Creative & Content

Why 2026 is back to centralised creative operation models

The last decade has seen continual fragmentation in terms media platforms, media formats and martech and adtech systems. At the same time, global brands have launched more products, with more campaigns, across more marketing channels and notably, in more markets than ever before.

Global creative operations systems have become complex beasts that require proactive planning, continual reviewing, and a rigorous testing and optimisation strategy to eliminate production wastage and improve delivery efficiencies.

One of the hottest areas of consideration for procurement managers, is relooking at global, regional and local production operations models.

“Over the last decade, there has been a continual ebb and flow of brands deciding to produce creative campaigns centrally for greater consistency and control, or distribute production to local markets to develop more culturally nuanced campaigns for improved creative effectiveness.

While budgets and resource and have historically been key decision factors, we are now seeing technology as the driving force behind creative operations models,” explains Simon Ambrose, Global Growth Director at Locaria.

Next generation solutions to re-centre and reallocate

Overall cost is one concern, the ability to keep it under control is another. The core challenge brands face is systems fragmentation. Disconnected workflows and duplicated adaptation make it harder to scale global content effectively.

Add different teams in different markets with different reporting structures and timetables and varying degrees of transparency, there is the very real danger that procurement and finance have a real fight to understand where the money is going.

This was the status quo because there was simply no alternative. But things have changed. There is a shift from fragmented execution to more orchestrated, governed adaptation models, many of which are by necessity, centralised. There is a rebalancing underway where each model – global and local – can now play to its strengths.

Why now?

Centralised to calm the chaos

The acceleration of adaptation AI, automation and new AdTech tools mean there is now a shift in what can be localised or adapted centrally at scale. Centralised adaptation models mean faster adoption of new technology across markets, where brands can test once and scale the learnings globally.

“Today, central teams can seamlessly localise visual elements without ever stepping foot outside.

A source production can be authentically manipulated, for example at Locaria for a hotel brand we changed the background to different iconic hotels, and food delivery brand, switched out a birthday clown for a pinata to better represent a family birthday party for Hispanic audiences”. Ambrose shared.

If there are already localised teams and capabilities in place, why not deploy these systems there? It boils down to economies of scale. “The only way to onboard these technologies is to do it centrally because of the cost, integrations and scoping.

Brands need to implement this at scale, with the greatest success coming from when you’re reaching across all your global briefs.”

The benefits are clear. Greater control over brand voice, efficiencies from creating once and creating at scale, handing time to be creative back to local teams and simply a better handle on costs. These benefits can come with a degree of compromise – no model is perfect.

“Voiceover, for example, can cost several thousands of pounds depending on the number of markets and usage rights. It can be done centrally and for a fraction of the cost using synthetic voice, and it’s largely indistinguishable from the human voice for short form segments.

This means Voice is no longer the realm of just brand campaigns, and can be used across tactical content such as social, or tier 2/3 markets where budgets may not have stretched for recording sessions,” Ambrose admits.

The technology, it must be emphasised, is only the tool.

It still requires the skill, the prompt engineers, the audio engineers and the linguists to verify the output but the point is that now, because much more can be done centrally, the brand maintains greater control over costs, the creative process and distribution.

Ambrose reveals that Locaria is constantly testing new tools in the creative transcreation process to allow centralised localisation to happen accurately and at scale.

Aligned to that is the team of people that verify outputs to make sure there are no issues and any that are, are corrected. He admits that this could be a challenging role to fill in the future – no longer fully creative, more concerned with stewardship and detail-oriented.

But, he adds “it’s what everyone is looking for, because prompting becomes more important than the actual craft of design in some ways. Skill sets are changing.”

From reducing costs to investing in value

The argument for the centralisation of creative adaptation from a financial and logistical perspective is clear. Improved workflows, better prioritisation for local teams while global teams using centralised technologies take up more of the strain.

But the advantages of centralised creative adaptation run deeper.

“There is a huge amount of cost efficiency to do with centralising this type of work, voiceovers or near shore design hubs. But it means you can invest in more creative and more media,” Ambrose claims.

So instead of being overwhelmed by the demand for more content, teams are now equipped to proactively generate more that is still both qualitatively and quantitatively good for the brand.

Ambrose explains that this model can’t move forward without a degree of due diligence. “A lot of organisations don’t manage the tracking yet some of the reporting and insights are very important if they’re to understand where efficiencies are driven and costs ballooning.”

He notes that centralisation needs to function as the Heart and the Soul of the organisation. The Heart involves global reporting, implementing language technology and testing tools – workflow orchestration that must be consistent and centralised.

The Soul is about testing, reviewing, evaluating, piloting and a proactive way to iterate forwards.

This is a new operating model which will require a degree of cultural as well as process change at both global and local levels. But the benefits are clear to see.

“Understanding which markets are more willing to move to this model, who is being underserved by their current one, who is spending too much on production all comes down to a communication plan that must be executed between agency and procurement,” Ambrose insists.

“There are clear, rational reasons for change, but there also needs to be an awareness of existing relationships and sticking points. Showing good work, getting collaborative and letting people know they’re being listened to, that’s the key.”