The key principles for embedding agility

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By actively engaging and involving agency partners in decisions driven by agility, brands stand a much better chance of setting themselves up for success.

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has brought so much change and disruption to the world – to the world of work in general, and to the way that advertisers work with their agency partners in particular. One of the dominant themes in marketing has undoubtedly been agility and the quicker, smarter, simpler approach many have adopted to ensure they can continue to develop and flight campaigns.

Agility encompasses ways of working, how, when, and why we meet, and decision-making.

HIGHLIGHTS

Purpose and agility at Unilever
The agility journey at TSB Bank
Pivoting to success at British Gas

// What we want to investigate and why

Objectives

As offices around the world take the first tentative steps for limited reopening and we come to adjust to what’s emerging as the next normal, it’s worth taking the time to reflect on which aspects of agility we should keep and why.

As brands and agencies are now taking the first, tentative steps for limited office reopening’s, both parties have the opportunity to assess which aspects of agility should endure for the medium to long term – and which can be left behind.

By deploying the always-evolving tools and techniques of marketing effectiveness to their media and marketing investments, brands can get the balance right between securing optimal ROI for that spend and remunerating their agency partners appropriately.

The principles of agility for impact
Agility in marketing
New agency models

// What we've discovered and suggest

Findings

Agility in brand marketing was not created by COVID-19. Rather, the pandemic and ensuing lockdown and constraints of trade – for some categories total, and for many months – has accelerated a set of processes that were already well under way. What it’s also done is make all marketing operations and supporting agencies face up to a set of choices they would have had to make sooner or later.

No-one would have chosen to make 2020 the year of the first truly global pandemic in the era of globalisation. Now we’re here, it’s how we evolve in agile fashion and embrace agility that will determine how we recover and grow on the other side.