What practices keep marketing teams aligned in fast-changing environments?

EO

Erin Oles

President, Chief Marketing Officer · Salesforce

Cross-functional KPI alignment

Erin Oles says she likes cross-functionally aligning experts from different homes to a KPI, output or work project, giving them a goal they're held accountable to so they can impact change.

The answer starts at 15:45.

Jonathan (Jon) Moran

Head of MarTech Solutions Marketing · SAS

Measure the customer journey

Jonathan (Jon) Moran says teams should stop measuring channels and start measuring the customer's path across channels, because the journey can be broken when scoped too narrowly.

The answer starts at 15:49.

Jessica Apotheker

Managing Director & Senior Partner · Boston Consulting Group (Bcg)

Orchestration

Jessica Apotheker says orchestration—linking with the business, portfolio management and planning—is what ensures strategic intent and coordinates execution in marketing.

The answer starts at 6:12.

Katie Miserany

CCO & Global Head of Marketing · SurveyMonkey

Weekly health checks

Katie Miserany says her marketing team runs a weekly Health Check where directors and above share key metrics, what influenced them, and issues or blockers, now often async every other week.

The answer starts at 42:34.

Clayton Pritchard

Owner & CEO · Olivine Marketing

Treat it as a living document

Clayton Pritchard says the practice is to treat positioning as a living document, reviewing it once or twice a year and checking in with sales and marketing metrics to see if tweaks are needed.

The answer starts at 48:17.

Gary Lombardo

Adjunct Professor

Small experiments

Gary Lombardo says his team builds a standing rhythm of small experiments, testing a channel and adjusting, rather than waiting for a big annual plan to be right.

MP

Marc S. Pritchard

Chief Brand Officer · Procter & Gamble

Obsession with consumers

Marc S. Pritchard says the most important cultural practice is an obsession with the consumers you serve, so teams understand their lives, needs and problems and immerse themselves in those daily.

Marvin Chow

VP of Consumer and AI Marketing · Google

Systems thinking

Marvin Chow says systems thinking—looking across an enterprise to spot frictional pain points and treat them as problems to solve—is a beneficial skill, especially as things move fast.

Jordan Slover

Founder · Neon Ambition

Regularly talk to customers

Jordan Slover says the best marketers he deals with regularly talk to customers and sit in on sales calls or product teams, because marketing's job is to be the voice of the customer.

Trevor Pyle

Head of Marketing · Profound

Weekly standups

Trevor Pyle says his team works like a product team, holding weekly Monday morning standups and sprint planning; he says social distribution strategy is their North Star and everything else is downstream.

Rebecca Darley

Group CMO · Tpg Telecom

Fail fast

Rebecca Darley says she tells her team to fail fast: push a big bold idea hard, but if it isn't working, fail fast, because failure teaches you a lot.

Gilad Bechar

Founder & CEO · Moburst

Continuously test new tools

Gilad Bechar says he and his team test every new tool that comes to market, because otherwise they would stay behind.

Lindsey Scrase

Chief Operating Officer · Checkr, Inc.

Bi-weekly business reviews

Lindsey Scrase says they hold bi-weekly business reviews, where top leaders silent-read and discuss a document tracking strategic goals, metrics and revenue forecast, so everyone stays clear on what's happening across the business.

Kate L. Price

Partner at Prophet: Marketing Transformation and Operating Models · Prophet

Integrated planning

Kate L. Price says integrated planning helps marketing teams stay aligned, arguing that as channels fragment, everyone needs to get together and decide where resources go.

Todd Kaplan

Chief Marketing Officer, North America · Kraft Heinz

Quick collaborative improvisation

Todd Kaplan says marketing teams stay aligned through quick collaborative improvisation—picking up the phone and working out one-line ideas in real time—because it's all based on real consumer truths and insights.