There’s a stage in content production that determines whether the creative will work, and most brands don’t use it.
It starts with discovery. Before anything else, brand marketers need to discover and (re)define their goals, audience, KPIs, and messaging.
Then comes distribution strategy, and this is the one that most brands miss. Where is the content actually going to live? Instagram, TikTok, a homepage, paid ads? Because the distribution plan drives the creative direction. Not the other way around.
From there, creative development should happen in three steps. Brief the team, send everyone off to solo ideate for a few days, then come back together for a massive brain dump. No idea too big. Shoot for the stars first, then narrow down to what’s actually aligned with the brand’s goals.
Pre-production is next… scripts, storyboards, crew, gear, styling, permits, call sheets. This is the behind-the-scenes work nobody talks about, but everything depends on it. When brands put in the homework through all of that, the shoot itself runs smooth. That’s where the fun lives.
Post is where the story actually takes shape. Editing, music, graphics, VFX, colour, sound design. Then delivery… but that’s not the finish line. Brands need to track performance, learn from the data, and feed those insights back into the next round.
That’s the full system. And the quality of what comes out the other end is almost always a reflection of how seriously a brand took the early stages.