Your shiny new advertising campaign might have sunk before it’s launched. This article will explain what traditional marketing teams can learn from Agile tech companies.

What the heck is Agile?

Agile is a project management technique pioneered by software development companies around the world. Born out of a frustration with the traditional approach to web development known as Waterfall, Agile has given the industry a much-needed shake-up.

With Waterfall, progress on a project flows steadily downwards until the project is complete. This is a sequential process so, like a waterfall, you can’t easily go back to begin again from a previous point when the requirements need to change. If you do it’s going to be expensive and cause further delays. With Agile, working features are developed quickly, responding and adapting along the way. The end result is a robust app or site with features that users actually need.

Is traditional marketing already Agile?

In a traditional above the line marketing campaign the journey goes something like this:

  • Client gives a brief
  • Agency develops an internal brief
  • Creative team presents some ideas
  • Client gives feedback
  • Rinse and repeat until the chosen concept is finally developed and the campaign is ready to launch.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

In reality we might be talking about three months for this journey to complete. At the same time the media agency needs to plan and buy the media. With the larger channels such as outdoor or TV you might be looking at three more months to make sure you can get the audience share you need.

There’s nothing Agile about the above process. In our social-driven world last week’s news is old hat, let alone a vision from three months ago. And let’s be honest, we’re probably not the only ones who’ve had that particular idea – or in modern advertising parle: a dancing pony or pan pipes playing pointer.

So how can an Agile or responsive approach to marketing help?

Let’s just recap on the end goal of an Agile software development project: To quickly develop quality features that users need. In a marketing context this goal should be to quickly deliver interactions that enhance a customer’s experience of the brand.

Sounds good, but how does it work in practice?

So with a traditional marketing campaign the client might decide they want to spend most of their annual budget on a TV campaign. As we covered earlier, the process will likely take at least three months to complete and by the time the campaign airs, the big idea might no longer be relevant or, worst case scenario, have already been done. Massive Fail.

With Agile that same budget could be used to develop 10 different campaigns throughout the year. Smaller self-managing teams work together using Agile techniques to quickly develop campaigns that are timely and relevant. The campaigns are tested with real customers, adapted and either developed if they have potential or stopped if not.

Social media is the perfect playground for Agile marketing. Rather than going straight to big-budget TV, different creative concepts can be tested via Facebook or YouTube. If the audience likes them, the campaign will go viral and you may find you don’t need an expensive TV campaign after all.

 

By Nick Vowles, Head of Marketing at Bright Interactive. 

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