BEYOND DIGITAL TWINS
Consider a new product launch with two pack sizes and multiple language versions.
Packaging artwork is finalised and linked to an approved 3D pack structure. Rules determine the required outputs for each channel, such as a hero image, alternate angles, thumbnail crops, and one lifestyle scene from an approved library. Market variants generate language-specific pack versions via controlled versioning rather than manual recreation.
Outputs run through QA checks for claim accuracy, safe zones, and composition compliance. Approved assets are then published into the DAM with the correct metadata and naming conventions, ready for syndication and reuse. The outcome is speed with confidence, because variability is controlled and auditable.
Ownership is the unlock
A useful way to keep this discussion grounded is to ask a question many organisations cannot answer clearly today: who owns the system that turns product truth into content at scale?
In traditional production, ownership is spread across functions. Packaging teams own artworks, brand teams own guidelines, ecommerce teams own retailer requirements, and creative teams own execution. Synthetic pipelines make those boundaries visible, because rules must be written, assets must be maintained, and exceptions must be handled without restarting the process each time.
In practice, making this work is less about choosing tools and more about redesigning the operating model around a new kind of production system. That includes translating brand guidelines into enforceable guardrails, defining decision rights, and mapping how product truth (artwork, claims, variants) becomes content outputs (pack shots, angles, crops, formats) without creating new bottlenecks.
This is where ICP’s strategy and consultancy support is most valuable.
Not as an extra layer of process, but as a way to help organisations make the shift from project thinking to operational thinking. That typically means clarifying ownership across brand, packaging, legal, ecommerce, and creative teams; designing governance that scales (including exceptions and auditability); and reshaping creative operations so the pipeline can be adopted with confidence rather than resisted as “another way of working”.
This is where a joint model becomes interesting, not because it adds “more capability”, but because it reflects how the work needs to be structured. A studio function builds and maintains approved twins as a source of truth layer. A strategy function turns brand intent into guardrails, governance, and measurable outcomes. A technical function integrates systems and operationalises the pipeline so it behaves like production, not a project.