Brand Creative Leads To Efficiency, Not Waste

One of the top conversations in the world of marketing right now is around efficiency.

Clearly, it’s important. But much of the conversation at the industry level drifts toward Generative AI, programmatic content and media. Now, I’m not an advocate for waste and I believe deflationary technology is a good thing - it should reduce time and effort, making things cheaper and faster - but I also think efficiency comes in other forms.

One of them is how your team spends its time and directs its focus. Another is a byproduct of producing creative content that you don't have to force people to spend time with.

I often see growth stage companies struggle with these concepts. The marketing function is underdeveloped. Many of the team’s suggestions in the annual planning brainstorm meeting become the annual plan, but they’re untethered from the business objectives and the work that's necessary to achieve them.

The question I pose is, ‘Has your marketing team developed a framework to organize all of their activities against key Awareness, Association and Activation objectives? Do you know what level of investment, including your staff’s time, you’re putting into each? And, have you aligned on the role the work you’re doing plays in achieving those objectives?

There are a lot of shiny objects to chase but that doesn’t mean you should.

Once you build that foundation, you can drive efficiency by reframing your approach to certain activities that build equities in the areas you’ve identified, or eliminate the time and money spent on activities that don’t. Ultimately, the point is, don’t allow your board or your executive team or even your marketing team to believe that the only form of efficiency can come from machine learning, digital targeting or real time optimizations.

If you’re tilting too far into one direction or another, then it might be time to pause and reflect on your overarching goals, the strategies you’ve set to achieve them, and how clear your team is on executing against them. Bringing focus to your marketing program eliminates waste but also unlocks opportunities to place bigger, more calculated bets that can help the business grow.