Former Taco Bell CMO Andrew Howie’s Gallant Creative Advisory has launched The Distillery, an independent creative assessment service designed to help marketers and agencies make better decisions during the early concept stage.
Many creative testing and review tools are built for late-stage development, once executions are near-final and production budgets are largely spent. Changes to the central idea at that point carry significant cost and time implications.
The Distillery is designed to be used earlier in the process.
“Good ideas are often killed, weakened or made less interesting long before they reach production,” said Gallant founder Andrew Howie.
“The problem is rarely a shortage of feedback. It is that the feedback is subjective, conflicting and not anchored to a clear view of what the work needs to achieve.”
The Distillery reviews creative concepts against the four pillars of the Gallant Creative Framework: Coherence, credibility, distinctness and effectiveness.
Reviewing work at concept stage places greater emphasis on the strength of the idea rather than the polish of its execution. This helps reduce subjective reactions and gives marketers and agencies greater confidence that the work they progress can build the brand and deliver against its commercial objectives.
The framework draws on Howie’s more than 20 years of agency and client-side marketing experience across Amazon, Taco Bell, Westpac and Meat & Livestock Australia.
His work has contributed to business growth, brand turnarounds and creative effectiveness recognised with Grand and Gold Effie’s.
“The Distillery is not there to replace judgement,” Howie said.
“It is there to make judgement clearer, more consistent and more useful while a strong idea can still be protected, sharpened and improved.”
The Distillery offers single creative reviews, concept comparisons, competitive reviews and ongoing quarterly creative assessment.
The launch coincides with a refreshed Gallant Creative Advisory brand and website, bringing its creative assessment, advisory and development services together under a renewed proposition.
