Most teams try to make progress in marketing by adding more – more content, more tools, more steps. In our experience, better work often comes from how you work: who you involve, where you experiment and what you strip away. Three ideas we keep coming back to are co-creation, sandboxing and simplifying the stack.
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Co-create content, don’t just ship it

One of the most effective shifts we’ve made is creating content with our network, not just for them. It started with a campaign for Taylor Wessing where we invited a mix of clients, prospects and interesting voices into the process. Some we knew well; others were fresh contacts. The collaboration opened doors a cold email never would. In B2B, everyone’s competing for time. Co-creating gives people a reason to engage and a valuable asset to share.
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Use your agency as a sandbox

Big organisations don’t always have the freedom to test new formats or tools. Governance, procurement and IT can slow good ideas to a crawl. An agency can create a safe sandbox: pilot a format, trial a platform, or explore a different narrative without changing your entire stack. That’s why we lean into platforms like Foleon, Turtl and Shorthand. We don’t use these tools because they are shiny – they let teams move at a different pace. At Rostrum, we’re not a tech consultancy, but experimentation is part of our role – we’re all about helping clients try something new, quickly and with support.
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Trim the stack to what actually helps

A crowded martech stack can become a job in itself. The key question teams must be asking is “what removes friction?”
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Use what works, cut what doesn’t, and be realistic about needs versus hype. Keep a minimum viable stack you can actually maintain (for long-form, interactive storytelling, we’ve found Shorthand earns its place – it helps teams move beyond static PDFs and keep audiences engaged).
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Make merch worth keeping

At events, there’s always the “what should we give out?” moment. Merch can still be great if it’s intentional. The rules are simple: make it useful, make it well-made, and don’t make it embarrassing to carry. Our Rostrum coffee cups have worked because people actually used them. Another agency’s plush octopus sounded ridiculous on paper, but it was memorable and people loved it.
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And remember, tote bags only work if they’re decent quality; notebooks only if they don’t fall apart. Thoughtful, quality items beat clever ones – and importantly avoid landfill.
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Bring it together

Co-creation deepens relationships. Sandboxing accelerates learning. Simplifying keeps teams focused. None of this is complicated, but done consistently it changes outcomes.
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If you’d like help setting up a co-creation programme, building a safe sandbox for new formats, or simplifying your content stack, the Rostrum team can help. Reach us at hello@rostrum.agency

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