Building a single operating view for a growing creator agency
A creator management agency was scaling quickly, but the information needed to run the business was spread across disconnected records and manual processes. We redesigned how the agency captured its operational data, centralised it in Airtable and built the reporting needed to manage the business clearly.
- One operating system
- for creator, commercial and content data
- Commercial performance
- revenue, creator LTV and portfolio performance
- Automated tracking
- of incoming creator content
- In active use
- by the agency's operations team
Growth without a shared operating picture
The agency was scaling quickly and managing a growing roster of social media creators. Its operating information had not grown with the business. Creator records, commercial data and content activity lived in different places and were maintained in different ways.
The operations team could keep the work moving, but answering basic management questions required pulling information together manually. Commercial visibility, including revenue and creator lifetime value (LTV), depended on the right person finding and reconciling the right records. The same problem affected creator activity and content tracking.
This was not simply a reporting gap. The agency needed a consistent way to capture information before it could trust the view produced from it.
Agency operations data
One management view
Designing the operating model first
We started by mapping the decisions the agency needed to make and the information those decisions relied on. That showed which records belonged together, who should maintain them and where the existing process created uncertainty or duplicate work.
From there, we designed a common structure for creators, commercial activity, revenue, creator LTV and content. We also defined the forms and working tables the operations team would use, so information entered the system consistently instead of needing to be cleaned up later.
Airtable became the operating layer because it gave the team a practical place to manage the process directly. The value came from the data model and working rules around it, not from moving the same fragmented information into another tool.
One system for operations and management
We built the new operating system in Airtable around connected creator, commercial and content records. Dedicated forms made routine updates easier for the operations team, while controlled tables kept the underlying data consistent.
We then built an analytical dashboard over the same source. Management could see revenue, creator LTV, portfolio performance and creator activity without assembling a separate report or asking the team to reconcile several files.
Because the dashboard and day-to-day process share one data model, the management view changes as the team works. Reporting is now part of the operating process rather than an extra exercise at the end of it.
Agency operations data
One management view
Connected records
Creator, commercial, performance and content information follows one structure instead of being maintained as separate versions of the business.
Clear operating ownership
Forms and working tables give the operations team a defined way to keep each part of the system current.
Management visibility
The dashboard turns live operating records into a consistent view of commercial performance, creator LTV and content activity.
Removing manual content tracking
Creators uploaded a high volume of files for the internal team to review. Operations staff had to keep checking for new submissions, save the files correctly and count what had arrived before they could report on content activity.
We automated that process with Google Apps Script. The system monitors the relevant folders, detects new files, records them against the right creator and makes the submission available to the agency's reporting process.
The operations team no longer has to build the content count by hand. They can focus on reviewing what was submitted and dealing with exceptions, while routine monitoring and recording happen automatically.
What changed
The agency now runs its core creator operations from one connected system. The operations team has a clear process for maintaining information, and management has a current view of the commercial and creator data needed to run the business.
Automated file monitoring has removed a large amount of repeated checking, saving and manual counting from the content workflow. New submissions feed the same operating view used by the wider team.
The system and dashboard are actively used across the agency's operations today.