How AAB Maintains Premium Brand Standards Across Multiple Companies Without Hiring

Who are AAB?

AAB is a leading accountancy and business advisory firm operating across the UK. As part of a larger group managing 10 distinct brands, AAB delivers comprehensive professional services spanning accounting, tax, wealth management, HR, and business consulting to clients throughout the country.

With a team of over 500 employees and a reputation built on expertise and client service, AAB supports businesses and individuals with complex financial and advisory needs. The firm has been on a rapid growth trajectory over recent years, expanding both organically and through strategic acquisitions.

Company Size

501-1000

Industry

Capital Markets / Financial Trading

The Problem

AAB's marketing team of 10 people faced a challenge that threatened to undermine their ambitious growth plans: none of them were graphic designers.

As the Digital Marketing Manager pushed forward with lead generation campaigns across multiple brands, the team was drowning in design work they weren't equipped to handle.

The marketing team was running sophisticated LinkedIn campaigns for AAB and several group brands including AAB Wealth, Think People (HR services), and FPM (their Irish operation). Each campaign required 5-6 ad variations plus accompanying documents like eBooks and guides—all of which needed professional design treatment to match AAB's premium brand positioning.

Their team was creating everything in Canva. While some team members had better design instincts than others, the reality was stark: marketing professionals were spending hours struggling with design software instead of focusing on strategy and campaign management.

The consequences were mounting:

Endless revision cycles - Without proper design expertise, ads went through multiple drafts before they were acceptable, with the Digital Marketing Manager trying to provide guidance despite not being a graphic designer herself
Inconsistent quality across brands - With 10 different brands to manage and varying skill levels across the team, maintaining visual standards was nearly impossible
Time drain on strategic work - Marketing professionals were spending their days pushing pixels instead of analyzing campaign performance, optimizing targeting, or developing strategy
Brand perception risk - For a professional services firm advising high-value clients, amateur-looking marketing materials undermined their premium positioning
Scaling limitations - As the business grew and campaign volume increased, the design bottleneck was becoming a genuine barrier to expansion

The team needed professional design capacity that could handle their high volume of LinkedIn ads and document design—but without the £50,000+ annual cost and management overhead of hiring an in-house designer.

The Solution

AAB partnered with Design Cloud on the Agency plan, gaining access to a dedicated UK-based graphic designer who handles their LinkedIn ad creative and document design work on an ongoing basis.

The transition from Canva to professional design was immediate. Instead of marketing team members spending hours struggling with design software, they now simply brief their dedicated designer with campaign requirements and receive polished, professional work back within one business day for straightforward ad sets.

Design Cloud's dedicated designer model solved their consistency problem entirely. Working with the same designer daily means AAB's brand guidelines are thoroughly understood and applied consistently across all 10 brands. The designer has learned the nuances of each brand's visual identity, understands their target audiences, and delivers work that reflects AAB's premium market position.

For their high-volume LinkedIn campaigns—which typically require 5-6 ad variations per campaign plus accompanying lead magnets—the structured delivery process provides the predictability the marketing team desperately needed. Simple ad sets are delivered next business day, while more complex document redesigns (like adapting A4 documents for mobile-optimized LinkedIn document ads) are delivered progressively with daily updates.

The platform centralizes all design requests and communication in one place. The Digital Marketing Manager submits briefs, tracks progress, and provides feedback without the scattered email threads and version control nightmares that plagued their Canva workflow. Multiple team members can access the platform if needed, but it remains primarily managed by one person to maintain focus.

Most importantly, Design Cloud has freed the marketing team to focus on what they do best. Instead of wrestling with design software, they now spend their time on campaign strategy, analyzing performance data, optimizing audience targeting, and driving the results that matter for AAB's growth.

The flexibility to scale provides insurance for future growth. When campaign volume spikes during busy periods or new brand launches, AAB can temporarily add a second designer for a single month, then return to their baseline capacity—providing enterprise-level resource flexibility without the overhead of permanent hires.