Missouri were founded in 2013 by Stu Wood and Paul Brennan, two experienced designers and creative directors. Over the years they’d carved out a reputation for brilliant creative execution in “the last three feet”, those brand activations and point of sale activities that were as close as possible to the moment of consumption. They had a particular focus on drinks brands, and their enviable client list included Glenlivet, Beefeater, Jameson, Campari and Carlsberg.

Stu and Paul are both brilliant and instinctive strategic thinkers. But some problems needed to be broken down strategically in a more explicit way to be tackled properly, and some clients found it difficult to accept that a great creative solution could come from an instinctive leap.

So, Missouri were looking for a strategic process that they could take clients through that would help clients feel secure that the destination was the right one, that would help them to tackle larger and more complex problems, and that would be the catalyst for great creative ideas.

The challenge was to take their existing distinctive approach and grow a tangible, legible process out of it – without turning it into a slog, creating something that didn’t feel “Missouri”, or killing the creativity.

I dived deep into past proposals and strategic presentations to understand how Missouri had approached projects in the past.

I conducted stakeholder interviews across the business, to get as many perspectives as possible.

I identified the points in the process where strategy could add the most value.

I then took a device that they’d used in the past – Missouri Maths – and gave it a little more structure and rigour, allowing it to be used as a tool everywhere, whether that’s a proposal, a pitch, or an in-depth brand strategy process. It was both a process and a client-friendly, ownable expression of that process.

Finally, I stress-tested and evolved the approach by putting it into practice on several client briefs and pitches, all of which were successful.

• In-depth strategy workshops that gave the whole team a chance to input and align on what the agency’s strategy offer and process should be

• A clearly defined strategy process

• An explanation of that process for use in credentials presentations and proposals