Marketers experienced a decade’s worth of digital advancement in 2020 and COVID-19 has sparked one of the greatest periods of forced improvisation we have lived through. The way that people interact with brands has changed, and digital transformation and customer-centricity have come back to the fore. This has encouraged marketers to reimagine how they work and become more agile.
The State of the CMO 2021 Report recently revealed that perceptions of resilience and adaptability are higher than ever across Australia’s marketing leadership teams, as we have been in a position where we can’t reliably plan for a year, a quarter, a month, or sometimes a week in advance for an extended period of time.
The unpredictability of border closures, vaccine rollouts, and lockdowns remain, which has meant that marketers have learned to exercise a degree of acceptance and tonnes of adaptability.
Embracing the unknown
Curiosity is a mindset that allows marketers to take hold of new opportunities and adopt innovations and platforms that move with market trends. A curious team thrives when industry best practices are no longer the benchmark because they can understand and adapt to the changing external environment. We have so much data at our fingertips to understand how audiences are reacting, interacting, and engaging. In the face of adversity, we at least know which of our actions are having the biggest impact (if we choose to dig into it). We need to have capability and confidence around data and take the time to sit with a problem for just a little longer choosing a course of action. There’s merit in leaving a problem ‘intentionally unresolved’ for a moment. That time to percolate on an idea can often lead to an unconsidered insight, which could dramatically improve your outcome and ultimately business objective.
Transforming strategy with a steadfast vision and fluid improvisation
Strategy normally relies on careful deliberation and the maximum amount of available information. But today’s volatility and ambiguity have forced strategy to become more fluid, with two new concepts emerging: vision and improvisation. Harvard Business Review defines vision as the long-term purpose and principles of a company and improvisation is flexibility at the tactical level. If marketers can incorporate both into strategic thinking, the process becomes transformative rather than rigid. Marketers are learning to hold onto their north star tightly, but are also willing to explore, experiment, and iterate.
Reconnecting to customers through empathy
Verizon Media’s director of brand innovation and marketing AUNZ Anny Havercroft is a big believer in empathy as a superpower. "There aren’t many moments in history where humanity is facing the same dilemma simultaneously, yet our personal situations are all so different. My team comes from diverse backgrounds and a major learning from COVID-19 was navigating and recalibrating expectations of each other when we started remote working.”
The typical working day in the office has been redefined and empathising with people’s different home circumstances has been necessary to build productive team relationships. Empathy also extends outwards and is a skill that enhances the way we connect to our customers.
As the push and pull between privacy and personalisation continues, marketers are learning to use empathy to offer security, build trust, and deliver a tailored customer experience all at the same time. Empathy is becoming a differentiator and by understanding friction points and motivations in the customer journey, marketers can drastically improve the customer experience.
The power in marketing lies beyond better technology
It’s about shifting resources to transcend changes and challenges. It involves aligning culture, people, structure, with goals. Uncertainty challenges strategy and the pandemic is pushing marketers to be curious and collaborate.
If you want to learn more about new marketing innovations, you can subscribe to Alpha Digital’s weekly digital round-up email and get early access to our upcoming whitepaper, ‘How the Pandemic has Forced Us to Reimagine Marketing’ here.
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