Bootcamp Recap: 3 Great Group Exercises

Last week we hosted our third Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp in Toronto.  Like our previous events, the Bootcamp was sold-out and attended by a fantastic mix of folks from client-side marketing departments, agency account/planning teams, and freelance/start-ups.  Having such a diverse group of participants makes the day so much more enjoyable and valuable, particularly for the group exercises.  This aspect is mentioned often by participants in their post-event surveys, which I proudly post online and unfiltered here.

 

For this past event, we incorporated three different exercises for participants to apply the curriculum and to learn from each other.  I was very pleased with how the exercises worked out, as we had great engagement and some terrific ideas.  Below is a snapshot of the exercises that were used, some of which you may want to consider incorporating into your own organizations and project work.

 

Exercise 1: Customer Problems

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate how focusing on a specific customer problem can lead to new types of service solutions that are enabled by technology.  Participants are split into groups and assigned different brands, customer personas, and contextual goals.  They are then instructed to identify a specific problem to solve—something that this persona finds particularly challenging or annoying in achieving their goal.  Participants then invent, sketch, and name a new digital service to address this narrow and tightly defined problem.  This exercise reinforces the importance of designing solutions based on real (and often overlooked) customer problems, and exploring functional service solutions (as opposed to strictly communication ideas).  Based on a few of the participant sketches below, it also gives marketers a newfound appreciation for UX designers :-)

Exercise 2: Customer Moments

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate how exploring a customer’s journey to accomplish a goal can lead to new moments for engagement.  Participants are again given brands, personas, and contextual goals and are instructed to explore what is happening before, during, and after a particular event.  They then focus in on key moments where there may be an opportunity to reduce a point of friction or introduce a new moment of delight.  Participants then determine how digital technology/media may be used to address this moment, by identifying the opportunity, the tactic, and the appropriate digital channel.  This exercise highlights the opportunities that marketers have to engage with customers in new ways at different (and often overlooked) moments over time and the possibilities of connecting different tactics and touchpoints more elegantly.  Filling in Opportunity Cards also stimulates a valuable discussion among participants to select the most appropriate set of digital activation channels.

Exercise 3: Client Objectives

My favourite group exercise comes at the end of the day (coinciding with the serving of cocktails!) is when our ‘guest client’ arrives.  This exercise is focused on having participants put all of the lessons of the day to use in order to solve a set of real-world marketing challenges. This time we had the awesome Carey Suleiman from WWF Canada as our client.  She inspired all of us with an overview of the great work that WWF Canada is doing and introduced the various marketing briefs.  After each team developed and presented solutions, Carey had the unenviable task of selecting a winner among some very innovative ideas, and awarding a prize (hello symbolically adopted animal plushies!)  Often when I conduct in-house training for clients, I will develop exercises based on brands outside of their own category.  It can be a great way to unshackle participant thinking, and explore new solutions.  We then have the opportunity to reflect back on how this new thinking can be applied back to their own brands and challenges—often with surprising relevancy.

Thank you again for all of those who attended the Bootcamp.  None of these exercises would have worked had it not been for your enthusiasm and teamwork!  For those interested in possibly attending a future event, I am currently scheduling a few more 2017 dates and will announce the details shortly.

Digital Strategy Challenge Questions

Am I even asking the right questions? 

 

A situation that I often come across when speaking with senior marketers is that they often feel unclear and/or unconfident in developing their digital marketing programs.  Since senior marketers are typically responsible for overseeing all aspects of their integrated marketing programs (among many other things), they do not have the time to get into the weeds and contribute heavily towards the different digital aspects of their marketing programs.  This lack of bandwidth, combined with a lack of regular exposure to new technology and trends can limit senior marketers.  Often, they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of (a) accepting the direction of their agencies/teams without challenge or (b) challenging digital marketing decisions without confidence. 

 

A large part of the training that I provide is to equip such marketers with a greater level of competence and confidence in guiding their digital marketing strategies.  One transfer tool that I often use to in this area is a list of ‘Challenger Questions’.  These are strategic questions that senior marketers may ask their teams and/or agencies when developing a digital strategy.  The answers back should be clear and sound.  Digital Strategists may also ask themselves these questions, to ensure that their recommendations are complete and defensible (before their clients ask them first).  The following is a synthesis of a few Challenger Questions, some of which are focused on specific facets of digital marketing and others that are of a higher-order.

 

  

Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp: Recap

On October 20th, we hosted our second Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp in Toronto.  Despite a rainy day (preceded by the Blue Jays being eliminated the night before), we welcomed a particularly sunny group of 25 marketers to the sold-out event.  It turned out to be a really fun day that included smart discussions, great networking, and lots of fresh ideas.  Our yummy lunch at Pizza Libretto and the afternoon cocktails didn’t hurt, either.

The Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp is designed to provide agency and client-side marketers with a greater level of confidence and competence in the area of digital marketing strategy.  A significant portion of the curriculum includes strategic principles and strategic planning frameworks.  During the session, we reviewed how different principles and frameworks applied to well-known real-world examples.  By deconstructing these successful digital marketing programs as case studies, the group was better able to apply these tools into their own work.

The event is designed to be very interactive, as we always include a number of group activities throughout the day to apply the strategic principles and planning frameworks.  I am a big believer in getting people out of their seats and working together, as it gives everyone the opportunity to learn from each other and reinforces the need to work collaboratively to build marketing programs today.  The activities for this event focused broadly on customer-centric design, and we utilized personas created for the groups based on their own favourite brands.  From these personas, we were able to explore digital marketing opportunities based on both customer needs and customer moments.

To end the day, we again brought in a surprise ‘guest client’ for the class to work with in true Dragon’s Den-style.  Our client this time was the Toronto Symphony Orchestra!  Our awesome guests David Postill and Morag Johnson distributed a number of strategic briefs for the different groups to solve, using the lessons from the day.  David and Morag then had the unenviable challenge of judging the responses, and awarding a prize to the winner.  Luckily for all participants, our friends from the TSO channelled their inner Oprah Winfrey and gave everyone a free pair of tickets for an upcoming show. 

