Modernising Marketing
with Tim Dolan

Overall.  

COVID has accelerated a heightened priority around digital channels and self-service.  There is a new way of working.  Yes, this means a workforce largely working from home, but it has also brought more ceremonies and principles of agile working.  The video of our discussion can be found here:

It has been great to see some companies really stepping up and innovating and not just waiting it out.  They are looking for ways to offer their product differently, in some cases offering a different product altogether.  For example, there is an Arts Organisation that typically provides large events.  They did a rethink about their core reason for being around providing entertainment and education around music.  They are now innovating through providing new products around online training and using smaller live events. Here are a few of Tim’s Actionable Tips:

Want to implement a key aspect of agile working?  Implement the Retrospective.

Meet as a team and talk about what you are learning and want to bring along into the post COVID world.  Don’t forget what you are learning along the way.  This could apply to testing a new way of working, or around a learning from a project result.  It is just as valuable to learn what worked, as what didn’t work.

Want to know where you are on the Digital Maturity curve? Ask your Partners (Consultancies, Agencies, etc) 

If you want to do know where you are on your digital maturity curve, talk to the external partners you engage with to get their pov on your strengths and weaknesses. 

Want to accelerate up the Digital Maturity curve?  Go Broad before you Go Deep

Instead of going ‘deep’ on a specific area of digital – eg.  What is our TikTok strategy?  Go ‘broad’ by understanding what ‘going digital’ means for your marketing department and how it aligns with overall business strategy and objectives. Often going broad can mean reviewing processes, and collaborations with other departments, and a shared understanding of terms and priorities (notably with IT).

Want to implement a ‘test and learn’ mindset?  Executives need to drive it

Executives need to set expectations and targets and provide support along the way. This can mean defining a goal of a number of tests to be completed during a timeframe, with a combination of ‘big bets’ and smaller tests.  It also means executives need to create an environment where it is safe to fail.  The reality is, if you are running tests, some will fail.  Executives need to support when results are going bad and focus on lessons learned.

Pro Tip – Modernise the brief and briefing process.

The traditional brief needs to be modified to modern marketing.  This means incorporating testing and learning in the process – both in terms of highlighting hypothese that the project is looking to validate, and also leveraging lessons learned from the past to inform the brief. The briefing process also needs to change.  Bring in SMEs earlier to talk to capabilities that platforms may have that key stakeholders may not be across.  Brief in core project team and extended project team at the same time.  Use the meeting as an opportunity to clarify roles and responsibilities.