All posts tagged: Marketing Effectiveness

A delicate balance: Standardisation meets agility in marketing

At first glance, process standardisation and agile methodologies might seem like opposing forces in the world of marketing. Standardisation implies consistency and repetition, while agility suggests flexibility and rapid adaptation. However, in my years of experience as a marketer, I’ve discovered that these two approaches, when thoughtfully combined, create a powerful synergy that drives success.

Process standardisation provides a stable foundation and clear guardrails, enabling teams to be truly agile. By establishing consistent workflows and focusing on continual improvement and best practice, we free up the team’s mental bandwidth and release resources, allowing for quicker decision-making and more creative problem-solving in response to changing needs or market conditions. This paradoxical blend of structure and flexibility is at the heart of modern, high-performing marketing teams.

The agile paradox: Structure in flexibility

Consider the structure of a typical agile sprint. By establishing a consistent rhythm of planning, regular stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives, teams create a predictable framework within which they can focus on aligning to the business goals and being more strategic and creative in the work to be done. This standardised approach to time management doesn’t constrain creativity, instead, it frees teams from the cognitive load of constantly reinventing their workflow.

Similarly, task templates for common marketing activities like campaign planning or content creation can be invaluable. These aren’t rigid scripts to be followed blindly, but repeatable and flexible starting points that bring together previous know-how across essential elements while allowing for customisation to meet specific client needs.

Prioritisation and efficiency gains

One of the most striking benefits I’ve observed from implementing standardised and repeatable workflow management processes is the dramatic increase in efficiency and clearer prioritisation to focus on work that contributes most towards the business goals. By eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel for every project, teams can work faster and more effectively. This doesn’t mean churning out cookie-cutter solutions or getting trapped in a rinse and repeat cycle, but shifts focus into creative energy and continually improving results.

A centralised knowledge base or hub has proven to be a game-changer for us. By documenting best practices, guidelines, and lessons learned, we’ve created a resource that allows team members to quickly access standardised approaches while continuously improving based on new insights. This not only speeds up work but also ensures a consistent level of quality across all our projects.

How to get started

Effective process standardisation in an agile marketing model is not without its challenges. I’ve seen teams fall into the trap of over-rigidity, creating processes so inflexible that they stifle creativity and prevent adaptation to meet changing business and market needs. The key is to remember that standardisation should provide a framework, not a straitjacket.

Another common pitfall is culture and mindset; resistance from team members who feel their autonomy is being limited can derail implementing a consistent approach. Addressing this requires a change communications approach and involvement in the process development and optimisation. When team members understand the ‘why’ behind standardised processes and have a hand in shaping them, buy-in becomes much easier to achieve. Don’t forget to celebrate the big and small wins along the way, as you develop processes, toolkits and templates there will be a lot of test and learn opportunities, share these moments as a team.

Client success stories

The true test of any process improvement and optimisation project, is its impact on business outcomes. I’m proud to say that our work and agile marketing methodology has yielded impressive results for our clients. For example, our agile marketing training programme helped to drive 123% increase in revenue for Informa Markets’ CPHI Europe event.

Our standardised project management framework has also been a hit with clients. Regular check-ins, progress reports, and clearly defined milestones keep projects on track and allow for timely adjustments. Clients appreciate the transparency and predictability this brings to our projects and campaigns.

Perhaps most importantly, our focus on standardised performance measurement has transformed the way we demonstrate value to clients. With established KPIs and reporting templates, we’re able to provide clear, data-driven insights that help clients understand their marketing performance and make informed decisions.

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement

The real magic happens when standardised processes become ingrained in the culture of a team or organisation. This doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right approach, it’s achievable. We’ve found success by involving team members in the development and refinement of workflows, providing comprehensive training and ongoing support, and encouraging regular feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Technology plays a crucial role in this integration. By leveraging workflow methods with project management and collaboration tools that support our standardised processes, we’ve made it easier for teams to follow established workflows without feeling burdened by them. It also allows greater opportunities to measure time– to– market, lead times, task completion and rework rates and overall pace. We can also measure the impact of greater agility through improved processes and prioritisation of tasks.

Celebrating successes has also been key to fostering adoption. When teams see tangible improvements in their work and receive recognition for effectively implementing standardised processes, it reinforces the value of these approaches and encourages continued buy-in.

The path forward

As we look to the future of B2B marketing, it’s clear that process standardisation and repeatability will continue to play a vital role. The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in striking the right balance between structure and flexibility, between efficiency and creativity.

By thoughtfully implementing standardised processes within an agile marketing framework, we’ve achieved a powerful synergy that not only optimises marketing operations but delivers tangible benefits to our clients.

As you embark on your own journey of process standardisation, remember that the goal is not to create rigid, immutable systems, but to establish a strong foundation that supports agility, creativity, and continuous improvement. With the right approach, standardised processes can become a catalyst for innovation and excellence in agile marketing.

