Why thinking alone is dangerous if you’re chasing business-focussed creativity
More marketing leaders are discovering how a strategic thinking partner can deliver a creative advantage.
The traditional view of creativity in marketing is that it’s the sole property of creative agencies. It’s not surprising that these organisations want the definition all to themselves – it is, after all, how they’ve usually made their money.
We’re now seeing a new breed of marketer emerge, inspired by the high-growth agenda of the start-ups and technology companies, who see the entire marketing stack and the expanding range of digital channels and data platforms as a field of opportunity for creativity.
What’s giving these marketers the edge is their focus on using creative thinking to drive commercial advantage, often borne off their strategic work to shape a marketing agenda that aligns with the board’s own business agenda.
The challenge emerges when creative marketing leaders realise they also need to nurture a team that can deliver executional excellence against this expanding range of marketing skills, technologies and data sets.
Every great team needs a coach. And your creative marketing team is no different.
The key to igniting this commercial creativity is guidance. Leaders need to carefully balance the desire for innovation with the risks that experimentation and truly ‘out of the box’ thinking can engender.
It may sound counterintuitive, but most experienced marketers recognise the need for a high degree of discipline around any creative process if it is going to generate results that are of use to the business’ broader aims.
The additive thinking that drives commercial advantage.
Marketing leaders looking for an edge are calling on strategic peers (and perspectives) from beyond their own organisations, usually in the form of senior, independent consultants.
This ‘additive thinking’ approach is particularly helpful when refocussing a team – or even an entire organisation - to use ‘big picture’ strategic thinking to drive creative approaches to market opportunities as well as marketing challenges :
Team Enhancement: Group coaching to achieve constantly improve your team’s ability to develop creative marketing solutions that meet business challenges
Capability Uplift: Enhance the effectiveness of individuals and teams by providing professional development in strategic thinking, campaign planning and business driver analysis.
Creative Accelerant: Enhanced creative development through creative methodologies, applying design thinking and creative principles to all elements of your marketing stack.
Strategic Partnerships: Identify and onboard the right agencies to expand your circle of executional excellence and specialist resources to bring additional creativity to your outcomes.
Technology Leverage: Assess and integrate emerging martech platforms and other digital tools to extend reach and create new arenas for brand engagement.
Brand Storytelling: Activate your brand through customer-centric narratives and immersive journeys that speak to your core user base.
Marketing Advocacy: Define the marketing advantage and promote it to the executive team, helping elevate marketing's role in your organisation.
New behaviours often call for new partnerships.
While the idea of outsourcing execution is well established, the idea of bringing in a trusted and experienced partner to ignite more focussed and practical ideation is rapidly gaining traction among marketing leaders.
The key is to engage with someone who understands the interplay between business and creativity. Someone who not only thinks at your level but, crucially, has the time and the capacity to do it, and do it well.
When you begin your search, you should be considering people who have been in your shoes, who know how large organisations work and have the professional network of creative executional partners borne of years of in-market experience.
It’s also key to investigate the independence of a senior consultant. Look for someone who isn’t beholden to a large firm’s need to ‘create work’ or to retain production revenue within a holding company structure.
Talk to one of the leaders of ‘additive thinking’
Jarther Taylor is a marketer, an educator and an entrepreneur. It’s these three complementary perspectives which inform not only a comprehensive view of the marketing landscape but also your brand’s position within it.
If you’re looking to bring the ‘silver bullet’ of creative thinking to your marketing efforts – and your team - consider a conversation with Jarther to see where the collaborative approach of additive thinking can take your organisation – and your career. Contact us.