Overall, I was really pleased with the session and based on the post-event surveys the participants did as well.  On that note, I have decided to take my own advice and embrace the principle of transparency in marketing.  Going forward, I will be posting all of the post-event surveys that I receive online and unfiltered for anyone to see (you can access them here).  I know that marketers today have limited time and dollars for professional development and there are plenty of training options.  Hopefully by providing these ratings and comments by former participants will help folks make a more confident and informed decision. 

Finally, thanks again for everyone who attended the event—I loved your enthusiasm, ideas, and having the opportunity to meet you all. For those that have asked, I am planning another Bootcamp for early 2017 in Toronto and in Vancouver.  More on that later.  For now, thank you again for making this past event such a success.

Making Friends and Keeping Your First Job in Planning

There is a wonderful event taking place on October 21st-27th in Toronto called The Griffin Farley Search for Beautiful Minds.  The event is named after a Strategy Director who dedicated much of his time to helping aspiring planners, and died in 2013 of mesothelioma.  The event started in New York, and local planning wunderkind Margarita Marshall brought it to Toronto last year.  It is a great opportunity for young planners to network and practice their craft with the help of mentors, speakers, judges, and peers.  I love how this event honours someone who valued giving back, by providing a vehicle for others to do the same.

 

In the spirit of this event, I thought that I would share some perspective for young planners starting out in their first jobs (adding to my growing list of posts that I should tag “things I learned 10 years too late”). While good young planners all focus on trying to create strong insights and strategies, many do not focus enough—or in the right way—on how they relate to others in their agencies that they work with.

 

In a typical agency environment, a planner’s life is influenced (if not completely and absolutely controlled) by 3 different people: Account Directors, Creative Directors, and Planning Directors.  Many young planners relate to these different roles in ways that actually limit them in terms of what they are able to achieve and how they are perceived within their agencies.  Planners can be more successful if they can figuratively (and as seen below, illustratively) turn these relationships to be more mutually beneficial.

Creative Director

Creative Directors are under a great deal of pressure.  They are not only considered responsible for the creative output for their clients, but also for the creative reputation of their agencies (not to mention their own careers).  As a result, many agencies are structured, at least informally, so that everyone and everything services the creative idea.  For junior planners starting out, this can easily be interpreted as everyone and everything serves the Creative Director.  The trap here is to consider the Creative Director and their teams as The Client, which results in a barrier being placed between Planning and Creative.  This leads young planners to focus solely on building a polished insights deck to be handed off to the Creative Team or a single strategy set-up slide for a client creative presentation, with no meaningful collaboration.

 

As a young planner, you should reframe your relationship with Creative teams to be a Partnership.  You involve them in the development of insights and the brief, and you get involved in the ideation and refinement of creative ideas.  While establishing this partnership may be challenging and stressful in some agencies with tribe mentalities and rigid ways of working, it should nevertheless be your ambition.  Reframing your relationship with Creative Directors from the Client to a Partner will provide you with:

  • A better understanding of how your planning work can be most valuable and actionable for creative teams (by seeing how it is used, or ignored)
  • The ability to create stronger work through more critical feedback from Creative Directors (who are often very strong Planners)
  • The opportunity to become more connected to the work itself, and the overall success of the agency

 

Account Director

Account Directors have the most thankless job in an agency.  Everyday they are on the frontlines trying to balance how to make clients happy, make the agency money, create great work, lead account teams, pitch new prospects, and meet deadlines.  Since great Account Directors can balance all of this and more, internal teams constantly turn to them for answers and fixes for seemingly everything.  Seeing this, junior planners often consider Account Directors as their Guides and pepper them with a flood of clever questions (often in the form of carefully crafted 500-word emails) everyday and for every assignment.  This all makes a hard job even harder.

 

Instead of considering Account Directors as Guides, consider them your Clients.  Make it your job to make their lives easier, as their success is ultimately your success.  Find out what they need (not just what they ask for), how they like to work (not just what everyone else does), and what their personal goals are for their clients (not just project deadlines).  Earn their trust, meet your commitments, and genuinely help them succeed.  Reframing your relationships with Account Directors from a Guide to a Client will:

  • Create demand for your services, after all Account Directors are the ones ‘buying’ your time for their client work (and you need to keep busy)
  • Build your reputation, as Account Directors are influential figures in providing feedback and shaping how you are perceived in the agency
  • Provide you with important presentation opportunities to practice your front-of-the-room skills, as they control access to their clients

 

Planning Director

Now take this one with a grain of salt (or a spoonful, like everything else I write), but framing your relationship with your boss is critical and tricky.  Planning Directors in agencies often end up wearing a lot of different hats, but at the core of what they do is solve problems.  This can be through developing insights from research, facilitating opportunities through workshops, or creating POVs and strategic recommendations.  The trap here for young planners is to consider Planning Directors as Partners, as many are collaborative and are there to support their staff.  The result is that Planning Directors end up solving the problems that their young planners are working on, and are ultimately responsible for.

 

As a young planner, you should reframe your relationship with your Planning Director from a Partner to a Guide.  Utilize the experience of your Planning Director to help them direct your work, without making it their task to complete.  Arrive at your meetings with a draft for your Director to review (not a blank sheet), and pointed questions that you want their specific direction on.  Then leave, and do the work yourself.  Reframing your relationship with your Planning Director as a Guide is critical as it:

  • Ensures that you actually do the work and learn, as opposed to shifting responsibility to a ‘Partner’—cheating yourself out of the opportunity to solve the problem
  • Creates a more productive working relationship with your Planning Director, who is now able to focus on providing direction without the frustration of doing junior-level work
  • Builds your reputation as someone who loves to solve problems, which is what your Planning Director is looking for in the first place

 

So to you young planners with your Beautiful Minds, I hope this all makes some sense and serves you well.  I look forward to meeting a few of you at the event later this month.

Five Fave Frameworks

“It’s not about the boxes, it’s how you fill them in.”

