• by Scott Ensign , March 16, 2021

It’s exciting to embrace what’s new and innovative in marketing, and even more so to bid farewell to old ways that no longer cut it. Here are five outmoded practices marketers are better off leaving behind, and a look at how marketers can do better.

The concept of “working media.”  The delivery of marketing is no longer just about placement and stewardship. It requires technology, personalized content and advanced measurement frameworks.

Brands and agencies have been hung up on the idea of how much budget is going to “working media” versus fees. The more salient question to ask would be, “Is my media actually working?” Ratios and percentages are simply not an effective measurement in today’s working environment. They can often limit ideas and efforts that could more effectively ladder up to real business objectives.

Subjectivity in messaging. Historically, the final decision in an ad campaign lies with the one or few people who comprise its creative team. What’s a better bet? Relying on hard facts—data—is far more effective at determining the direction of a campaign. Data, artificial intelligence and statistical algorithms can be used to predict responses and outcomes. They can help to create highly targeted messaging that resonates with your intended audience with better accuracy.

Campaign mindsets. Speaking of campaigns, let’s forego the nomenclature. A campaign is transactional. It connotes a timeline. There is a start and an end. But real companies and real initiatives don’t work like that.

Rather than be short-sighted, let’s connect our work to long-term goals, tweaking and evolving ideas to align with changing needs and directives.

Siloed marketing teams. Grouping individuals in an organization together by function—there’s the creative team, analytics, planning, and over there, execution—serves its purpose and has for decades. But siloes can create barriers. They get in the way of client objectives, stifle collaboration and create inefficiencies.

We need to enable collaborative, integrated teams. Individuals wear different hats and serve unique roles, but they share an objective and should seamlessly communicate and collaborate to reach it. Essentially, they are solution architects focused on business objectives. What’s more, they encourage skill building and broadening of expertise. Individuals learn from each other, build their resumes, and tend to enjoy greater job satisfaction than those who work without the support of a team.

Scarcity thinking. Thinking about competition is natural. As marketers, we all want to win, but winning doesn’t mean that someone else has to lose. There is so much work to be done to help brands achieve real digital transformation, forge genuine relationships with audiences, and gain fresh insight into how progressive marketing approaches can drive their business. Agencies in particular should spend less energy fighting over business and more energy on creating inspiring work and increasing the size of the pie for everyone.<