We collaborate with a limited number of clients annually to ensure the highest quality of our work. Our approach involves deep engagement in either a single phase or through combinatorial agile cycles, offered on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual retainer basis.

[Phase 1] Development: Research

Our primary research product is focused on delivering in-depth case studies for internal research, marketing, insights, and product teams leading innovation for their brands. This enables them to gain a better understanding of the global strategic landscape in which they want to operate next with a distinct point of view—helping teams weigh their options. This includes internal stakeholder interviews, competitor analysis, cultural intelligence, future prospects, and more on the chosen subject, along with proposed implications for the brand. 

For every project we define a research question that's designed to create, capture, and compound in value for the long-term. 

• We map out the context and motivations of a business [Position].
• Build out a clear roadmap with measurable results [System].
• Navigate where the brand should go next [Direction].
• Develop a core operating model [Structure]. 
• Organize policies into principles that guide actions and behaviors within the organization [Governance]. 

[Phase 2] Design: Rapid Prototyping

Since most major organizations house internal design, branding, or insights teams, you can think of us as a modular, strategic innovation partner – your own DARPA for the creative marketing industrial complex. Our practice combines the business modeling of an investment firm, the technical rigor of data science, and the creative, cultural insights of brand strategy. This allows us to understand the organization from an independent perspective, explore the limits of existing technology through rapid exploration, and evaluate a high volume of ideas, thereby discovering new growth models. We then rapidly prototype the best ideas with a product-led approach, informing everything from marketing communications and digital content to developing new intellectual property and unlocking a new content to commerce models. 

[Phase 3] Decision: Integrated Briefs & Campaigns

We believe that the best outcomes result from the best inputs. That's why we collaborate with clients on an integrated brief designed to generate powerful network effects. Knowing what to look for in advance makes it easier to find the right creative and technology partners. We work closely with clients to evaluate the best individuals, vendors, or agencies, providing profiled recommendations. GM is structured to ensure that clients receive effective strategic recommendations without inflated cost structures or excessive agency staffing. Our independent model empowers us to partner with a wide variety of creative professionals, agencies, studios, consultancies, and design firms. This openness ensures that we explore the full spectrum of possible combinations to guarantee the best outcomes, surpassing the limitations often found in premeditated agency-media-publisher networks incentivized to sell you ads, influencers, and problematic programmatic inventory.

We often collaborate with business and creative leaders who operate at the intersection of entertainment and technology with high integrity to de-risk and address high-risk, high-reward, what-if questions, and assess the impact of further investments in those questions. By taking a rigorous, portfolio approach to brand and product strategy, we ensure an outsized business impact on all future investments through disciplined innovation.

Our expertise lies in defining a core strategy engine that unfolds over time and translating that into an actionable playbook, operating model, and a well-coordinated implementation plan.

Clients engage with us because we can synthesize business and creative strategy, taking a long-term strategic view that aligns executive leaders, internal teams, and external agency partners on a strategic path forward that aligns executive leaders, internal teams, and external agency partners on a strategic path forward. Whether it's helping Microsoft define a digital strategy for the next generation or aligning agency partners with an integrated brief for the most successful game launch in Activision Blizzard's history, case studies and research are available upon request. To get on our waitlist please fill out the contact form.