 

I still remember this quote from a conversation I had with a colleague about strategic planning and using frameworks and facilitation tools.  While there is no replacing strong strategic acumen and rigor, having the right boxes to start with certainly helps.  Throughout my career, I have used a variety of different planning frameworks to structure how to approach a particular problem and to present solutions.  I have used a number of my own, many of which I have published here on my blog or in my newsletter.  I have also used a number of other frameworks that many great marketers, strategists, and professors have shared through their own publications.  Below are five of my favourites. 

 

I am a big fan of Strategyzer and their books Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design.  While they are best known for their Business Model Canvas, Strategyzer publishes a number of other planning tools that are very useful.  One is a simple set of cards that help marketers or product owners to effectively run tests. The Test Card and the subsequent Learning Card are great tools that force people to take the time to codify what they want to achieve in a test, and how the resulting learnings will be used constructively going forward. 

Another tool that Strategyzer has in the Value Proposition Design book appears simple, but is powerful (like all good frameworks, really).  It takes an ad-lib format and forces those developing a new product or service to very specifically and succinctly articulate its value proposition.  As a planning tool, it really cuts to the core and removes the linguistic-fluff that so often surrounds and clouds defining a new proposition.

 

Gamestorming is a book from Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo that is chock-full of exercises that facilitators can use across a number of different areas.  I picked Gamestorming up 5 years ago, and I still refer to it often when I’m considering how to structure workshops.  In addition to the 100+ exercises outlined, the book does a great job of explaining how to structure a collaborative session that diverges and converges.  I often refer to Dave Gray’s great illustration of this approach when communicating a plan for a workshop with a team.

101 Design Methods from Vijay Kumar is a fantastic resource for exploring different tools focused on the broad practice of innovation.  Like Gamestorming, it is a great resource to turn to for a skim in order to find that perfect tool for the planning job.  Here is a simple one that I have found really useful in framing trend research and analysis.  While much of my work focuses on digital trends, having a broader canvas to explore different aspects affecting a client’s business can be really useful and clear way to summarize research. 

 

The best book that I have read on how the discipline of CRM is evolving with the changing digital media landscape is Managing the New Customer Relationship by Ian Gordon.  One metaphor that Gordon uses is a Relationship Ladder, and he explores how marketers can move different customers into higher value segments (or rungs).  He captures this in a framework that focuses on what exactly makes a segment more valuable, including attributes which are not necessarily traditional or transactional in nature.

Well, those are a few of my favourites.  If you are interested in any of them, I highly recommend picking up the books as I am not really doing them justice in this post.  If you have any go-to frameworks or 'sets of boxes' that you use, I'd love to hear about them.

Kickframe Goes To The Movies

Earlier this summer, I had the privilege of providing in-house digital marketing training for the amazing folks at TIFF.  As a film nerd growing up in Toronto, this was a huge thrill for me.  I love picking my films for the Festival every year and spending time hanging around the Lightbox.  It was also thrilling for me to work with TIFF as a digital marketing nerd.  The organization has built TIFF into a strong and well-respected international brand, and is also a savvy digital marketer.  The content that they share through their digital platforms and social channels is very impressive (and addictive), see for yourself here.

 

One of the reasons that I was invited to TIFF was to talk about how brands can better integrate digital tactics more effectively within their overall marketing plans.  Many organizations find it challenging to ensure that all of their digital content, platforms, and activities (not to mention people and investments) are working together cohesively and align with a larger marketing strategy.  This challenge is compounded as digital touchpoints grow, marketing priorities change, and ownership of “digital” begins to be shared across the marketing organization.

 

There are a number of facets to tackling this challenge, but a good place to start is by ensuring that everyone is looking at digital marketing in the same way.  Investing the time to train teams to use common frameworks and terminology when planning digital marketing can dramatically improve communication and results.  Here is a simple slide that I used to propose how digital can be placed within a larger marketing context. 

It illustrates how digital marketing strategy must serve an overall marketing goal and strategy.  It also demonstrates how an effective digital strategy must provide structure for organizing tactics and measuring results.  Often these basic frameworks help to provide clear and common grounding for marketers to ‘connect the dots’ in digital and beyond.

Escaping the Digital Ghetto

At the beginning of all of my digital marketing training sessions, I ask participants to share why they enrolled in the first place.  The majority of students come from marketing positions and choose to attend as a way to advance their careers on a more digital trajectory.  However, there are some students that come from digital production backgrounds and are taking the session as a way to move into more strategic marketing roles without ‘digital’ necessarily in the title.  As one such student recently explained: “I’m taking this class to try and escape the digital ghetto”.

Now as someone who has spent many years working with/in “digital ghettos” (and looks forward to many more), I find this characterization extreme, but understand the point.  Breaking into more strategic and integrated marketing roles can be a challenge for someone with solely a digital production background.  Training can help, but there are a number of other important steps to take.  Over my career I have seen a number of colleagues successfully transition from tactical digital roles to increasingly senior integrated marketing positions.  Here are a few things that these folks had in common that helped them in their “escape”.

 

Become a bridge for integrated marketing

I once worked with a Digital Project Manager in an integrated agency that was passionate and knowledgeable about process and delivery.  She worked closely with other disciplines on integrated assignments and really shone through her collaborative approach that focused on the big picture, while artfully introducing new ways of working from her software development background (e.g. sprints, stand-ups, bug tracking, and other tricks of the trade from the “digital ghetto”).  She quickly earned the trust and respect of all of her colleagues, and is now the Head of Integrated Production.

 

A key challenge that continues to fester for many marketing organizations today is the ongoing schism between marketing teams and digital departments.  Many marketers view digital teams as “technology doers”, while many digital team members view marketers as neophytes that “don’t get digital”.  This messy cultural divide can actually provide you with a great opportunity to plan your escape.  As someone that knows digital production, you can be the bridge between departments and establish new ways of working and valuable relationships along the way.  Doing so will also allow you to demonstrate how your digital production experience, skills, and ways of working can transfer and benefit an integrated marketing context.  You can also help your marketing colleagues “get it” and learn something valuable, too. 

