Nearly half (49%) of CMOs say their marketing operating models (MOMs) aren’t fit for purpose. This was one of the standout datapoints from the comprehensive and illuminating AAR Evolution of Marketing Operating Models Report published this year.
This is a problem that agencies and their creativity can play a pivotal role in solving.
Whether building a new marketing function from scratch or transforming an existing MOM, placing the creative heart and soul of the brand at the very centre of it from the outset is critical to its success.
“Proving marketing’s value to the board” was the number one concern raised by CMOs within the AAR’s report.
Having board level buy-in to the importance of a brand is only possible if the marketing function, and MOM which underpins it, are unambiguously dedicated towards the unwavering service of it. Only then can the full impact of brand in driving business performance be unlocked.
Designing a MOM without the creative core of the brand at the centre would be like designing a car without knowing what type of engine was going to be in it. How on earth would you be able to design the chassis, aerodynamics, suspension and transmission, without knowing how fast it was going to go or what fuel it was going to run on?
The creative core of a brand should ultimately be influencing every aspect of the MOM, from the acquisition and nurturing of talent to informing the right balance of agency vs in-house requirements. It can provide an anchor to internal ways of working, processes and data strategy. And, of course, it will also live and breathe outside of the internal ecosystem in the real world – through comms and marketing activity.
Some might argue that media should sit at the centre of the marketing model, given it typically takes the lion’s share of the budget. But this isn’t about who is at the centre but rather what. It’s about the strategically robust, versatile and transformational creative idea that everything else should be built around. Once that idea is in place, media and creative should work in lockstep to ensure the comms plan and creative destination are aligned. Without it, plans risk being short-term, disconnected, and hollow. You simply can’t build the right media plan without the right creative idea to inform it.
Aligning a marketing function and then ensuring the wider business is deeply connected to the creative vision of the brand is also an essential component to an agency’s survival.
The more we can stand alongside our clients and demonstrate the role of brand in driving business transformation, the easier it is for us to collectively demonstrate value back to those clients when it’s expressed within ads. As authors, architects and creative custodians of the brand, we must also become partners in building the operating model to deliver it.
The brand and agency partnerships that get this right will be the ones that thrive. The ones that don’t? They’ll have shiny new marketing models – which aren’t fit for purpose.
Jonny Tennant-Price is managing director of Grey London.
