With Luke Harris, Senior Director of Client Success at Cheetah Digital.
The hugely insightful Luke Harris talks to Kayla and Julian about the importance of brands having agility ingrained in their marketing DNA, a quality that can help businesses navigate the most challenging of times including COVID-19.
Highlights include:
00:35 to 06:08
Luke lays out how businesses with true agility, built into their organizational structure, have the ability to take quick actions and informed decisions based on real data. These are also the businesses coping best in this turbulent period and that will remain strong in the future.
A key takeaway is the confident way that brands with true technology partners can act. These partners help collect data and power insights helping marketing teams better understand their audience. It is this deeper understanding of customers which helps to lead to more positive outcomes.
07:20 to 11:18
Luke tackles the foundational requirements of business agility. How are brands doing this successfully? The answer is that by having a clearly defined vision and strategy that runs throughout their business and of course their marketing. Agility comes from a lot of work and planning that has gone on behind the scenes. Three simple things to tick off:
- Know what you stand for.
- Know your audience at any point in time, refreshing data sets and insights as you go.
- Understand that authenticity will be rewarded.
11:40 to 16:20
How should organizations set themselves up internally to succeed in being agile?
- Set a clear agenda and have a purpose in the outcomes you’re aiming for.
- Delegation of responsibility within marketing organizations and an emphasis on over-communication.
- Create true long-lasting relationships with all your external partners so they become an extension of your brand team.
- Have measurable goals and expectations underpinning all campaigns and technologies the brand is using. Benchmarking and regular reporting are essential.
17:39 to close
Luke goes on to elaborate on the importance of agile communication during difficult times, both internally and externally. At the core of every successful strategy here is honesty. Away from this, brands must address their customers’ principal concerns.
Communication and interaction should be two ways and the situation we’re in now provides a unique chance to proactively engage with your audience to learn a little bit more about them. Cheetah Digital can help to collect this kind of data at scale, which is especially important because recent insights show that since COVID-19, customers are willing to share more with brands who have shown an authentic interest in them.
Food for thought. Certain CPG and Retail brands are starting to trail new data profiles as they have time freed up to do this. Many are starting out by hypothetically asking what they would have liked to have known pre-COVID-19 to help them deal with what followed.
Overall, a silver lining to this seismic event may be that it helps brands (re)focus on what is most important to them. This starts off by better understanding their consumers and the broader challenges they face as a business.
Extras:
- Song Sample — Flexible Strategies by The Police guest appearance.
- Ross and Chandler from Friends.
- Shout out of AdAge COVID Tracker / eConsultancy / McKinsey & Company for the stats.
- Alan Partridge on Bobsleigh commentary.
For more of the same why not check out other
episodes of Uncaged Wisdom in the series.
