Greenwrks Creative Studio at Heineken USA
The task
in 2019, Heineken USA was struggling and needed to cut costs in the media department. To address this issue, the company decided to create an in-house creative studio with the help of TAG and hired a team of one creative director and four designers, including myself, to help with the plan to "stop the bleeding." The initial team consisted of one print designer, one digital designer, myself as a creative, and a brand strategist, all working under the leadership of the creative director. Heineken's leadership gave us two initial tasks: first, to retain as much cash as possible in the final two quarters of 2019 to demonstrate that the business model could help them stop losing money; and second, to develop a team identity and effective workflow that could be integrated with the existing workflow across the US.
Project goals
The goals of our project were to retain as much cash as possible, develop an identity for Heineken USA's creative studio that honored the brand's European roots while also resonating with Americans, improve the quality of deliverables for all brands and verticals to increase household penetration in the US market, and prove the viability of the business model to expand the team's scope and size.
Challenges
One of the main challenges we faced was that Heineken USA had not previously had an in-house creative team and did not have a standardized workflow due to working with multiple agencies across the US. Some of the issues we identified included a lack of brand guidelines for most of their beer portfolio, disorganized and decentralized asset libraries, low-quality deliverables across all platforms, an unclear and outdated briefing process, and inconsistent deadlines.
Outcome
As a result of our efforts, we were able to help retain over half a million dollars for Heineken USA in the first six months, demonstrating the effectiveness of the business model. This led to our team's scope expanding, and we became the lead agency for a significant portion of the media programs for both digital and print across the entire portfolio. To date, Greenwrks has helped retain a total of 4.6 million dollars since its inception. In addition, our team grew to eight members, with the addition of a project manager and production designer. We also restructured our business plan and I was promoted to a senior role with a focus on creating new key visuals, original content, and small budget photoshoots, allowing us to move from a largely adaptive and improving role to a more active role.
our approach
Our team knew that the task of establishing a new creative studio within a short time frame would be challenging. We decided to begin taking on projects immediately in order to generate revenue and gain a better understanding of the types of work needed by our clients.
CREATING THE TEAM IDENTITY
I was tasked with creating a brand identity for the studio that would appeal to the American market, drawing inspiration from the origins of Heineken, a key brand in our portfolio. After considering several potential names, we selected "Greenwrks" - a nod to Heineken's iconic green bottle and a reference to our team's focus on working efficiently.
LOGO DESIGN
For the logo, I designed a minimal, friendly mark based on a green hop - a key ingredient in beer and a symbol of Heineken's success. I used the golden ratio to create the shape of the hop and incorporated our team's initials to unite the design. I chose a light green tint to honor Heineken and to convey a sense of change and improvement in our workflow.
This is the result.
better, Faster AND COST EFFECTIVE
After being introduced to the agencies and partner brands working with Heineken in the US, our team identified a major issue in the current workflow: miscommunication and incomplete briefs were causing long email threads between the brand team and the agencies, resulting in lost revenue due to high fees for quick turnaround and multiple revisions. Additionally, a lack of a centralized asset library was causing confusion and adding to the overall miscommunication problem.
To address these issues, we reached out to the lead agency for each brand in the Heineken US portfolio (including Heineken, Dos Equis, Tecate, and smaller innovation brands) and gathered all brand guidelines, organizing them in a server. We also compiled and organized assets and working files for past and ongoing campaigns in our Greenwrks Asset library, helping the brand teams more easily access and adhere to brand guidelines. This streamlining of the process helped reduce unnecessary email chains between brand teams and agencies.
With the issues identified and our team integrated into the workflow, we focused on being better, faster, and more cost-effective in our efforts to improve the process for Heineken and its partner brands.
WORKFLOW AND briefing system optimization
As a team, we conducted research and developed a scope for our marketing efforts in 2019. We divided our efforts into two main categories: print and digital. The print team focused on below-the-line initiatives, such as point-of-sale materials and outdoor billboards, while the digital team focused on above-the-line initiatives, including social media support, digital billboards, and e-commerce for Heineken and Dos Equis.
