Building strong foundations

Sector: Retirement Living / Housebuilding
Duration: Ongoing Partnership (5+ Years)

Overview

McCarthy Stone is the UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities, with 718 managed sites and eight divisional teams. As their marketing operations scaled, they faced a growing challenge: managing high-volume, multi-channel campaigns—across print, digital, outdoor, and direct marketing whilst maintaining brand consistency, speed, and cost efficiency.

With over 100 active users and 21 system integrations, McCarthy Stone needed a centralised solution to unify their marketing workflow, eliminate bottlenecks, and empower local teams to produce content quickly and confidently.

That’s where Curious came in.

Our Solution

Curious partnered with McCarthy Stone to design and implement a custom fully integrated MarComms Production Platform that has brought every stage of campaign creation into one place.

The platform streamlined processes across all eight divisions, giving teams the tools they needed to create, manage, and approve marketing assets at scale.

Key features included:

• Centralised Branded Portal & Content Library
  Ensuring all teams accessed approved, on-brand assets to drive consistency across every touchpoint.
• Automated Briefing & Comms Builder
  Simplifying campaign setup and reducing manual admin through guided workflows.
• Integrated Online Approvals
  Tiered stakeholder sign-off, real-time visibility, and full version control to reduce delays and keeping projects on track.
• Automated Artwork Production
  Accelerating delivery timelines without compromising on quality.
• Real-Time Dashboards & Reporting
  Providing transparency and insight to inform smarter marketing decisions.
• Seamless System Integrations
  Connecting with the clients existing technology to ensure alignment with live site data and development phases.

The Results

The platform delivered a step-change in efficiency, consistency, and performance across McCarthy Stone’s marketing operations:

• 64% reduction in revisions, enabling faster campaign rollouts and reduced project costs
• 1-hour average turnaround from brief to first approval
• 15,000+ briefs processed, with over 270 new briefs per month
• Enhanced brand consistency across all regions and channels
• Data-driven insights enabling smarter, more efficient marketing decisions

The Impact

By reimagining the way McCarthy Stone manages and delivers marketing content, Curious helped transform a complex, fragmented process into a streamlined, scalable operation, empowering teams to focus on creativity and strategy, not admin.

Together, we’ve built a future-ready foundation for continuous growth.