Once upon a time, TV commercials reigned supreme. They were the cornerstone of iconic brand-building. But today? The game has changed. In today’s fast-paced, multi-channel marketing landscape, it’s being overthrown by an ever-growing content army. We’re talking hundreds – sometimes thousands – of hero films, key visuals, behind-the-scenes moments, social how-tos and ecommerce digital collateral. Layer in the demand for hyper-personalisation, localisation and platform specificity, and it’s no wonder brands are under more pressure than ever to deliver high-quality content at scale, pace and lower cost. AI is revolutionising how we create, but it also challenges us to rethink how we approach production as a whole. To build brand icons today, marketers need a radically different approach.

From siloed to seamless: the case for integrated production

Traditionally, content production has operated in silos. Creative agencies work in one lane, and they tend to focus on the TV and Print aspect. Social sits in another, PR somewhere else and ecommerce is often the last to the party. The result? Duplicated efforts, fragmented storytelling and rising costs.

A 2023 WARC study found that 61% of marketers cite disjointed workflows between teams and agencies as the biggest barrier to effective content production

That’s why Hogarth champions a new way forward: production strategically embedded throughout the wider marketing workflow. We believe brands need to prioritise and integrate production strategy from ideation to final asset delivery if they are to be truly successful and achieve that elusive icon status. When production is considered from the start, brands can unlock the true potential of their content ecosystems, capturing exponentially more outputs from a single production window. We call this approach the super shoot, and it’s a strategic move that more and more brands are beginning to make.

By bringing together the best of WPP – media, top-tier creative, social, ecommerce, design and production – we create a seamless, end-to-end process. This collaborative model, which is enabled by the WPP Open platform, doesn’t just streamline workflows, it breaks down barriers across geographies, disciplines and channels, helping clients do more with less and do it better to boot.

By breaking down silos, brands gain visibility, control and scale across their content supply chain. But we need to be more strategic in our approach to content capture.

What is a super shoot?

A “super shoot” is one production window, meticulously planned to deliver a whole suite of assets: hero spots, KVs, cutdowns, social-first formats, stills, GIFs, BTS, ecommerce content – the works. We encourage our clients to look beyond the TVC and lean into the full spectrum of possibilities that a super shoot can unlock.

According to McKinsey, companies that integrate creative and production can increase marketing ROI by 15–20% thanks to reduced fragmentation and increased speed-to-market

At Hogarth, we treat super shoots as strategic production moments. We obsess over pre-production to unlock post-production flexibility. We ask: how do we capture this to enable digital and social edits? Could this set be used to capture ecommerce content? Is there value in capturing alternate endings or product variations for localisation? Super shoots can be set up to have multiple sets running so you can share resource, locations, talent and harness the power of collaboration. The units shoot concurrently and often in collaboration, to minimise the shoot duration and cost, whilst bolstering creative output.

By aligning all stakeholders upfront – creative, production, media, PR, ecomm, local markets – we ensure the shoot captures everything needed for now and what’s to come. It's content with foresight.

Shoot today, use tomorrow: planning for reuse

Super shoots aren’t just about producing more – they’re about producing smarter. When you plan for modularity and longevity, each asset becomes a potential building block, not just a one-off. These modular elements are then uploaded to a DAM, tagged with the appropriate metadata and repurposed across future edits, minimising future capture duplication. Each shoot should be seen as an opportunity to create new and unique building blocks to add to a brand’s content library.

Adobe reports that brands using modular content strategies reduce production costs by up to 30% and content creation time by 50%

For a recent project with a global FMCG client, we delivered over 300 assets from a single production. Using three parallel sets and a modular shot list, we captured:

• How-to videos
• Before-and-after shots
• Social cutdowns
• Key visuals
• Behind-the-scenes content

By collaborating with the creative agency, the marketing team and our production experts we created an agile and modular production approach and seamlessly captured regional variations for local markets. The use of a modular production strategy reduced the time required on-set by enabling them to be repurposed across multiple how-to iterations, optimised local adoption of assets and extended the overall asset lifecycle.

The studio, reimagined

Today’s production studios aren’t just places to shoot – they’re end-to-end content ecosystems. At Hogarth, our global network of studios is built for high-volume, omni-channel production, offering:

• Adaptable modular sets
• Large-scale and micro-virtual production
• In-house post-production and VFX
• Remote viewing and live feedback for clients
• Sustainable practices like prop reuse and on-site product libraries

It’s no longer just a place to shoot – it’s an end-to-end content ecosystem designed for agility, efficiency and sustainability.

Walgreens Boots Alliance are one of our pioneering partners in moving towards an end-to-end, always-on content studio model, with super shoots across their annual Christmas gift guide and their roster of in-house health and beauty brands.

Anna-Louise Oliver, Head of Creative Production, No7 Beauty Company: “No7 Beauty Company has been partnering with Hogarth for six years and our collaboration has continually evolved. What began as a traditional production studio partnership has grown into something far more dynamic. Today, when a brief lands, we don’t default to traditional photography – we challenge our content studio to rethink the approach and explore smarter, more innovative ways to bring ideas to life. It’s this mindset of our retained team that transforms a studio into a true creative partner.”

By housing all our offerings under one roof, we enhance collaboration, eliminate unnecessary handovers, reduce travel-related emissions and accelerate time-to-market. Our studio spaces are built to meet the demands of always-on content and to adapt quickly to changing client needs.

Behind the scenes: where tech does the heavy lifting

While creativity takes the spotlight, technology does the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting. We use AI-assisted tools to optimise pre-production, dynamic scheduling to manage shoot days and cloud-based platforms for real-time collaboration and global asset access.

It means less time chasing approvals and more time creating. It also means marketers can track performance, localisation and usage rights all in one place. Tech-enabled production isn’t just faster – it’s smarter, more connected and infinitely more adaptable.

The bottom line

Super shoots aren’t just about producing content – they’re about unlocking a smarter way to create content that works harder. They save time, reduce waste, improve ROI and help brands stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of marketing.

At Hogarth, we’re helping our clients shift from fragmented siloes to a fully integrated production approach, from ad hoc to always-on. And with the best of WPP agencies collaborating as one team, we’re building content ecosystems that scale, flex and perform.

The era of fragmented content is over. To achieve true icon status, brands must embrace production strategy – and build a future where content works harder, smarter and faster.