LEAP YEAR SPECIAL : 29 real experiences, observations, (and maybe advice), from a 40-year-old Marketing guy.
Many of the reflections below you may know (or have experienced) already, and this absolutely isn't dogma, but more what I have seen/done/now know which may (or may not) help.
To up front this, I didn’t want another ‘40 things I learnt by 40’ type listicle nonsense, LinkedIn has plenty for you on that, it was something that every ounce of my being fought to not write when I left my 30s. But given the 4-yearly anomaly of this calendar month I thought I would use this Front Of Mind to go a different tact, and to scribe some stuff, 1 thought a day for this special month, that I have been sharing sporadically with a couple of my mentees, students in lectures and general stuff/anecdotes I share with clients and fellow marketers, including a bit of my own sprinkle personal to me.
THIS IS NOT INTENDED ADVICE, but things I have experienced, observed and attempted to learn - a big difference! Hell, I am still learning much of this.
But I have been in this industry one way or another for 20 years now(!!). So I’ve seen and felt a lot. I started in a sales role at a big data and segmentation business that also does credit scoring, with this geodemographic fancy stuff pulling on my Geography degree. I then got into data > performance > digital > media > strategy > ultimately marketing across client, media owner and agency roles. I hope this is a veritable buffet of things from all sides of the table.
Having compiled this, I realise even more than ever that so many things are on an ‘it depends’ sliding scale. A little of something is better than none at all usually too...
The main observations go broadly into 5 areas :
Marketing fundamentals and watch-outs
Research, strategy & planning
Focus & consistency
Measurement and client success
Personal stuff and thinking (including a bit of mental/neuro stuff)
#1. Firstly… MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS ARE IMPORTANT IN A WORLD OF CHANGE. The genesis of this newsletter was to remind a world - losing its mind to flash in the pan trends - that fundamentals remain. What I have witnessed and aggregated in my career is that, whatever the new shiny thing is, from ‘ABM’ in B2B or Retargeting in digital advertising, the tools, names and techniques come and go, but there are fundamentals. Particularly human fundamental truths, that bring us back to the question, what are we doing here? Helping brands sell more stuff usually, right?
#2. THAT SAID, FUNDAMENTALS ARE DEFINITELY NOT LAWS - THEY ARE NOT DOGMATICALLY SET IN STONE - but think of them as guiding principles. Take Binet & Field’s seminal, much quoted yet so often misconstrued The Long and The Short of it. or Professor Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow that I shared findings from last month. Yes we get it, have brand advertising and be available. But again the long tail majority of you are not global conglomerates with established brands. The key purpose of a smaller business for example may well be to generate leads to help the sales team, so action should be focussed on this via your customer’s entry points. Brand &/Or Performance. Product, Price &/Or Promotion. Marketing is a toolkit from which to extract the right tool and make the right decision (see STRATEGY).
#3. … AND ANYONE WHO DOGMATICALLY GIVE YOU RULES AND 10x … they are probably talking bollocks. Take a moment to consider every brand and their inherently different factors: Coverage. Share of Voice. Age. Ambition. Profitability. Addressable audience. Number of markets. Product type. Sales cycle. Strategy. Average Order Value. Existing perceptions. Quality of sales team. Investment/cash in business. Creative team/agency. Marketing talent. To name but 16. But forget those infinite combinations from those variables, just tell me there is a guaranteed recipe? Or a cheat code? Come on.
#4. RESEARCH ALWAYS - AT LEAST A LITTLE - Any research is better than none. You need a mix. Big companies have coffers to fuel such activity, and even teams, so absolutely no excuse there. But even if you are small or medium enterprise, although you don’t have that luxury or resource, you do have an obligation to learn as much about who you are selling to and where as much as possible. This makes for better products and better advertising. You want to know who they are, what they buy and why. 4 great areas include some surveys, some publicly available industry / trend data, some business known data (e.g. advertising or site performance data) topped off with some interviews and ethnographic studies (interviews/time with customers/prospects) and you are half way there. Devote something to it. You at least now have a segment and/or informed target when you hit this golf ball. And you are slightly ahead of those that don’t.
#5. REAL INSIGHTS CAN DERIVE FROM DATA, BUT MANY CONFLATE THE TWO. The amount of times I have over the years when agency side been (admittedly) in a team pitching or been on receiving end of media owner agency pitch discussing insights - and it is actually a pie chart of I don’t know, an age split, is outrageous. Insights is the most overused word in the industry vernacular. We must try to pursue insights. We must research exhaustively and creatively, so we can unearth an insight which, by definition is an accurate or deep understanding of someone or something. You may not gain the magic, but you will move closer and unearth something by digging. It isn’t always surface, or easily memorable, but I bet it isn’t a screenshot from a dashboard.