 

Create your path and fill the gaps

When I was running a Digital Strategy Department I hired a new Digital Analyst straight out of school.  While he was quickly learning the digital ropes, he made it clear that he would like to ultimately be involved in broader brand planning work.  Together we worked out a plan that, among other things, included him going back to school to take a non-digital marketing course on his own time over an 18-month period.  He completed the course, continued to develop his strategic chops, and is now a Planner at a leading integrated agency with a very bright future ahead.

 

Like any other goal, successful career planning starts with the end in mind.  Once this is clear, you need to honestly and objectively identify what you need to advance.  There will be gaps.  What experience do you lack?  What training do you need?  What relationships will help along the way?  Book meetings with people who have the job you want and get their advice.  Speak openly and constructively with your manager to understand how they will support you in transitioning from a digital production position to a new more strategic integrated marketing role, as this may be a new path.  Look elsewhere if they won’t. 

 

Always start with the business context

One of my all-time favourite creative collaborators started as a copywriter for digital advertising, but you would never know it from your briefings with him.  He was laser-sharp in his strategic questions and challenged any ambiguous or weak points in any briefing material.  Clearly, if he was going to invest his time in developing a solution, he needed to first clearly understand the challenge (he kept Planners up at night).  Senior managers across the agency took notice, and he quickly moved up the ranks to become an SVP/Creative Director at a large integrated agency.

 

If you want to be viewed as someone who is capable of contributing to marketing strategy, always begin your conversations, briefings, and planning meetings for digital assignments by focusing first on what the business is ultimately trying to accomplish.  Don’t rush to scope, timing, budget, or panic about executional details—this will place you firmly in the ‘doer’ box.  Take the time to demonstrate your appreciation and understanding for the business context for the project, and work down to the solution from there.  Your senior marketing colleagues will also take notice.

 

Friend, I wish you the best of luck with your escape.  Remember that you are always welcome back here with me, in the “digital ghetto”.

Presentation @ Service Design Toronto

A few months ago, Linn and Elina from Service Design Toronto invited me to give a talk at one of their great events.  Service Design is a fascinating field that shares plenty with the disciplines of User Experience and Customer Experience Design.  If you are interested in more background on how these fields relate, or just enjoy a good ‘ol messy Venn Diagram check out this Forrester post.

The focus of my presentation was on how to use customer experience mapping to identify insights that can lead to digital marketing opportunities, among other things.  I used my work with the TSO as a case study—an organization that is receiving well-deserved praise of late for truly embracing a digital-first approach to marketing.  I presented this work along with a few of my awesome collaborators on this project, Alex Grunwald and Rob Tilley.  It was a lot of fun.  If you’re interested in this type of thing, follow @servicedesignTO to find out about their next event and / or tap through our presentation below.

 

 

Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp: Recap

On May 12th, I hosted The Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp in Toronto.  After spending 5 years providing training directly to in-house clients, this marked the first time that I opened up a session to the public and managed all aspects of the experience.  The event was hosted at Brightlane, along with a delicious lunch excursion to Pizza Libretto next door.  I am pleased to report that it was a success on all fronts (and I have the exit survey results to prove it :-)

Thanks largely to positive word-of-mouth (from people like you, dear readers), I was able to sell-out the event and have 25 passionate, smart, and engaged marketers in attendance.  Together, we worked through a mix of content and interactive exercises designed to increase our collective confidence and competence in digital marketing strategy.  At the end of the day, groups applied the curriculum by solving a digital strategy brief from a “real client”.  Palak Dave and Malcolm Gilderdale from TIFF attended the session (coincidentally around the time cocktails were being served), distributed the TIFF briefs, and chose the winner.  It was an awesome group, and a fun day.

One of the aspects that I find valuable when facilitating training with a larger group from different organizations is the in-class discussion.  It is always fascinating to hear what different people are working on, interested in, and struggling with.  It is also a great opportunity for fellow marketers to learn from each other and to share.  There were a few key topics that bubbled up for the class that generated some great discussion:

  • Content.  How do marketers produce enough high-quality, on-brand, impactful content to fuel marketing programs?  A few client-side marketers discussed the benefits from partnerships and creating new positions for full-time in-house editors.
  • Organization: How do marketing departments best organize to deliver stronger digital marketing programs?  Many discussed hybrid models that focused more on alignment and communication, and less on channel ownership.
  • Measurement: How can marketers best measure the results from investments in social media marketing?   A few folks responsible for social media spoke about the importance of educating senior management and mapping measures to larger marketing goals.

Finally, thank you to everyone who helped me shape the event and supported me along the way.  Your advice, LinkedIn shares, referrals, and words of encouragement meant a lot to me and made for a better event.  For those that have asked, I am planning another Bootcamp for the Fall.  More on that later.  For now, thank you again for making this past event such a success.

In-Store Digital Experience Design

I recently had the opportunity to work on an assignment for a large retailer that focused on bringing new digital services into physical store locations.  This is a significant area of focus for retailers today as they try to meet the ever-changing shopping habits and expectations of connected customers. While I have worked with a number of retail clients, most of my assignments have involved a mix of digital marketing and e-commerce—increasing customer traffic to stores and transactions online.  This was the first time (for me) where the focus was exclusively on the in-store physical environment, and it was a really interesting challenge.

As part of this assignment, I came to appreciate a number of specific nuances to designing in-store digital experiences that I thought I’d share:

  • It can never really be just about the store.  So much is done by customers through digital channels before and after visiting a physical store. It is important to understand these larger cross-channel patterns and design in-store experiences to fit within them.
  • Never let technology get in the way.  It is critical to respect what customers appreciate about in-store shopping today, and not introduce friction into their experience.  This goes double for the in-store staff and management who need to support any new service. 
  • Great experiences can never stand-alone.  In-store digital services need to provide a unique proposition that integrate with other related channels and services.  It is crucial to not only understand how to integrate with retailer technology, but also how to potentially integrate with customer-owned technology like mobile devices and wearables.

