The Snacktory
The opportunity
In 2015, while working at DigitasLBi leading the Accenture client business, two challenges were hampering the ability of our clients to be successful and for our agency to service them
They created a ton of long-form thought leadership but were stuck packaging it as PDFs - without meeting their clients needs for more modern modes of consumption
There were 2000 client marketers, with 40 marketing leaders - each with their own budgets. However we only had 3 account people to try and service them all.
We needed a new way to help our clients and our agency be successful…
The idea
We created The Snacktory, a rapid content production model which repackaged approved long-form content and turned it into short, snackable content built for marketing channel promotion.
To make it work, we needed to understand our clients operational needs to ensure the product met their needs. A super simple engagement model. High predictability in budget planning. Consistent, fast production. High quality outputs. More efficient than our competitors.
Four key components
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One way to scale the product… the web. After signing a scope with us, clients could log into thesnacktory.com where they could see how many deliverables of each format type they had available to request in their bank.
They would initiate a project by uploading their approved long-form content (word or PDF) and picking one or more formats to produce.
They provided a simple brief with 3 inputs…
The key message
Any visual requirements
Anything to avoid
Once they ordered their “snacks”, the website acted as a workflow experience, providing status updates and emailing the client when the assets were ready to review and when the final was ready for download.
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At large companies, production speed is typically bogged down by layers of approvals - so we convinced our clients to cut that out entirely.
We limited client feedback to what was factually or legally inaccurate only. All other feedback was applied to the next set of deliverables requested.
That cut out the burden on the client to get layers of approvals and allowed them to get to market much more quickly and efficiently.
As a result of this agreement we were able to guarantee a 1-week SLA on all deliverables.
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We wanted to make it as easy as possible for clients to buy from us - making annual agency budget planning more predictable and eliminating the need to haggle before or after individual projects.
So we built a fixed ratecard for each client account where deliverables were the same cost for everyone as long as the agreed process was followed.
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While we needed creative specialists across different formats to execute the production, with the more standardized and predictable snacktory model, we were able to remove layers of account and project management and assign a single PM across an entire client account.
The PM acted as our CSR - driving client delivery, governing and analyzing the production process to recommend adjustments and updating the website to reflect the latest deliverable status.
The PM would then support the client account leader (aka me) who ensured the snacktory business as a segment of the overall client business remained profitable and ensured we evolved the product to keep our clients happy and it met their needs.
Initial formats
1-2 min video summaries
Downloadable Infographics
Presentation decks
Hero images for web articles pages
“Self-interviews” (a kit was mailed to the leader to record and upload their video)
Accenture Strategy (compilation vid)
Accenture Security
Accenture - self-interview training
Goodyear
In Year 2 we scaled to new clients with new formats
Comcast
AstraZeneca
American Express
Pitney Bowes
Emerson
The results?
Year 1 brought in $4MM revenue at a 48% operating margin
Scaled to over 30 clients across the Publicis network
DigitasLBi partnered with Group Nine Media to bring clients a unique combination of media distribution and rapid content production to enable modern marketing.