#6. PRICING TOO LOW AND DISCOUNTING SETS THE TONE - as with terrorists, do not to negotiate with yourself either. Let market conditions do that if any. Our cognitive biases against ourselves often have a negative effect on our own margins, this is especially true for freelancers and agency scoping models selling services. Get product and a prop that’s watertight whilst knowing the market, and you can then unashamedly set the price.
#7. STP NEED NOT BE (over)COMPLICATED - A lot is made of what goes into Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning (STP), by a lot I mean lots of money going into the coffers of big consultancies for their slides of quadrants. 1 or 2 useful insights informed from the research you’ve done above, and understand the highest volume/profit customer style, you may well have your target of things to double down on. It can even be a post-it note exercise, the best stuff I have been involved with was relatively simple (in output).
#8. BRIEFING IS HUMAN FIRST, AS WELL AS PRESCRIPTIVE 2ND - Humans speaking to humans so humans can create work so another human can sell to more humans. Doesn’t much sound like science to me. Prescriptive details and watertight expectations on your briefing sheet is of course crucial, but the follow up bringing it to life for the people assimilating is essential for better brand, agency and media relationships.
#9. THERE IS A FALSE DICHOTOMY OF CREATIVE AND MEDIA. Honestly the way the marketing & advertising industry and agencies are set up is mind blowing. You have creative houses and media houses, maybe some separate Digital, Social, Performance CRM, PR, UX and whatever the hell else agencies are throwing into the output kedgeree. There’s many a sector re-consolidation effort as things go full circle back to ‘full service’, but the alignment pains and head-rolls in industry showcase the trickiness of the issue. The best work from what I have seen and experienced has always been the reach across the aisle/getting on the same interdisciplinary page on stuff early doors...
#10. THE CREATIVE AND MEDIA CHALLENGES ARE YET TO BE RESOLVED - BUT ARE MITIGATED IF CONNECTED EARLIER. I see both sides. I speak to many a creative who get frustrated with media not activating audiences from insights, and distrust new fangled, cheap trading deal friendly media. Conversely, I know media teams (I’ve been there) can get frustrated with creative agencies pitching in the big idea in the face of pragmatically a disappointing budget. The answer lies in the middle, but beforehand. Marketing should set the tone, and brief up accordingly to its relative media or creative stakeholders.
#11. THE WORD STRATEGY SOUNDS SCARIER THAN IT IS - but don’t let that put you off. It is important to have one, or at least a semblance of one. In simple terms, a strategy is a direction of travel and a choice, to do something and invariably not another, with shortened odds of success because the insight helped set that satnav. An informed bet. They are seldom set in stone, being adaptive is best, but you need that initial compass.
#12. A PLAN IS MAKING THE DIRECTION OF STRATEGY REAL - again done is better than perfect here. If you are clear from a strategy what you are saying, about what you are selling, and to who and where, then your plan albeit creative, media or whatever should be a more disciplined manifestation of the above strategy point. E.g. Run that Brand Ad weeks 1 and 2. Test week 2 and 3. Ensure all the creatives are sorted 1 week prior. Knowing what is happening and when will put you in the top 5% straight away.
#13. BUT DO TEST & LEARN - it is ok to build the runway as you take off, but at least have the cement mixer. Good strategy sets a clear path, great strategy is adaptive to internal and external forces. Review regularly. Also testing is great to shore up uncertainties. Most of our work is informed bets anyway. Once tested, learn, then keep or kill, it is OK.
#14. DON'T LET THE TAIL WAG THE DOG - on the flip side, I have seen many people be looser/discarding of their plans, let alone their strategy, and succumb to the seductive charm of the Ads manager platforms, encouraging dynamic creative testing or such, because you can, not that you should. Remember, these platforms sharing their smart recommendations are delivering THEIR strategy for revenue growth, and seldom fits yours. I see it with SEO agencies or other such specialism businesses. They are helping the part, not the entirety, and sometimes even not anything for you.
#15. UNLESS YOU ARE A GLOBAL CORPORATION OR FAMOUS BRAND - YOU NEED TO RUTHLESSLY CODIFY. It is always cute how McDonald’s share a smidgeon of their golden arches in the bottom left of an outdoor ad on a bus stop with the words ‘2 minutes walk this way’. I do have a weird love for their brand. They are so distinctive that they do not need to put name of brand or full logo. But respectfully they are in the <0.1% who have earnt that right. McDonald’s have had the ‘golden arches’ logo for over 70 years, and have rammed it down our throats along with their Big Macs at over 40,000 restaurants across 118 countries in the majority of its 84 years since inception. You are likely not them. You likely do not have that luxury, fame or tenure. So ensure your assets, colours, mnemonics, tone, visuals, logo and stuff is consistent across your comms. Let the competition for noise be from outside your control, not from your own lot. You are a unified front. Besides, research shows that CMOs coming in to make an impression means brands get bored of assets way quicker than buyers do. These prospective buyers need time!
