The diagnostic baseline was a one-off snapshot of your whole marketing budget. The ledger keeps score from here: set up in week 10, it covers the whole marketing function, starts with the tour as its first owned asset, and is read against the baseline every quarter.

Leadership interview guide

45 minutes, one to one, confidential. Each answer is scored against the six blockers straight after the conversation.

Team pulse survey

Sent to directors and heads of brand, marketing, creative and partnerships. Ten minutes, anonymous. The same six statements as the leadership interviews, so the two can be compared.

Data request

What we asked for in week one. Ticked items were received.

• Twelve months of brand and marketing spend, by lineFinance export by supplier and category is enough to start
• Agency contracts and feesIncluding who owns the files and rights
• Any events, content or formats you already runEven informal ones
• Brand tracking or pricing dataIf you have it
• Org chart for brand, marketing and partnershipsFor the interview and survey list
• Approval process for a typical activationWho signs, in what order