So for the past six years, I've been working as a CMO for an amazing medical practice call Magruder Laser Vision. One of the things that I told myself coming from a traditional agency environment was that the position would require being nimble and open to a great deal of change. The medical vertical, by and large, is woefully behind when it comes to external business adoptions. Technology, the FDA, insurance, product launches, and varying opinion of one solution over another keeps the industry on its toes, and it's incredibly competitive. Within the time that I spent there, we relaunched a legacy brand with a new visual identity, revamp of the brand tone through copyrighting, social, all manner of content ranging from OTT, to radio and consistent coverage and engagement of all valued social channels. Nevertheless, the excitement for the role was that I'd be able to revitalize a flagship (nationally recognized) Central Florida brand.
I set all of this up not only as a self-serving behavioral marketing resume pitch but also outline that in a half-a-dozen years, marketing, content, and methodology have grown at a staggering pace. Moreover, dropping COVID into the mix and you apply a "forced innovation" phase that marketing was simply never prepared for. I remember seeing my first ad spot for a fast-food chain positioning a "touch-less" experience and thinking, here it comes. Within this past year, we've seen business all but die, never expecting the fallout from a pandemic. No one, outside of perhaps the CDC, or WHO, ever imagine this life for us. This is, however, now what it takes to be a new world creative professional.
Even though the pandemic is far from over, marketing, advertising, branding, and messaging has shifted. In some cases, its a proper shake-up. I watched something similar happen from the late 90s through 2010 as the decade when interactive marketing would not only be part of the campaign process but eventually lead initiatives in many cases. That was a decade, not a year! So with that said, let's examine a few needs that modern marketers must understand.
"Micro Campaigning" — Simply signing a media contract for a year of radio, placement, or anything more than 90 to 120 days seems downright foolish. Marketing budgets and almost like day-trading, you see the needle move, you tweak/optimize and apply/retract budget and efforts. If something works, your replicate and test.
"Data Runs Creative" — Not to sound dystopian or prognosticate giant robots eating our marketing departments, but no client will believe a fabricated guess at impressions or blind guesses as to what demographic a media placement is purchasing anymore. Why? Because we can see the data. Creative professionals need to embrace legacy, current, and forecasting to adjust, test and tweak in a duplicitous way.
"Client Integration" — Whether it's Agile project management or another active deployment methodology, more clients want to see progress and SHOULD be invited into the fold. This is very counterintuitive to the agency of old that would pitch, disappear for a few months, and pop up a few months later to play show n' tell. The new world creative professional must embrace the client and work to integrate them into cycles of development — in the end, it will maintain retention by reducing the pain of revisionist development.