To improve the efficiency and accuracy of our work, we implemented a new briefing process that included a more detailed briefing form. This helped us create a more transparent workflow that included the brand team managers and requesters, as well as more accurate deadlines. Our goal was to streamline the process of submitting projects and improve communication between the brand team and our team of designers.
CHALLENGES
While implementing change can be challenging, we anticipated and prepared for potential issues that might arise. One issue we identified was the continued use of email for project submission, which undermined our new workflow and made our job more difficult. Additionally, we recognized that the learning curve for our in-house creative team may be slower as it was the first time the company had such a team, and inaccurate deadlines could also be a problem. To address these issues, we made them a priority and worked to integrate our team smoothly into the Heineken ecosystem.
STRATEGY AND APPROACH
Our strategy focused on improving communication and streamlining the briefing process. We identified common issues in briefs submitted by the Heineken brand teams, such as a lack of important information and miscommunication, and catalogued them based on frequency. To address these issues, we created a new, detailed briefing process form that provided us with the necessary information to complete each project, while also removing unnecessary information for vendors, creative teams, and production teams. This allowed us to streamline the form and make it more accessible to all team members, regardless of age or role.
We also made the briefing process more convenient for brand teams by making it accessible through company devices. This allowed team members to easily submit briefs from anywhere, even when they were unable to access their work computers. Our goal was to make the process as simple and efficient as possible, and to work with any team members who were interested in collaborating with us.
Greenwrks becomes AN IMPORTANT part of the team
The addition of the Greenwrks improved briefing process and the fast turn around our team kept across the first two quarters of 2019 brought a huge amount of work our way. We proved the business plan within the first half of the second quarter. This extended our contracts and gave us a bigger budget that allowed us to expand the team; however, we weren’t expecting a pandemic to hit the world at the beginning of 2020. This was a big hit for our team. Everything was working perfectly up to this point, but every crisis is an opportunity. The expansion of the team was put on hold, but the amount of work our team was assigned for the year was way, way, way more than we ever expected. Greenwrks became the lead agency for all of the print programs for almost every brand in the portfolio. This increased the below the line volume of requests and he helped us retain huge amounts of money — really fast. The digital side also saw a considerable increase of work mostly on social media, digital billboards and e-commerce adding a big chunk of cash to our savings. We were helping them saved more cash than they ever expected. The Greenwrks team was now running the show and it was time to chase the next challenge.
Our team worked in a partnership with Pica9 to developed a system that could help our team shoot our numbers to the moon. We created workflow between Pica9’s interactive platform that allowed the brand teams to customize any piece of print creative with a few clicks, and all of our print programs. Our team was tasked to run the show in the back end of the platform. We created every single possible variation for each program and upload it to the platform then the platform did it’s magic. This move with the help of a more involved above the line team helped us save money much faster than ever before. Things were getting better — the world was starting to open up after the fist lockdown and it was time to expand the team.
Our team received a much bigger budget and three of our initial members got promoted — including me. We also added two more members to the team and now was time to do add to the team’s scope.
EXPANDING OUR TEAM’S SCOPE
With our team restructuring, we were able to take on additional responsibilities on both the print and digital fronts. On the print side, we became the team responsible for managing and updating our customizable platform, as well as all print campaigns and programs for the entire portfolio. On the digital side, we increased our involvement in event coverage for company events such as Heineken House at Coachella and the Dos wedding sweepstakes.
Additionally, with our increased budget, we were able to acquire camera and lighting equipment and begin creating our own content. I took on the creative lead role and planned and shot the content for our first shoot, the results of which can be seen under the Canijilla brand. In 2022, we hired a new assistant creative director and added video production to our scope. This allowed us to expand our capabilities and offer a wider range of services to our clients.
planning for the future
Our team has experienced rapid growth, and our budget has continued to increase as we help our clients save a significant amount of money. In the near future, we plan to expand into new areas such as 3D modeling, higher production shootings, and the creation of out-of-home campaigns on the print side, as well as supporting the social media efforts of Heineken and Dos Equis. By diversifying our services and capabilities, we aim to continue our growth and success in the marketing industry.