A content factory able to deliver 10k assets / year built in less than 3 months.
Content creation that scales, a local production setup in more than forty cities, and brand management built to hold at that size: a global core team, local creators, templates and workflows.
The engagement
Scope
Content programming, asset standardization, brand management, production workflows, talent sourcing
Duration
12 months, set-up then run
The stakes
How do you produce local content in forty cities without losing the brand, the quality, or control of cost per asset?
Every center needs its own content: local retailers, events, openings, seasonal moments. Buying it center by center from agencies means paying for the same asset forty times and letting the brand drift a little further at each stop. Three things had to land at once: content creation that scales, a local production setup in more than forty cities, and brand management that holds at that size.
40+
shopping centers in France and Belgium
2
countries, one brand system
1
central team facing every local one
Where the value was stuck
Quality, volume, cost: pick two.
That was the trade the old model forced. Big centers could afford agencies. Small ones were absent from social. The national brand barely showed up locally. No group agreement to pool costs. The content factory was built to reconcile creative quality, volume and cost.
Quality
Templates and a shared charter, so a local shoot stays in line with the brand codes.
Volume
A creator within reach of every center, able to produce what each content franchise calls for.
Cost
Standardized assets and pooled production, to cut cost per asset and give every center social coverage. Even the smallest ones.
The build · three moves
From the idea to the operating model.
01
The product offer
Before hiring anyone, we defined what the factory would actually make: the editorial program, the recurring franchises, the guidelines, the templates.
Content programming
National moments set centrally, local slots left open for each center.
Asset standardization
A fixed set of formats, packaged with the future creative team so their constraints were baked in.
Brand management
One charter, applied by everyone who posts, whatever the city.
02
The team and the tools
Two teams, one language. A senior freelance core team runs the brand and the channels remotely; local creators shoot in the centers. The freelance team was built to work as an extension of the internal one: same processes, same vocabulary, a direct line to each center.
6
social media managers, each holding the relationship with their own centers
1
traffic manager, organizing shoots and checking every asset against the charter
1
moderator on the communities, including evenings, weekends and public holidays
30
local content creators, photo and video, from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand
The tools everyone could actually use
Only tools that match how the network already works and need almost no training. Online briefs, one shared drive for everything produced, a Canva license with ready-made templates for the social media managers and the centers, and every conversation in one place.
03
The workflow
You cannot map everything, but you can map the two or three paths that carry 80% of the daily work. National content is planned a month out in an editorial committee. Local content runs one chain, from the center manager's brief to the published post.
01
Brief
The center manager files the request on a single online form, the same one everywhere.
02
Validation
The center's social media manager picks it up, checks it against the program and approves it.
03
Production brief
The traffic manager turns it into a shoot: how many assets, which formats, which slot, who to notify.
04
Shoot
The local creator shoots in the center and drops the assets in the shared drive.
05
Publication
The social media manager builds the post from the templates and publishes it on the center's channels.
04
The rhythm
A machine this size runs on a handful of standing meetings: enough to keep everyone aligned, few enough not to drown the centers.
Monthly editorial committee
Client team, lead agency and every social media manager validate next month's program.
Monthly performance review
Results read together, good cases shared, editorial line adjusted.
Daily direct line
Between each social media manager and their centers, and between creator and center on shoot days.
Results
10k
assets produced in one year
−30%
cost per asset, through pooled production and standardized formats
+30%
engagement on the content
40+
centers covered, in two countries
36
freelancers mobilized across the year
222
shoots run inside the centers
What they now own
The assets
A production system, not a retainer
Program, formats and workflows belong to the brand and outlive any single supplier.
A local network within reach
Content creators in every city where the group operates, briefed directly.
One brand across forty voices
Local freedom inside a charter, applied by the people who publish.
Economies of scale that stay
Thirty percent off the cost per asset, held by the model instead of renegotiated every year.
What we would do again
Three months to stabilize an organization like this. Plan for it.
Start with a soft launch
A month with a handful of centers, to work the tools and the process out before opening it to everyone.
Say the organization is changing
A factory like this changes how teams work. Lean on the internal sponsor, say it more often than feels necessary, and onboard people step by step.
Template the tracking, not just the posts
Production briefs and reports matter as much as the asset templates.
Marketing is your most defensible asset.