Over the course of this assignment, I sketched out a framework that helped me get my head around many of the important dimensions to in-store digital experience design.  I wish I had this at the start of my project, hopefully you will find it useful at the start of yours.

Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp

I have some exciting news to share: I will be hosting my first Kickframe training event!  Over the past 5 years, I have designed and delivered hundreds of hours of training for a number of clients and on behalf of marketing organizations.  This time, I will be overseeing the training experience entirely and opening it up to any interested participant.  The Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp will take place over a full day on May 12th in Toronto.

Designing the session has been a fantastic process.  I have incorporated a number of elements that I know from past experience work really, really well.  I have also tried to design the overall experience to be refreshing for participants, by addressing a lot of the things that I find frustrating or underwhelming from typical training courses.  Specifically, the Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp has been designed to be:

  • Interactive: the format will be live and in-person with a high degree of participation from everyone, to encourage shared learning and professional networking.
  • Strategic: the training materials are based on strategic marketing principles, rather than starting from the latest digital tactic or digital buzzword.
  • Actionable: the guidance and tools provided are practical for marketers, and the session will involve participants working together on a brief from a visiting guest ‘client’. 

Finally, the session is designed to be really enjoyable—with no cold sandwiches or stale coffee served on a boardroom table.  If you are spending a full-day at a Kickframe event, it is important to me that you feel that it is a great investment (hence the 100% satisfaction guarantee).

The detailed course description and enrolment form can be found under my fancy new Events tab or my Eventbrite Page. If you know anyone interested in increasing their Digital Marketing Strategy IQ, please share.  And if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me.  I hope to see some of you there!

Do We Need Digital Strategists in a Post-Digital World?

Over the past few years, there has been a debate in industry circles about entering into a post-digital age in marketing.  I hesitate to call it a debate, since I have actually never heard anyone argue that digital and ‘traditional’ marketing should be kept entirely separate from each other.  What I have heard, amidst much industry navel-gazing about job titles and terminology, is a healthy discussion about how organizations can best exist and operate now that digital is interwoven into all aspects of our day-to-day lives and marketing activities.  This is where things get a lot more tangible and complicated. To help untangle the subject and the questions that arise (at least in my own mind), here is my kick at the can.

 

Are we truly in a post-digital marketing world?

Yes, but to quote Douglas Gibson: “The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet.”  All client and agency leaders I know believe that marketing needs to be planned and activated in a holistic and integrated manner, but are at varying points along their journey to making it happen.  It is difficult, particularly for larger and more established organizations.  The most significant challenges that I have seen remain lack of executive-level commitment, resistance to organizational change, and lack of critical in-house skills. But it’s here, and it’s happening.  If you need more convincing, Tom Goodwin has evidence.

 

In this new world, does the digital department exist?

Yes, in a new form.  Marketing is both broadening to include a greater number of potential tactics and channels, and deepening to involve a greater degree of underlying technology, UX, and data analytical know-how.  Marketing organizations, now more than ever, need people who understand what is possible and how to enable effective marketing using these increasingly sophisticated tool sets and skill sets.  The new post-digital group (title TBD!) will own marketing empowerment, not marketing strategy.  The group will accomplish this through capability building, operational governance, and tactical innovation.

 

In this new world, will the ‘digital strategist’ exist?  

Yes, in a new form.  In our post-digital age, we will abstract out the nature of media and focus instead on the nature of solutions.  Agencies will be defined by how they solve problems, not by what they actually produce.  And to think that a single agency can do it all, given the scope and complexity of marketing today, is absurd.  The new Digital Strategist (title TBD!) will need to become both more of a generalist and more of a specialist.  A generalist in the sense that formerly Digital Strategists will need to become capable of leading or contributing to overall marketing strategy planning rather than exclusively contributing to a digital sub-set.  A specialist in the sense that Strategists will also need to become more focused on a particular area of marketing, in the same way agencies now have to do.  Strategists, particularly those starting out, will need to ‘major’ in one of 4-different areas: Services, Connections, Content, or Canvases.

Planning in the post-digital age requires strategists that are far more T-shaped, capable of crafting ‘Capital-S’ strategy while understanding how programs can be empowered by core medium-agnostic marketing disciplines.

 

In this new world, how do I exist?

Good question.  I will become either (1) a Post-Digital Strategist or (2) Post-Employed Digital Strategist. 

Check back soon, and see.

Digital Strategy Discovery Guide

The start of any digital strategy initiative is critical.  It is the time when teams align on goals, scope, expectations, priorities, timing, and start to gather the inputs required to develop a strategy recommendation.  This part of the process is generally referred to as the Discovery Phase, and typically involves a mix of stakeholder meetings, interviews, and research activities.  It is also the part of of the process when you have the most questions (and granted forgiveness for those questions that start with “this might be a dumb thing to ask, but…”)  To make the most of this precious time, it is important to have a firm grasp of the most pertinent questions to ask and data to review.  While the right mix of questions will ultimately depend on a number of variables (e.g. familiarity with the subject and project team, nature and scope of the initiative, personal role and mandate), there are core areas that always need to be considered.  
 
The dense-looking framework below is my attempt to provide a starting point for helping to plan Discovery Phase activities.  Depending on the nature of your initiative you may need to cover all or some of these areas, in varying levels of depth (and ideally not in a single meeting!).  The Digital Strategy Discovery Guide is designed to be used from:

  • Left-to-Right: Understanding general business and marketing context before exploring how digital marketing may add value.
  • Top-to-Bottom: Understanding strategic background and direction before exploring potential tactics and delivery.

If you have any feedback or would like to discuss, please reach out.  Remember, there is no such thing as a dumb question. 

Predictapalooza 2016

It is that time of the year for annual lists of marketing and technology predictions.  Based on the volume of posts in my feeds over this past month, we may have reached ‘Peak Prediction’ where the number of ways that the world may change through technology has now been outstripped by the number of people actually blogging about it.  In an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff, here are highlights from a few strong reports that I read between sips of eggnog that present interesting digital strategy questions to ponder this year.