#16. MEASUREMENT IS EVOLVING ALL THE TIME, BUT YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS AND WHAT IS GOING ON - I am no way the main character on the evolving measurement techniques and evolving space, especially with talks of cookies deprecating or not, evolving analytics, walled garden self-bias attributions and oftentimes expensive but effective econometrics which costs high in both money and data science talent. But I do know that preparing, having even a simple framework or rules of what to measure and why is important. However small (there’s a theme here right?) KPIs can be hypnotic but, just because you can measure it, does not mean it matters. Your work of defining the effective is tied to your goal of the business and its desired outcome. Fame? Market share? Acquisition at cost? Then you can set KPIs on campaign/media level accordingly. Also, if you are a CMO working with CFO, you owe it to them to give them rationale of what and why with the investment you seek.
#17. YOU ARE SMALL? KNOW YOUR LIMITS - BUT OWN THEM. You can check out a post here that I wrote last year about marketing for small businesses and I share with smaller clients. Accept forces out of control; Goliaths win in many ways, but Davids have their perks too! Be disciplined, unlock right to advertise by considering the 4Ps, segment clearly, get basics right, codify unapologetically. Enjoy. Repeat.
#18. COMPETITION IS FIERCE - but know when the fight isn’t worth it. Don’t sell out - if at pitch stage the potential client, or brand you are interviewing for, don’t seem too nice/give good energy on first meets, it doesn’t typically get easier. Listen to the amber flags and the gut, they often turn red. Not always, but usually. If however you get good feelings and you think you can learn and enjoy it, run with it. Bad energy is exhausting. Learning to say NO has been key; turning down projects/collaborators takes courage but can save headaches in the long run for all.
#19. GENERALISTS FINDING A SPECIALISM, AND SPECIALISTS BRANCHING OUT SEEM TO DO WELL - I worked at an agency that spoke of the T shaped person. It sounds wanky but makes total sense to me. You are the go-to for a thing, meanwhile you are cognoscente of what is happening across the board. Likewise the generalist is great but rolling sleeves up and knowing a particular area, whether you are revisiting your specialism route, is always a good multi-tool to have.
#20. THE BEST CLIENT SERVICES ISN’T ALWAYS SPEED, BUT ALWAYS ACKNOWLEDGING. Being a Yes person does not = client service. Client servicing is partnering, educating, building trust through delivering uncomfortable truths with rationale and a proposed solution, not burying shit under the carpet. Ever. And if things take time, be transparent with what is required to take that time. Worse than a delay for a client, is if a client does not know why the delay is happening. Communication. Emails saying ‘on it’ mean more than nothing at all.
#21. B2B & B2C ARE VERY SIMILAR, JUST A LITTLE MINDSET TWEAK NEEDED - The ‘H2H - Human to Human’ cliché makes me want to bite my fork, but it is annoyingly kind of true. We are people selling to people. B2B product businesses get lost in their own acronym LTV, AOV, CRM, ERP, ROAS ABM BS, and B2B service businesses try to seemingly robotically create frameworks and systems to surgically remove brand personality. Yes we are selling to people, and yes the sales cycle is different/longer at times, but human psychology and behavioural patterns remain. The big lever I’ve found here is B2B is often social proofing impacting decisions, the how it looks. Buying the right thing because someone said it, or the career path is dodgy so a safe bet was made. And absolutely the 95:5 rule (95% are not ready to buy yet) is invariably true, so brand marketing matters here, harvesting your future customers, but beyond the same old demand generation white-paper diatribe that we constantly see.
#22. LOYALTY SCHEMES AND LOYALTY - ANOTHER HUGE CONFLATION
I am loyal to loads of loyalty schemes, the paradox. I have Starbucks rewards for the services and travels, but if there is a free cake offer or at a BP garage, my infidelity knows no bounds; I have a Costa Club app for my coffee. I have Tesco for Home deliveries but sometimes I use Lidl Plus for money off some granola or tuna. Am I loyal? Not really, Am I loyal to myself and my wallet, absolutely! Bar my recent Nike trainer obsession, my number one brand I am loyal to is me. We’re loyal to loyalty schemes, but we’re seldom loyal to brands. Fandoms and communities case studies of the tattoos of Harley Davidson outlie and defy this, but most people don’t overthink things, it is just preference, convenience, availability and prices.
