Blog
Insights on creative operations, creative yield metrics, and making your creative investment work harder.
The Creative Waste Problem
Your brand spent $47,000 on creative last quarter. 43 of 110 assets went live. The other 67 — $28,000 worth — are sitting in a Google Drive folder right now, fully approved, never deployed. Start here.
How Marshal Works
The methodology behind the engagement. What we do, how we measure it, and what you get at each stage.
Filed by pillar.
Every post lives under one of three pillars: what waste looks like, how to measure yield, and how to run the operation.
Creative Yield Rate: What Is CYR and How Do You Calculate It?
The metric that tells you whether your creative pipeline is working or leaking. Here's how to calculate it, what good looks like, and what kills it.
The Job Listing Autopsy: When a $55K Coordinator Is Really a Creative Ops Hire
A $15M skincare brand just posted a Marketing Coordinator role. The job description? Five creative operations functions hidden inside one title.
You Already Paid for It: The $96K Creative Budget Leak
A brand spending $20K/month on creative with a 40% deployment rate is wasting $8K/month. $96K/year. On creative nobody sees.
The Last Mile Problem: Why Your Agency Gets Blamed for Your Ops Gap
Your agency delivered 47 assets last month. How many are live right now? If you can't answer that, your client can't either.
Your Google Drive Is Not a DAM
19 out of 25 DTC brands doing $10-50M are running their entire creative pipeline through Google Drive and Slack. That's a systems problem.
Alternatives to a DAM for Creative Pipeline Management
Air, Brandfolder, and Bynder organize files. But your problem isn't file storage — it's the pipeline between production and deployment. Here are the real alternatives.
Best Creative Operations Solutions for DTC Brands (2026)
Your brand is producing creative at scale but nobody manages the pipeline. Here are the 5 approaches to solving creative operations — with honest pros, cons, and who each one actually works for.
Hiring a Creative Ops Manager vs. Outsourcing: The Real Trade-Offs
In-house or outsourced? Both solve creative ops differently. Here's an honest breakdown of when each approach wins — from someone who's seen both fail.
Marshal vs. Hiring a Creative Ops Coordinator: Which Is Right for Your Brand?
A full-time creative ops coordinator costs $65-85K/year and takes 6 months to ramp. Marshal costs $60K/year and is operational in 30 days. Here's how to decide.
Creative Is a Supply Chain, Not a Project
Creative has production costs, transit times, inventory, waste rates, and demand forecasting. Just like physical goods. Nobody treats it that way.
The $47K/Month Question
A $20M DTC brand spends $35-50K/month on creative production. Industry data shows 40-60% of it never gets deployed. Run the math.
The Creative Waste Problem
Your brand spent $47,000 on creative last quarter. 43 of 110 assets went live. The other 67 — $28,000 worth — are sitting in a Google Drive folder right now, fully approved, never deployed.
The 6 Questions Your Team Can't Answer
Six questions every DTC brand should be able to answer about their creative pipeline. Almost none of them can. Here's why that's a $30K/month problem.
Creative Yield: The Metric That Should Exist But Doesn't
Brands obsessively measure ROAS to two decimal places. Ask them what percentage of produced creative actually shipped last month. Silence.
Briefed, Built, Buried: The Creative Waste Problem Nobody Measures
40% of what brands produce never reaches a customer. Not because it's bad. Because nobody manages what happens after it's delivered.
Your Creative Pipeline Has a Leak
Most DTC brands deploy less than 60% of the creative they produce. Here's where the value disappears — and what to do about it.