 

Trend Watching: Consumer Predictions for 2016

One of the 5 trends outlined by Trend Watching is ‘Contextual Omnipresence’, along with some recent research and examples that involve deriving new insights from data.

“In September 2015, Barcelona-based Telefónica Research published a report showing researchers are able to tell from a smartphone user’s mobile activity whether the user is bored with an 83% accuracy rate. Participants were then sent notifications recommending content on Buzzfeed.” 

Q: How can marketers start to use data to more finely target customers based on their current emotional state?

 

Frog Design: Tech Trends 2016

In addition to being a beautifully designed publication, Frog has a great write up on ‘The Open Enterprise’ (think Uber). 

“As companies seek to transform around the principles of human centered design, they need to plan for the reality that most human work extends beyond the boundaries of their business model…While there is a very real threat of market share loss to companies who miss how to design and build for this trend, the market opportunities for those who embrace it will be profound.”

Q: How can companies better adapt their business models to how customers naturally behave instead of forcing customers to adapt to how their business operates?

 

Fjord: Fjord Trends 2016

Another well-designed publication is from Fjord, who has a provocative write up on the trend of atomization.

“Atomization is widespread in music streaming apps like Spotify, which now transcends environments (think: your living room to your car to your workspace) and is delivered through various branded partnerships. The atomization of Spotify is part of a much bigger transition we’re now witnessing.”

Q: What is the ‘smallest’ and most shareable format of a service from a brand that has value and can be distributed throughout other platforms and contexts?

 

Contagious: The Most Contagious Ideas of 2015

Always an inspiring read, the latest Contagious report has a very insightful dissection of what makes Snapchat such a unique platform that is positioned to become a real force in modern media.

“Did the platform shift the paradigm, or did the paradigm shift inform the platform?  This chicken and egg discussion is indicative of how Snapchat has hit its stride at just the right time, making platform advancements indistinguishable from consumer behaviour shifts. Indeed, Snapchat seems to be perfectly positioned for 2016, with user habits and platform mechanisms dovetailing perfectly to create an unstoppable force in media.”

Q: Should Snapchat move from curiosity to legitimate channel for marketers, with the same attention and investment as the major social platforms?

 

social@Ogilvy: Key Digital Trends for 2016

This is a fun deck on social media with a lot of personality.  The authors provide useful advice around measuring what matters in content marketing:

 “Marketers are obsessed with content but oddly only measure effectiveness by website statistics.  Yet when it comes to [arguably one of the world’s best content marketer] Buzzfeed, of the 18.5B impressions it receives every month only 2% of those are on its website.”

Q: How can marketers finally evolve measurement capabilities to be able to effectively understand the impact of content beyond owned properties?

 

Hopefully some interesting food for thought as you start your new year.  If you have any additional links or predictions you would like to share, I would love to hear them.  Finally, I wish—make that predict—that you all will have a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2016.  

Digital Marketing Strategy Seminar

This past November, I delivered a Digital Marketing Strategy Seminar in Toronto that was hosted by the Canadian Marketing Association.   The session was attended by 24 marketers from a variety of industries, roles, and career paths.  The group was extremely engaged, and we had a rich discussion on topics spanning digital measurement, marketing planning, and organizational design.  As I have said before, the real benefit of facilitating training is the opportunity to learn from others.  It was a great day all around.

 

For those of you who are interested and did not attend, I have put together an executive summary of the material.  The focus of the session was on providing a strategic foundation for planning digital marketing.  The approach for this session was:

  • To go broad across the digital marketing toolbox, and not deep on a specific tool
  • To provide guiding principles that are lasting, and not more specific tactical advice
  • To arm participants with relevant planning tools that they could take and put into action

 

As always, I’d love to hear any questions or feedback you may have.  I am also planning additional training sessions in 2016, so stay tuned or reach out if you are interested in learning more.


How to Design an Effective Digital Marketing Training Program

Digital marketing training is critical for organizations today, and it is sorely lacking. Studies show that only 48% of digital marketers feel proficient in digital marketing, and a mere 18% actually take in-person courses (vs. 82% who learn on the job).   Forward-thinking organizations recognize this need, and invest in training to enable and grow their marketing teams accordingly.

One such organization is Loblaw.  Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of providing in-house digital marketing training for Canada’s largest and most successful retailer.  This training program covered a number of topics over multiple sessions and involved all 150+ members of the Loblaw Marketing Department.  I partnered closely with the brilliant Sr. Director of Digital Marketing at Loblaw, Michelle Read-Kulig to design and facilitate the program (which meant that I learned plenty, too).

Given the importance of understanding digital marketing today, I thought I would share some tips based on my Loblaw experience that you may consider when planning digital marketing training within your organizations.

 

1. Identify The Desired Learning Outcome(s)

Before launching into any training initiative, understand the change you want to actually make within the organization.  Take the time to identify this clearly, as you can then (and only then) determine (a) if training is the most effective way to accomplish it, (b) what type of training may best support it, (c) how training may fit within the context of overall learning and performance development, and (d) who needs to participate.  

For Loblaw, the desired outcome was to establish a baseline understanding of digital across the marketing organization—which is why all Loblaw marketers participated.  And even though many marketers within LCL had deep digital experience, it was important for everyone to participate to establish this common foundation as a basis for effective communication and integrated planning across teams.

 

2. Establish Clear Senior-Level Sponsorship

Senior-level sponsorship is a must for any digital marketing training initiative.  Securing a Sponsor demonstrates commitment from the organization to digital while reinforcing the connection that the training has to the future of the business (and to people’s jobs within it).  Without the right Sponsor, training may be considered interesting rather than essential.

Michelle is the head of the Digital Marketing Center of Excellence (DMCOE) for Loblaw and reports directly to the SVP of Marketing.  Having Michelle as the Sponsor and the co-facilitator for the training program was a key part of its success.  Her active involvement demonstrated to participants that the training was an organizational priority and that the training content aligned to the strategic thinking of the DMCOE.

