Established to manage television production for a leading food and beverage client in Europe, which the company retains to this day, Claire Randall Consulting (CRC) has since expanded and diversified its remit globally. CRC now covers all media channels, as well as complementary strategic services, including marketing process and production reviews, spend audits, decoupling consultancy, digital asset management, benchmarking, training and much more.
“As such we are now one of the world’s leading creative production consultancies,” says founder Claire Randall. “We work alongside marketing and procurement departments of blue-chip companies across all sectors around the world, managing and optimising their advertising production budgets, while helping them build an efficient content production strategy.
“Across our 30 clients worldwide, our primary goal remains to help them achieve value from their production investments, and develop a more agile and efficient production ecosystem.”
CRC’s premium, personal and professional service has been instrumental in forming long-term relationships that have subsequently helped clients negotiate a rapidly changing advertising landscape.
Calls for enhanced transparency in the bidding process, a rise in specialist production implementation agencies, more stringent budgetary requirements, ever-increasing demand for content and in-housing of production are all listed by CRC as prominent challenges or modifications within the sector. The focus for the company has therefore been to meet these demands head on, and to mitigate challenges and leverage opportunity in equal measure.
“More and more brands are using production consultants such as CRC to help them navigate this complex landscape, and to give them the support and confidence to create a content production strategy that is tailored and efficient,” says Emma Hartard, managing director at CRC. “Our role is to provide independent third-party advice, not only on specific productions, but also on long-term transformative opportunities to meet our clients’ evolving needs.”
Investments in a proprietary cloud-based database and internal-collaboration technology are testament to CRC’s willingness to adapt and evolve ahead of the curve, while the continuous aim of diversification is epitomised by the company’s expanding and highly experienced consultants with first-hand industry knowledge.
“The fact that most of our clients come from referrals is the best indication of our standing in the industry,” Ms Randall continues, evidencing her company’s successful, client-driven strategy. “Among our extremely loyal client base we have several companies we have been working with for more than 14 years.”
Ms Randall and her management team see a natural synergy between long-standing relationships and the opportunities available from a consultancy perspective moving forward, helping brands define and streamline their operations in line with an environment few understand better than CRC.
“The production and agency landscape is changing at such a speed, we need to keep up with the pace and ensure we are best positioned to advise our clients on all the options and approaches that are available to them,” says Ms Randall. “At CRC we need to understand the nuances of these various solutions well enough to be able to guide our clients through difficult waters.”
One such wave hitting the advertising industry in the coming years will be blockchain, which client services director Julia Rodino Higgins predicts will be a necessary disruptive shock to the sector.
“The digital advertising ecosystem is vague and inefficient,” she says, “and there is little transparency for advertisers about who is exactly watching the ads, thus making measurement of return on investment extremely difficult. Digital advertising is ripe for blockchain solutions that increase transparency with ad buys, improve trust among the ad supply chain and remove the middleman.”
Ms Randall concludes: “At CRC we intend to be at the forefront of these industry developments, broadening and extending our consultant base to one that has deep experience in all these areas, enabling us to advise and guide our clients through all the production solutions available to them.”
For further information please visit www.claire-randall.co.uk
