The hire comes as the automaker puts a new emphasis on technology.

Set to an original cover of “Auld Lang Syne,” the new ad from Dentsu McGarrybowen features real small businesses.

Fill in the form below to download the free whitepaper.

http://a%20href=

For many marketers, the Covid-19 pandemic has meant having to respond to changing circumstances faster than ever before.

Audi has kept customers up-to date about changes to showroom opening conditions around the world as governments have modified their lockdown rules. Direct Line performed more experiments on its website in 12 weeks at the height of the UK crisis than it had done in the previous three years. TSB relaunched its friend referral scheme in six weeks.

What all these companies have in common is they use an agile approach to get things done more quickly.

The move towards more adaptable, more responsive marketing didn’t start with the pandemic, of course. For some time, customer experience has been a key point of differentiation as consumers increasingly expect personalised communications from brands in real-time, delivered via their preferred channel of the moment. 

And while marketers have access to unprecedented levels of data and increasingly powerful marketing data and analytics to deliver against these expectations, traditional marketing procedures move too slowly to take full advantage. As Rob Lawrence, agile marketing consultant and former Global Head of Digital Marketing at Nivea, says: “To do anything meaningful with data, you have to be able to move fast.”

So, marketers need a quicker, more responsive approach. They need to be more agile. What that looks like and how you achieve it are the subject of a new report from The Drum in association with Neustar, Agile marketing transformation: Why it’s the key to your success.

Agility or “Agile”?

When people talk about agile marketing, they most often mean marketing that is more fleet-footed than traditional. This may even include adopting the ideas and procedures of the Agile approach to software development.

“We look at agility as the ability to think and act quickly and easily,” says Blake Cahill, Global Head, Digital Marketing & E-Commerce at Philips. “The Agile Methodology is a way of working that involves shorter cycle times, a higher frequency of releases, and making a greater impact. Through this we achieve agility.”

The Agile Methodology was codified in 2001 by a group of software engineers who wanted a better approach than the then-prevalent “waterfall” model. Rather than trying to design and build a system that would meet users’ needs perfectly, Agile is based on developing by rapid iteration; building something, testing it, changing it according to user feedback, testing it again, and so on.

The other defining characteristics of Agile are that it brings people from across the organisation together in multi-disciplinary teams to work on a specific project, with goals set by the business rather than a particular channel or department.

The results are typically shorter times to market, greater efficiency, the breaking down of silos within the business, and a quicker response changing conditions.

As well as looking at what agile marketing is and how to embed it in an organisation, the report also discusses the qualities needed to be a truly agile marketer. These include being curious, disciplined, collaborative and data-driven, as well as being politically savvy and a good communicator.

The new normal

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown – if more evidence were needed – that marketing needs to become quicker to react, more efficient and more able to take advantage of big data. It’s also demonstrated the benefits that even small steps towards greater agility can bring. And finally, it’s made clear that agility, across the whole business rather than just in marketing, will be a significant source of competitive edge in the future.

 As Sinem Soydar Günal, global senior digital marketing manager, Vodafone Group says:“The adoption of Agile is inevitable. Companies have to find a way to react to changing customer needs that is easier, quicker and more efficient than before. Agile is becoming the new normal.” 

To learn more about what agile marketing is and how businesses of all kinds are adopting it, download the free report by filling in the form.

Welcome to The Drum’s new series, So You Want My Job? Each week, we’ll be asking the people working in some of the industry’s coolest jobs about how they got where they are. And, along the way, we’ll dig into their philosophies, inspirations, processes…

People have had enough of 2020. That’s clear the world over. But as the year turns into the next, some of the biggest consumer marketing opportunities reach their calendar cycle and it has left many marketers unsure of how to play it. For luxury brands…

Welcome to The Drum’s new series, So You Want My Job? Each week, we’ll be asking the people working in some of the industry’s coolest jobs about how they got where they are. And, along the way, we’ll dig into their philosophies, inspirations, processes…

It’s easy to forget what the internet runs on. While we don’t see it, the world is home to millions of physical servers in data centres, which run on power sources that emit carbon dioxide. As a result, the digital industry is responsible for at least …

Plus, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is back in NYC, a new study exposes fake news and GM changes its tune.

As Amazon boosts its connected TV content, audience and ad inventory, industry experts say its built-in base of brands selling on its platform will help propel growth even more. The allure: all that identifiable shopper data.
Amazon was late to the con…

As Amazon boosts its connected TV content, audience and ad inventory, industry experts say its built-in base of brands selling on its platform will help propel growth even more. The allure: all that identifiable shopper data.
Amazon was late to the con…

Between Covid-19 fatigue and strong demand for e-commerce, Rico Chan, the co-head for Asia Pacific at Verizon Media, says brands with the right approach online have a lot to be excited about going into 2020’s year-end shopping season.
With Covid-19 acc…

A new report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has specified five core relationship models governing effective marketing over the coming decade as it looks to help brands and agencies navigate an evolving consumer landscape.
The …

Work smart, not hard. Learn what social media metrics your company should focus on and how to check your performance numbers in approximately 15 minutes.

Coke and Converse vet Geoff Cottrill, former Modernista! founder Gary Koepke and Nylon founder Marvin Scott Jarrett team up to open Marvin.

Each week, we ask readers of The Drum, from brands, agencies and everything in between, for their advice on real problems facing today’s marketing practitioners.
In this instalment, we ask how brands should go about tapping into popular culture in orde…

The recent onslaught of cause-led communication has created a scenario where every brand is asking itself: ‘what higher order purpose can I adopt? How can I make a difference to the world?’ Raghu Bhat, co-founder of Scarecrow M&C Saatchi suggests t…

Deadpool star and certified ad man Ryan Reynolds last week teamed up with fellow actor Rob McElhenney to complete a shock takeover of Welsh non-league side Wrexham AFC. Simon Oliveira, managing director of KIN Partners, explores how some showbiz sparkl…