APR Unveils Brand Transformation to Revolutionise Marketing Investment Optimisation

​APR, the global consultancy that launched the production consulting category in 2000, has revealed its next evolution of comprehensive enhancement across their entire service portfolio, positioning themselves as the world's first AI-native creative production advisory helping brands optimise marketing investment across the content supply chain. The strategic evolution, marking the company's 25th anniversary, is a continued dedication to revolutionising how brands leverage data to drive smarter, more agile decisions across their entire marketing landscape.

The transformation comes as organisations worldwide face mounting pressure from technological disruption and geopolitical factors, requiring fundamental shifts in marketing spend allocation and strategy. APR addresses these challenges by a planned integration of advanced analytics, automation tools, and AI-powered insights platforms across every aspect and tier of the content supply chain. This approach augments the expertise of APR's best-in-class global talent who bring deep production knowledge and strategic insight to every client engagement. 

"For 25 years, APR has defined and redefined what it means to optimise marketing production investments," said Jillian Gibbs, APR founder, CEO and author, who coined the term ‘Production Consultant’ back in 1997. "Today's announcement represents our most significant evolution yet — one that harnesses the transformative power of technology in consulting services to deliver even greater value, speed, and strategic insights to our client’s content operations worldwide." 

The evolution also includes a strategic shift in brand identity. Previously known as Advertising Production Resources, the company now operates simply as APR, a change that reflects its expanded scope and vision. “APR’s services today span every aspect of the modern marketing ecosystem beyond traditional advertising, including who to work with and how to get the best work produced. Brands cannot afford to waste money or time," says Gibbs.

A Quarter-Century of Market Leadership Culminates in Innovation-First Reinvention

APR's evolution represents the culmination of 25 years of industry leadership and continuous innovation. The services that APR’s clients know and love continue to exist, but with expanded impact across platforms for high-fidelity brand videos and events, content engines designed for personalisation at scale, and content for creators, influencers and celebrities. APR is creating a new model for creative production consulting that delivers strategic insight aided by technology.  

Leading this transformation is Edmond Handwerker, chief marketing and innovation officer, who joined APR in 2024 and brings extensive award-winning experience from his roles as global and North America lead for GenAI marketing and content at Accenture Song and VP Content Americas at Starcom MediaVest Group, part of Publicis. Over the course of his career, Edmond has led and overseen broad scale digital transformations for clients that encompassed creative, content, data, media and AI. This most recent effort is a result of years of cumulative experience in a category ripe for reinvention. 

“The winning formula, from enterprises to brands, entails reimagining and empowering the content supply chain with rich data to maintain market relevance and competitive edge,” said Edmond. “With the advent and democratisation of AI and other rapidly accelerating innovations, it’s more critical now than ever for brands to actualise speed to value. Our network of domain expertise, proprietary data platform ACERO™, and suite of AI-powered tools help brands spend wiser, create smarter, and partner better." 

A critical component of APR's innovative approach is guiding clients through their own AI transformation journey. As an independent third party, APR helps brands understand the most efficient and effective ways to integrate AI into their creative production and content transformation initiatives, ensuring they can accelerate innovation, mitigate risks, and achieve superior outcomes while maintaining creative integrity and brand consistency. APR’s independent standing in the industry continues to remain committed to utmost transparency ensuring the best companies are awarded contracts.

As part of the transformation, Edmond has also spearheaded the launch of APR's reimagined brand image and website, designed to highlight the company's core strengths and marketplace leadership while serving as a thought leadership platform. The company's new logo features a star, symbolising both APR's role as a North Star for clients navigating complex marketing challenges and its commitment to helping brands achieve their own strategic north stars. The new digital experience aims to arm the industry with critical insights and resources needed to navigate rapidly shifting marketplace demands. 

"Our core expertise continues to set the bar in our industry, and we're excited to share our thinking to help elevate the entire ecosystem together," said Edmond, whose vision for reinvention continues to extend across APR’s people, process, and technology initiatives.

Comprehensive Reinvention Across All Service Lines

APR's offerings extend across its entire center of excellence, enhancing governance and transparency across the content landscape, including: 

• Director/producer-led video productions 
• Digital web, app development
• Social and eCommerce  
• Creator/Influencer marketing 
• Experiential/events marketing 
• Post-production and transcreation/adaptation
• Music and audio production 
• Gaming, VFX and CGI content 
• Print media, photography, and more

The integration will include, but is not limited to: 

• ACERO™ Enhancement - APR's proprietary data platform, with an enhanced innovation roadmap, benchmarking over $1 billion in annual spend and growing 
• Supplier Intelligence Program to match clients with ideal production partners and agencies through RFP’s and preferred partners 
• Automation Tools streamlining workflow and production processes 
• Agentic Creative Production Consulting enabling deeper bid review analysis 
• AI Integration Roadmaps customised for each client's unique production ecosystem and maturity level 
• AI-Powered Insights Platforms providing real-time intelligence across the content supply chain 

Continued Commitment to Innovation and Sustainability

As part of its transformation, APR is implementing enterprise-wide integration of tools to enhance research, workflow, and client delivery, all with expert human oversight. The company is also piloting new technologies in closed-ecosystem sandboxes for accelerated learning, marketplace relevance, and client recommendations. 

"Our evolution isn't just about technology, it's about empowering our 140+ global client and delivery team members with the tools and training they need to deliver exceptional value," added Erin Wilhoite, chief client officer. "Through our proprietary internal training libraries and continuous upskilling initiatives, we're ensuring our talent remains at the forefront of both creative production expertise and AI innovation." 

APR's transformation also reinforces its commitment to sustainability. As a women-founded and women-owned company, APR maintains board presence with key industry organisations including IAA North America, and EPIC (Earth Public Information Collaborative), as well as deep seated partnerships with the ANA, AdNetZero US and UK, AdGreen, and more.