#23. ON THAT, THE WORK VERY RARELY MATTERS AS MUCH AS YOU THINK IT DOES TO YOUR AUDIENCE - If you truly think about the mindset the buying decisions etc, it really is so miniscule what you do every day for most other people. Even in life and friendships, people think a lot more about their own immediate stuff than others. It’s human nature. There’s a group of you having a workshop in a London boardroom to come up with a line that may register and be kind of memorable at best to the buyer as she walks around the supermarket to briefly recall. Creating memory is what we are doing, and it is critical to get to that place, but don’t expect the work to matter to them as much it does you. Yes there is occasional game changing, meaningful stuff, that is different, but get real on the output impact; it is probably another campaign for another brand that a person may buy from time to time. more..
#24. RE : COMPETITION, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE THOSE BETTER OR WORSE THAN YOU (at certain things) - be comfortable with not having the answer. Own the unknown with your client or boss, but know where and how to answer. E.g. If you are agency side, the best client leaders know where to source the solution rather than being it. Less ego = ego boost of being part of a win long term, trust me.
#25. THEREFORE - DO NOT COMPARE TO OTHERS - WHETHER IT BE PERSONAL OUTPUT OR BUSINESS SUCCESS - we are working from different places, goals, starts, expertise, nepotisms, you name it. Copying, keeping up and looking over shoulder at the competition is zero sum. Be a good you, not a bad them. I have never seen imitation or trying to keep up/duplicate go well for any client, and flies in the face of any attempts of distinctiveness anyway.
#26. NEURODIVERSITY is everywhere - there are many visible challenges in the industry that get addressed, but this is important both for me personally and in the lens of this being a human led, service industry. 1 in 7 are neurodiverse at its lowest, we are a human business that needs to learn to work with or at least accept different ways of working, respecting boundaries, video call camera usage, awkward situations, spelling mistakes, and anything that does not sit with your sensibilities, Embrace it. More to follow from me away from this newsletter on this. But the better you learn to work with different folk, the better the teamwork will be, we all have our strengths and challenges, you cannot force a challenge to be better for your means. Work with it.
#27. FOR MANY EVERY DAY IS A STRUGGLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH - especially for those who have to mask every day - E.G diagnosed early, late or never, people of different backgrounds have had to work so hard to confirm to the neurotypical definition of professionalism. It is exhausting. Just remember the maxim of truly being kind because you have no idea what someone is going through. If someone isn’t responding well to a request for example, it may be about their experience and not you, so be mindful. If they want specific bullets in an email when you’ve ‘literally just told them’ there is probably a reason for it. I can say this; I got diagnosed with combined ADHD at 39 - that is even worse trust me. I spent the last year or so dealing with this and looking back at my life, grieving and reconciling moments throughout career, including the years of undiagnosed ADHD that I attributed to Anxiety & Depression wishing I knew, wishing people knew so they could maybe help me more. It is sad but I hope folk can thrive in the future and I hope personally I can be part of this change.
#28. HUMAN COMMUNICATION REALLY REALLY MATTERS - MORE THAN EVER. Don’t let the AI zeitgeist and generative fricking everything fool you and lure you into this popular yet myopic path of ‘this does not matter’ or the machines are taking over. Remember, we are ultimately a service business of humans helping other humans sell to humans, so human skills, input, strategy, client service and navigating creative, measurement and media nuance is critical. A team, a client base or an agency communicated with effectively, however uncomfortable the content, will always win!
#29. FINALLY, IF YOU DON’T ENJOY WHAT YOU DO, IT PROBABLY ISN’T WORTH IT. Not only is it bad for you, your wellbeing, confidence and ultimately mental health to do what you do not enjoy, but it will come across, your colleagues will notice, and your clients or brand team will notice half-arsed work. Work is a mixture of good and bad whatever you do, As Dad says, it is rarely all beer and skittles, but you have to find the joy and have the areas you really want to lean into. If this isn’t for you, it is OK, you will have got so much out of this albeit work skills or personal branding. Life is a series of modules after all, rarely linear.
AND #30 - KEEP LEARNING AND MAKE YOUR OWN INFORMED OPINION. OK I said 29, but it just doesn’t work for my head, this has to be rounded and equal of course! It leaves me to say, per my original point, despite all the informed shares above, that this is what I, me, Simon Akers learnt. But you need to learn too for yourself. It is quite the later-in-career-cliché, but don’t chase the money or salary. A regret of mine is when I was starting out in my career I went through a phase of job hopping (the ADHD part explains this too) but I was obsessed with wanting more, or earning £XYZ by aged 30. It was to the detriment of probably building more knowledge in certain areas or seeing through some great work. Luckily I have reconciled things now and I’ve committed to always learning and practicing etc, but in a volatile economy and brand world, knowledge and experience can never be taken away from you.
I look forward to reading your 29 and 30 someday, maybe they will be similar, but I kind of hope not, let me know what you learn! It depends, right?
SA
P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, The place formerly known as Twitter, (albeit less on socials now), or even my company page. If you want to discuss working together, you need some marketing advice, or simply something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!