 

3. Start with Principles, then Tactics

When beginning with a digital marketing training initiative, start with principles before discussing tactics.  While it may (and will) seem basic for some, spending time discussing the foundational differences, advantages, and challenges relating to digital media and technology provides a necessary baseline to build on.  Doing this effectively up-front can eliminate distracting digital buzzwords, broaden perspective, and build confidence within the group.

For LCL, we began the program with a session called Digital Foundations.  It was a level-set for the group on the state of digital marketing today and introduced a number of principles to be applied across all aspects of digital marketing strategy.  This session effectively set the table for subsequent sessions focused on specific tactical areas, such as social, mobile, and search.

foundations.png

4. Make it Interactive Across Disciplines

Group exercises are a critical part of adult learning, and in digital marketing training it is particularly important.  Using the right mix of exercises allow participants to apply concepts and learn from each other—particularly those with deeper digital experience (also providing them with an opportunity to share and shine).  Establishing a more interactive style for training also reinforces the multi-disciplinary and highly collaborative nature required for digital marketing today.

After Michelle and I ran a pilot course with a single Loblaw department, we decided to mix up the groups for the following courses.  Each of the 20+ participants within each session came from different groups, including Promotions, Customer Service, Brand, Content, and more. The result was a richer dialogue among participants, more interesting application of the concepts in the group exercises, and new connections.


5. Provide Support to Make Learning Actionable

How participants transfer learning to job responsibilities is a fundamental consideration for program design, and is particularly important at the end of digital training (along with assessment).  Carefully consider how you would like participants to start to behave differently after completing the program.  Develop the necessary supporting material and job aids that may be used to support direct day-to-day application.

Upon completion of the final session for the Loblaw training, we distributed Loblaw Digital Marketing Playbooks to all participants.  These books included the key points from all of the sessions, templates for digital marketing planning, as well as an FAQ guide for ‘doing digital’ at Loblaw written by the DMCOE.  This proved to be a useful takeaway and resource for those who completed the course. 

A special thank you again to Michelle for the opportunity to collaborate with her and the awesome Loblaw team.  I hope that you learn as much from these tips as I did from working with her on this training program.

How to Become a Digital Strategist

Now that I am “of a certain age”, I find myself meeting with more people seeking advice on becoming or advancing their careers as digital strategists.  It can be tricky to break into and to navigate as the area of strategy has always been ambiguous and the role of ‘digital strategist’ can mean very different things across different organizations.  Since I have had a few of these chats recently—which I thoroughly enjoy—I thought I would share some of the advice that I have found myself repeating.  Before I do, a few important caveats:

  • This is coming from the perspective of someone who has focused on marketing, working largely within digital agencies and consultancies.  They may not apply in other organizations.
  • These things have worked for me, and come from my own personal experience.  They may not work for you, and others have very different perspectives (which you should listen to).
  • These don’t come close to replacing larger and more important points about navigating your career like finding your own strengths, mentors, passion, and purpose.

 

Now that I have appropriately set, if not completely watered down your expectations, here are 5 pointers on starting out and getting ahead as a digital strategist.

 

1. Find a Place to Learn

The best things that happened to me early in my career was being part of a large, experienced, ambitious, and terrifically opinionated strategy team at a digital agency (you know who you are).  These strategists intimidated me, challenged me, and humbled me.  They also supported me, and helped me to understand what great digital strategy work is and how to get there.  It was a great place to start. 

 

So, look for a place in the smart room.  Avoid roles at organizations that are looking to hire a few, smart, young people as strategists to compensate for their lack of ‘digitalness’.  These may seem like attractive roles, but are usually terrible places to start a career in strategy.  You will not learn, grow, or understand how high the bar truly needs to be set.  Do not become The Digital Expert, and be suspicious of organizations that need one.

 

2. Start Narrow, Then Go Broad

At one point very early in my career I was the lone planner in a digital agency and I worked on everything that came in through the door.  At the time, I loved the challenge, the variety, and the chaos. Now, I know that it was a mistake. My work was incredibly uneven and I was put in positions where I could not succeed (though I did not recognize this at the time).  While perhaps not as exciting as a ride, I would have been far better served to find a situation where I could have started out by focusing on a sub-discipline of digital strategy (analytics, UX, research), and grow to become a more integrated, generalist strategist.  This only comes with experience.

 

Tim Brown is known for espousing the term T-Shaped people to describe the ideal candidate for working at IDEO.  The horizontal bar of the T represents the ability to collaborate across disciplines and the vertical bar represents depth of a particular expertise.  While digital strategy requires both, it is important to keep on strengthening that vertical bar, as it is your foundation.  So start by focusing on a specific area of expertise that interests you and that can lead to broader strategy work.  Don’t leave your development solely to your client work—add a course or certification every year, and broaden out over time.

 

3. Become a Great Facilitator

When I first moved from client side to agency side, I encountered an environment where everyone was competing for the ‘silver bullet’; that single insight, idea, or creative “aha” that quiets a room and announces your staggering brilliance.  I was game, and even garnered a few “aha’s”, but my approach completely changed after my first time with a truly great facilitator. He was the CCO, and he came in and completely reoriented the structure, values, and atmosphere of a work session by leading a process to collectively reach an idea.  He found a way to get to better thinking by empowering this broader group, and he got exactly what he needed.

 

The most interesting digital strategy work is messy, and requires a number of different disciplines working together to solve.  Reorient your focus as a strategist to be the one responsible for leading the development of the strategy, not the one individually creating it.  Adopt a highly inclusive approach that invites contributions that you can then synthesize and use.  It will not be comfortable at first, so invest in a facilitation training course and practice.  Learn how to keep responsibility while distributing access and ownership.  You will need it.

 

4. Ask The Right Questions

One of my all-time favourite clients was the CIO of a multi-national corporation based in the Netherlands.  We were in the middle of a kick-off meeting chock full of PowerPoints and Gantt charts when he stoically rose from his chair and announced that he had 3 ‘hamvraag’.  While this translates directly (and deliciously) from Dutch to English as ‘Ham-Questions’, it refers to a crucial question.  Holding up three fingers, he described what he considered to be the three questions that this digital strategy had to answer.  In answering them, we would then address every other item detailed meticulously in the decks and charts.  We did not pay much attention to this at the time, but once we started to put our recommendations together we realized that he was exactly right.

