Going Deep: Creative Lessons Learned While Consulting-From-Within.

As a traditional agency creative director, I know how to approach projects from the outside-in. I’ve also worked within companies that have brought in consultants, specifically, Bain to conduct research and write white papers and Landor Associates for a complete rebranding and revoicing. Working as outside entities, they had discrete tasks to perform and worked mainly in their own spaces, presenting their findings and their work as a finished product at the end. 

But the type of consulting assignment we were tasked with required a different, more collaborative approach. The ultimate goal was to position our client as the leader in B2B security. With a large, well-respected consumer base and trusted by more than 80,000 businesses, they had invested in their B2B development and were ready to begin expanding into the enterprise space. 

This would be an inside job

We’d be working from within the company, embedded in their organization to turn a reactive marketing process into an integrated, multi-team-driven marketing machine and, at the same time, turn out a campaign that would, hopefully, accelerate B2b sales. Already a mostly virtual company with team members on four continents, the company had had an easier pandemic transition than most and was already looking ahead to its next phase of growth.

As interim CMO in a marketing organization that had never had a CMO, Mary’s presence was welcomed eagerly. (See her blog post on her experience as an interim CMO) Dee Anna set to work defining business customer personas and outlining customer-facing strategies, which greatly helped the Campaign and Product groups. But the creatives were understandably leery of Andy Davis and me. 

How do you inspire a creative team to think bigger?

Marketing was being created on a mostly ad hoc basis, with no campaigns per-se, and little long-term planning. Some projects came into marketing as requests from sales or design. Others were generated by the content department, either in response to competitive actions or as one-off ideas proposed by individual content creators.

Our job was to move from “let’s try this” to “what’s our bigger objective and what consistent story can we tell to get there.” In practical terms, we had to transform the creative part of the organization into an integrated in-house agency, while creating a high-stakes B2B launch campaign in the process.

“Marketing as an afterthought” isn’t a unique occurance. It’s common in development-driven technology companies who grow organically and build in-house marketing teams based on product needs vs. audience needs and market goals. With people working in silos, there was no vision to hold, no progress to measure. And the process lacked the collaboration and fluidity needed for ideas to come to life efficiently and meet market dynamics quickly. Our job was to transform the loosely organized marketing teams into effective leaders, operating as a well-oiled strategically-driven machine, while creating an effective campaign to drive B2B sales. We came in three months after Mary did, so we had just 90 days to get it done.

There was resistance to our presence at first, especially from content and design. They had carved out their domains and were understandably attached to their processes. There were worries about our team’s motives. Were we there to judge them? Get them fired? Take their jobs? Did we think we were better than them? All great, reasonable questions. We met their resistance with steadfast respect, but progress, at first, was slow. 

Trading old processes for new ones

Then an opportunity arose to try a new approach. A competitor made a misstep, which opened up an opportunity to grab some market share...if we moved fast and took a bold approach. Mary and Dee Anna worked with the team on a strategic plan and Andy and I developed some quick concept-starters. This was an opportunity for our creative team to show respect to theirs while playing on the same field.

We then called a meeting to take the ideas further. The brainstorming session, conducted via Google Docs and Zoom was a blast, surprising us all. Everyone chimed in, new ideas were added, and old ideas got better. To choose three winning concepts, we each placed our initials next to our favorite lines, everyone getting an equal say. Something clicked during that meeting for all of us. The joy of creating, the bond that happens in a room of creatives who are building on each other’s ideas, and the realization that the people at InfiniteEdge Consulting truly appreciated their expertise and could help them amplify their own creative brilliance and bring more ideas to life faster. 

The team’s ability to respond so quickly to a market opportunity drove amazing results that continued strong for the next several months. But more importantly, the team learned to connect more deeply and experience the power of collaborative creation. 

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InfiniteEdge is a consultancy of marketing and culture experts that helps companies build trust and navigate today’s rapidly evolving market environment while providing all the marketing services you'd expect from a top-tier integrated agency. Invite us in to help you transition your marketing operation from reactive to responsive and develop a roadmap to help you thrive through the coming unknown.