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For Chief Operating Officers

Design as a Service for COOs

Creative production is one of the most operationally inefficient functions in most businesses — unpredictable costs, inconsistent output, and significant management overhead. TDS replaces it with a fixed monthly subscription, measurable output, and zero design team management.

Fixed
Monthly cost — no scope creep, no variable billing
48hr
Standard SLA on production briefs
Monthly
Output reporting aligned to your KPIs
0
Employment overhead — no super, leave, or recruitment
The COO challenge

Why is creative production operationally difficult?

Creative functions are notoriously resistant to operational discipline. The reasons are structural — and they compound as the business scales.

Unpredictable creative costs

Agency project fees escalate with scope. Freelancer hours are hard to cap. In-house designer capacity is fixed regardless of demand. The result is a creative budget that is consistently over or under spent — and difficult to forecast with confidence.

High management overhead

Managing a creative function — whether in-house, agency, or freelancer — consumes significant management time. Brief reviews, feedback cycles, quality control, invoice processing, and vendor management are overhead costs that are rarely quantified but consistently significant.

No clear output metrics

Most creative functions cannot answer basic operational questions: How many assets did we produce last month? What was the cost per asset? What is our average turnaround time? Without metrics, the function cannot be optimised — and its commercial value cannot be demonstrated.

Capacity that doesn't match demand

In-house teams are fixed. Agencies are contracted. Freelancers are unpredictable. None of these models scales naturally with campaign demand, product launches, or seasonal peaks — leaving the business either over-resourced in quiet periods or under-resourced at critical moments.

The TDS solution

A creative operations model built for operational rigour

TDS is designed to satisfy the operational requirements that other creative models cannot meet: fixed cost, predictable output, measurable performance, and scalable capacity.

01

Fixed, predictable monthly cost

One invoice. One amount. Every month. All briefs, revisions, and deliverables are included in the subscription. There are no additional project fees, no hourly overruns, and no scope change negotiations. Budget certainty is built into the model.

02

Measurable output reporting

TDS provides monthly output reports covering deliverables produced, turnaround SLA performance, revision cycles, and cost-per-asset. Reports can be configured to your operational KPIs and used directly in board-level reporting to demonstrate creative function ROI.

03

Zero employment overhead

No superannuation, no leave entitlements, no equipment costs, no performance management, no recruitment fees. TDS is an operational expenditure, not headcount — simplifying resource planning and eliminating the risks associated with creative hiring.

04

Defined SLAs and throughput

TDS operates to contractual turnaround SLAs — 48 business hours for standard assets, defined timelines for complex deliverables. These SLAs are tracked, reported, and form the basis of the monthly performance review.

05

Scalable without renegotiation

Unlimited briefs means volume surges are absorbed without additional cost or contract changes. Subscription tier adjustments (scaling up or down) require 30 days notice — not a legal review or lengthy commercial negotiation.

06

Single vendor, full scope

TDS covers brand, campaign, social, presentation, motion, video, web, and strategy under one subscription. Consolidating creative production into a single vendor relationship simplifies procurement, reduces invoice volume, and eliminates the coordination cost of managing multiple creative suppliers.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

How does TDS make creative operations more predictable?
TDS replaces variable agency fees, freelancer invoices, and headcount costs with a single fixed monthly subscription. All creative output is included in the subscription cost. This eliminates scope creep, surprise invoices, and the budget variance that makes creative the most unpredictable line item in many marketing budgets.
What reporting does TDS provide for operational oversight?
TDS provides monthly output reports covering: deliverables produced, turnaround SLA performance, revision cycle data, and cost-per-asset calculations. Reports can be configured to align with your operational KPIs and presented in a format suitable for board-level review.
How does TDS handle capacity during peak periods?
TDS subscriptions are designed to absorb brief volume surges. There is no cap on the number of briefs in the queue. For Scale and Custom tier subscribers, additional production capacity can be activated within 24 hours for major campaign launches or seasonal peaks — without renegotiating scope or contract terms.

Further Reading

Learn
Creative Ops Guide
Insights
COO Creative Operations Handbook
Insights
Creative Velocity Index
Ready to start

Make creative operations
as predictable as every other function.

Book a 30-minute strategy call. We'll map your current creative model, quantify the operational cost, and show you the TDS alternative.