Creative Operations Solution ROI: A Customer Case

Creative Operations ROI: What You Should Know

When shopping around for new software, an important factor you need to consider is its return on investment (ROI). While no one has a crystal ball to see what this number would be for a specific organization before a tool is implemented, you can get a solid idea from the data of existing customers. To help you out as best we can, we put together all the numbers and analyzed the ROI of our Creative Operations solution for one of our customers.

Let us define some terminology before we start looking at the numbers that come with investing in a creative operations solution. A Creative Operations solution is software that optimizes the operations of designers and marketers with tools that support the entire creative lifecycle of assets – from creative ideation to publication.

Recommended reading:

The Complete Creative Operations Guide

Using a Creative Operations solution can have many benefits to you, your team, and your organization – they are the following:

Creative Operations ROI Savings and Added Value

Let us now turn our focus to what a potential Creative Operations ROI can look like. Please find the ROI formula you can use below:

Savings on your assets, plus added brand value, minus the software cost, equals ROI
(Savings + Brand Value – Software Costs = ROI)

Such numbers are hard to estimate and will vary from one organization to the next. Still, our customer Kiwa can give you an idea of what the potential ROI will be.

What You Need to Know About Kiwa:

• Revenue of $522 million
• Revenue increased by $35 million from 2018 to 2019
• Total number of employees is 4,500
• Marketing, communications, and sales include 450 employees

After implementing our Creative Operations software, Kiwa reported the following improvements:

• 75% increase in brand consistency
• 50% decrease in using other applications / CMS systems
• 60% lower expenses on outsourced designers and agencies
• 40% quicker publishing time for branded content

Now, Let Us Move On to the Customer Case Itself

Let us assume that employee costs per position average around $80,000 per year. This includes an employee’s salary, their commute compensation, taxes, holiday pay accrued, pension contribution, and employer costs.

Departments that work with content on presentations, banners, ebooks, templates, and quotes, such as sales, marketing, and communications, spend at least 50% of their time at work on creating branded content. This estimate includes planning for content, meetings, and briefs. It accounts for time spent on emails, creating content, searching for the right images, and publishing said content.

Kiwa have 450 people in sales, marketing, communications, and brand management positions. They reported time savings of up to 40% on branded content. In cost saving terms, this amounts to:

$80.000 salary by 450 employees, by 0,5 time spent on content, by 0.4 in saved time, equals $7.200.000 per year

($80.000 * 450 * 0,5 * 0.4 = $7.200.000)

The value of your company is directly linked to your brand’s image. According to the State of Brand Consistency Report, brands that are consistently remaining top of mind can expect an average revenue increase of 33%.

Kiwa reported a 75% increase in brand consistency after implementing the Lytho Creative Operations platform. Let us assume that their brand compliance used to be 50% before Lytho. This would mean their current brand consistency rate stands at 87.5%.

Kiwa’s revenue grew by 7.2% or 35 million from 2018 to 2019. Let us assume there is a connection between increased brand consistency and revenue. Then, implementing Lytho’s Creative Operations platform contributed to Kiwa’s revenue growth as follows:

0,375 brand consistency growth, by 35 million revenue growth, equals $13.125.000
(0,375 consistency * 35 million revenue = $13.125.000)

ROI of Using Creative Operations Software

The total effect of implementing the Lytho Creative Operations platform successfully based on these calculations would be as follows:

• Reduced time spent on branded content, equal to $7.200.000
• Increased brand consistency, equal to $13.125.000
• Total amount saved is $20.325.000

The ROI example calculation above does not include agency costs saved (60% decrease). It also excludes any savings related to discontinuing or downgrading redundant software and other tools. This happens because of a shortage on data points necessary to make such estimates.

In Summary

The goal of this article was to give you a good idea of what the Creative Operations ROI could be for your organization. It is good to keep in mind that implementing such a platform will have a profound impact on digital content. It is bound to bring fundamental changes that are quite difficult to measure. Our customers report an increase in retention and happiness among employees that spend a substantial chunk of their work time with content.

Some companies manage to channel their saved time to innovative and creative solutions. When successful, they have a significant impact on the business. On the other hand, if implementation is done poorly or if user adoption is low, then we would advise against a Creative Operations solution. In such cases, you are likely to suffer a loss instead of a positive return on your investment.

Lytho helps you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform. Feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo and learning how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!