Uxbridge-based pre-media specialist Magnet Harlequin is part of the £72m turnover Writtle group of companies, which includes a number of marketing services businesses including design and creative agencies.
Although Writtle has a decentralised model with the individual businesses operating independently, Magnet Harlequin has been piloting a new integrated offering during 2017 encompassing its services alongside those of Williams Murray Hamm, Identica, WMHAdaptive, Studio4, MagLabs, and Technik.
The offering has now been formally rolled out, under the banner of MH Group, which has a separate website at the-mhgroup.com.
“Clients are all saying the same thing. More than ever there is pressure to be faster, cheaper, better with quicker go-to-market. They are looking for more efficiency on all sides,” explained executive chairman Alan Wright.
“Getting a job from idea to press is a complex process. Within Writtle we have all the constituent parts, and we can identify and simplify that, taking time out of the process and therefore costs out of the process too.”
MH Group has dubbed it the ‘Smart Studio’, with services encompassing strategy, imagery, innovation, creative, production, activation, technology and compliance through its Global Brand Control offering.
Clients can choose to use part, or all, of the offering and can view a project’s status using a dashboard of analytics.
“The automation piece in the middle of these services protects brand integrity and creates a truly concept-to-consumer deliverable,” added group development director Jamie Richards. “Technology helps knit it together, and the systems that underpin the process drive efficiency.”
The group works for a host of blue-chip customers and has long-standing relationship with many of them. Its clients include John Lewis, Asprey, B&Q, M&S, Arcadia and Estée Lauder. It has particular expertise in the fields of packaging, instore and cross-media.
Wright and Richards said that, compared with using a fragmented supply chain improved speed to market was delivering customer savings of as much as 20%.
“It’s all for the common good of our clients. Our clients are at the centre and everything flows from that,” Wright added.
The MH Group of businesses employs 255 people, and Wright expects this to increase to around 300 by the end of 2018. He described 2017 as “a very upbeat year”.
