How Ricoh APAC launched faster, cut costs, and unified content creation across 11 countries 

After decades as a leading producer of cameras, multi-function printers, and electronic office equipment, Ricoh has now become a digital transformation powerhouse, delivering digital services, including hybrid workplace solutions, cloud services, and cybersecurity, to help their customers optimize business performance and transform their workspaces.

The problem

Ricoh APAC needed a new way to unify people and operations and looked toward 2X’s next-generation operating model to manage end-to-end content production.

• Inconsistent brand and visual identity across 11 APAC operating countries (OpCos) and other regional teams with siloed content production contributed to mixed messaging.
• A lack of standardization across workflows and processes led to duplicate, wasted efforts internally and higher agency spending.

How Ricoh APAC partnered with 2X

Challenge 1: Wasted efforts and the lack of creative standardization

Solution: Create a standardized template to enable cohesive brand experiences

2X reviewed all marketing and sales assets pertaining to Ricoh’s digital solution portfolio. Language and aesthetics varied across the APAC region, while storytelling remained heavily product-orientated and focused on legacy solutions. 2X worked to unify style and messaging whilst coordinating with Ricoh APAC’s 11 OpCos to support all standardization efforts.

2X’s designers refined and unified Ricoh APAC’s visual identity across multiple channels and asset types (solution pages, ebooks, product specification sheets, videos, social media posts, and more).

2X’s writers worked on incorporating the new messaging into a mix of new and refreshed assets.

Challenge 2: Lack of workflows to execute rebranding strategies

Delays were common in Ricoh APAC’s creative process—with different subject matter experts, OpCo-level stakeholders, executive and product teams, and service marketing teams all involved at various stages of development. Lack of stakeholder visibility and ad-hoc workflows contributed to lengthy review times and multiple revision rounds.

Solution: Deploy a centralized content creation engine to implement standardized workflows

2X helped to lay the groundwork for establishing a single source of truth for the 11 OpCos by setting up new workflows and processes supported by a dedicated account manager and expert team.

Template and workflow standardization increased alignment between 11 OpCos, improving speed-to-market and brand consistency.

Set up visible workflows for both Ricoh APAC’s internal teams and 2X to monitor task progress—streamlining processes, from requests to approvals, for collaterals to be used across GTM campaigns.

Ricoh APAC turned to 2X to supplement in-house capability and expand the capacity of their Marketing and Communications team. Together, the Ricoh APAC and 2X team built a content creation engine through a dynamic partnership that encouraged high-level creativity and seamless collaboration.

2X’s impact

2X delivered a full suite of fresh, standardized templates across marketing and sales enablement materials and channels.

With 2X owning end-to-end production, Ricoh APAC’s now streamlined marketing creatives helped to strengthen the story around digital transformation, new areas of expertise and the company’s digital service offerings.

• 355 assets in less than 1.5 years
• 26 deliverables in the first 90 days
• 11 OpCos supported through brand alignment

A next-generation operating model for content creation

Hiring, onboarding, and training a full-time in-house team to standardize and centralize content production would have taken Ricoh APAC an average of six to 18 months.

Naturally, standard agencies would be another alternative. But with agencies downsizing or restructuring completely, it’s a business model long overdue for transformation.

• According to Forbes, agency-client relationships now average less than three years, down from 7.2 years previously (Forbes, January 2023)
• Content and creative-focused agencies can charge USD $50-60K a month to run content marketing campaigns in more complex, high-competition verticals (Hudgens, Ross, Siege Media, March 2023)
• Forrester states that U.S. agencies dedicate up to 17% of annual revenue to pursuing new business, with costs passed down to current clients, funding the agencies’ new business efforts (Forrester, May 2023)

In today’s “do more with less” climate, there is a third alternative: marketing as a service (MaaS). 2X’s MaaS model is a flexible, agile approach to scaling content marketing efforts as needed and according to demand or in times of economic uncertainty.

MaaS for centralized B2B content creation

Onboarding and Training

While hiring, onboarding, and training in-house teams takes an average of 6 to 18 months, 2X ramps up in 30 days on average. We swiftly implement actionable frameworks, leverage 900+ B2B best practices, and tap into deep creative expertise across different industries to produce impactful content faster.

Investment

It costs AUD $600-826K annually for a team of 8 to 10 internal creatives in Australia, while in the U.S., the average investment for a team comparable in size amounts to approximately USD $745,236*.

Partnering with a MaaS vendor costs 30-50% less than U.S. in-house teams and nearly 70% less than traditional agencies—benefiting from a unique operating model that leverages offshore economics and world-class B2B-driven creatives.

Capacity and Scope

MaaS provides full-stack B2B creative competencies (promotional campaign creative, core asset creation, branding, video scripting and editing, etc.) and is able to enforce overall content governance guidelines to drive brand consistency—allowing internal teams to focus on high-level strategy while devoted FTEs handle non-core but crucial creative operations.

*The first projected investment for an internal team was determined by evaluating the aggregate annual salaries for a team of eight to 10 internal creatives located in Australia within the APAC region. Meanwhile, the second calculation averages total costs for a team of similar size in the U.S., utilizing salary data sourced from reputable platforms such as SEEK, Payscale, Indeed, and various salary reports.