 

So before you start pulling data, thinking of solutions, or even opening a browser make sure that you stop and think of the right few questions you need to answer as part of your digital strategy.  If you are starting out, ask your client or manager to articulate them for you.  Focus all of your energy on answering these, to the exclusion of everything else.  Good clients and managers will recognize this and value it over a fat deck filled with graphs and screenshots. This also extends to the digital news and articles that you track and share socially.  Take the time to think about what it means, and the interesting questions that may arise for you to chew on.

 

5. Prove It, Then Sell It

“YOU are the one who needs to prove ROI!!!”  This line—a subject line, I believe—is from an email that I received from the CEO of an agency that I worked for after a particularly difficult presentation (specific names and colourful language omitted for brevity and taste).  In short, our recommendations were challenged and our case was weak.  It was a painful but important lesson to plan for the worst and always build a strong case.  As a digital strategist, it was also an important recognition of the value that I could bring to the table for an organization in proving and selling work.  I remember it to this day.

 

So the next time you are developing a digital strategy recommendation, think of the smartest person you know.  Now pretend they don’t like you or your ideas.  Next, picture them at the back of the room for your presentation.  You are their last meeting of the day before they start vacation.  And…you’re up!  Going forward, consider this your audience.  Take the time to prepare the case that illustrates the benefits from your recommendations.  Write out (and I mean literally write out) your rationale for why you would invest this money if you were in their shoes.  Get to know the supporting details and the data.  Believe me: the next time you run into this person along with your boss, they will invest in you.

Orchestrating the Toronto Symphony Experience

In March, I was approached by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) to help create a digital strategy and supporting roadmap.  The organization had recently made significant leadership changes and the new head of marketing and sales shared his ambitious mission: “We’re transforming a 93-year old start-up”.  It was music to my ears (last pun, I swear).

 

Over these past few months I have had the privilege of working closely with the TSO.  It is truly an amazing institution that provides innovative arts leadership, rich musical education, inspiring community outreach, and—of course—a world-class orchestra.  The following is a glimpse into some of this work, specifically around customer experience mapping.

 

The digital strategy for the TSO needed to achieve a number of goals including increasing revenue from ticket sales, increasing contributions from donations, increasing TSO brand equity, and increasing overall marketing efficiency.  Customer experience mapping became a key tool for us to analyze opportunities through a more customer-centric lens.  The model itself was created based on customer research and stakeholder interviews and includes a journey that spans before, during, and after a TSO performance.  

The customer experience map allowed us to identify a number of areas where the TSO could use digital channels to create additional value.

Reducing Points of Friction:

  • Providing helpful guidance to less confident patrons trying to choose a performance
  • Allowing people to purchase tickets immediately, on the move, across any channel
  • Making new patrons feel more comfortable in the hall through cultural wayfinding

Amplifying Moments of Delight:

  • Fuelling excitement for an upcoming performance with interesting background information
  • Facilitating the collective sharing of the event experience through social media channels
  • Deepening engagement with patrons with relevant ongoing news, perspective, and music

 

These opportunities and many more were analyzed, prioritized, and included in a digital strategy roadmap that the TSO will be activating over the next 2 years.   I for one look forward to experiencing them myself.

 

A special thank you to the TSO for granting permission for me to share this work and to my frequent collaborator Rob Tilley for his brilliant accompaniment (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Audience Targeting Opportunity Map

I recently put on a seminar hosted by the CMA called Creating Your Digital Strategy, in Toronto.  It was an intensive full-day session that included over 30 senior-level marketers across a variety of industries.  The session was focused on helping marketers understand and apply Guiding Principles for digital marketing, with a view to creating their own strategies and plans within their organizations.

One of the Guiding Principles that we covered during the seminar involved using data to fuel creativity and relevance.  From a tactical perspective, we spent time discussing the opportunities that marketers have to leverage a growing set of data points, ad tech tools, creative formats, and media canvases.  I find this space very exciting and have seen fantastic creative concepts and performance results from programs that made smart use of audience targeting.  I also find that this space can be quite confusing as marketers, agencies, and media companies struggle to create plans under the ambiguous shadow of Big Data.  In an effort to try and inspire and structure smart conversations about how data can fuel creativity and relevance I put together an Audience Targeting Opportunity Map.

In the same vein as the Mobile Opportunity Map, it includes many of the key areas that are available to marketers today to target customers and create more relevant and profitable connections.  While certainly not exhaustive, I hope that you might find it useful as a periodic table of sorts—providing you with a powerful targeting 'element' to include in your marketing campaigns (pun intended).  Since the session sold-out and generated very positive feedback (and was so much fun to do), we will be putting it on again in the Fall.  The CMA (@cdnmarketing) and I will be sharing more details closer to the date.     

  

Mobile Opportunity Map

The area that I find the most interesting and challenging in my consulting and teaching is ‘mobile’.  As a topic, it is difficult to clearly frame since it in equal parts refers to specific devices (the platforms used by people to engage), specific tactics (the activations used that are designed for those platforms), and specific contexts (the use-cases specific to people beyond their desktops).  Throw in the frenzied interest and confusion around topics such as responsive design, beacons, and the Internet of Things, and you have incredibly exciting, yet murky waters.

Something that I recently created to try and untangle this topic is what I call a Mobile Opportunity Map.  In it, I try to lay out what I see as the unique areas of potential advantage that mobile presents for businesses and marketers.  Each opportunity area is organized into one of three groups: (1) The Device, (2) The Context, and (3) The Ecosystem.  I plan to use this as a catalyst in my sessions with clients to ensure that we probe and explore the many different ways that we can unlock value through mobile—and there are many.

As always, would love to hear any feedback that you may have.  Hopefully it unlocks some opportunities for you, too.