In this ever-evolving landscape, the businesses that thrive will be those that can harness the power of standardisation without losing the spark of innovation. It’s a delicate balance, but one that, when achieved, can transform the way we work and the results we deliver.

July 15, 2025 hannah.siva@brightinnovation.co.uk Agile Marketing In Practice

Busy but not better: why your B2B marketing isn’t delivering the results it should

Marketing teams are some of the busiest teams in the business. Content calendars are packed. Campaigns are firing. Budgets are being spent. But for many B2B organisations, all that activity still isn’t translating into consistent pipeline or strong returns. It’s not for lack of effort. The problem is often something more subtle: a misalignment of effort.

The real issue isn’t volume, it’s focus

When results stall, the instinctive response is often to do more. Launch more campaigns. Publish more content. Spend more budget. But we’ve seen this play out across dozens of B2B growth-stage businesses and “more” rarely fixes the root issue.

The truth? Most teams don’t have a volume problem. They have a distribution of effort problem. Marketing activity is spread unevenly across the customer journey. Some areas are over-resourced, others overlooked. And while it all feels busy, the outcome is misaligned, underperforming GTM execution.

That’s where a simple, strategic model can help bring clarity. We use a straightforward lens to audit and realign marketing strategies: Brand. Demand. Activate.

Brand

Are you building awareness and trust with the right audience?
This is what gets you in the conversation, builds familiarity, and primes your audience for future conversion.

Demand

Are you effectively capturing interest and converting it to pipeline?
From lead generation to nurture to sales enablement, this is where most teams invest the bulk of their time and budget.

Activate

Are you turning existing customers into a source of sustained growth? This often-overlooked area includes retention, upsell, and referral and it has a profound impact on CAC, LTV, and efficiency.

Here’s what we typically find when teams map their GTM plan across this model:

Brand work is often fragmented across silos.

Demand is stretched thin – expected to deliver ever more with ever less.

Activate is under-resourced, or worse, absent.

And that’s a big miss. Because Activate is where revenue resilience lives.

Why ‘Activate’ matters more than you think

In a world of tighter budgets, shifting buyer expectations, and longer sales cycles, growth doesn’t just come from net-new business. It comes from retaining, growing, and learning from your existing customers.

Activate isn’t just about post-sale comms. It’s about creating a systematic engine for:

Retention – Helping customers realise value quickly and stay longer

Upsell – Identifying natural expansion points based on behaviour and success

Referral – Turning happy customers into advocates and influencers

These levers don’t just improve efficiency — they help multiply your overall marketing ROI. And yet, most GTM teams still default to the front end of the funnel. Because that’s where it feels easier to show activity, if not impact.

Breaking the ‘busy work’ cycle

So why do so many marketing teams stay trapped in reactive mode? Because they’re stuck in what we call the ‘busy work’ loop:

Capacity gets maxed out chasing quarterly targets

Priorities shift weekly (or daily)

Budget gets spread too thin

Teams operate in silos

Strategy takes a back seat to delivery

And it all adds up to a huge disconnect between effort and impact. That’s where agile marketing becomes a real unlock, not just as a delivery methodology, but as a mindset.

It helps teams:

Prioritise what actually moves the needle

Collaborate across functions

Adapt quickly to data and feedback

Focus on value, not volume

In other words: aim before you fire.

Time to take a closer look?
If your team is doing all the things but still falling short on results, this might be the moment to step back. Try mapping your current marketing plan against the Brand–Demand–Activate model. Where are you over-investing? Where are the blind spots? And what might happen if you shifted just 10–15% of your time and budget into the areas that drive lasting growth?

Want to explore how this could work in your team?
We’ve helped B2B marketing leaders rebalance their strategy and unlock performance using this simple model. Let’s talk.

July 10, 2025 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice

Agile isn’t just about moving fast – it’s about moving in the right direction

The setup

The event’s three weeks out.
You’re juggling six sponsors, four email journeys, and a keynote speaker who still hasn’t confirmed.
You’ve had the same budget sign-off doc open in three tabs.
Everyone’s “in motion” but no one knows what’s actually moving.

The diagnosis

That’s not speed.
That’s chaos disguised as hustle.

You’re reacting fast, working hard, staying busy.
It feels like agility.
But deadlines keep slipping. Approvals stall. Priorities blur.

That’s not agility, it’s survival mode.

The illusion of agility

Most teams don’t resist agile.
They just adopt fragments of it and assume that’s enough.

You might not run standups or retros.
But you’ve got project plans. A kanban board. Weekly team meetings.
You adapt to change. You move fast. You get things over the line.

It looks agile. It even feels agile, because it’s reactive.

But agility isn’t motion. It’s principled adaptation. It’s structure under pressure. It’s progress by design.

You’re not far off. But without principles, fast work is fragile work.

What Agile actually enables

When properly embedded, agile transforms how marketing teams operate:

Clarity on priorities→ Know what must move this week, and what can wait
Faster launches, fewer blockers→ Ship version one without endless sign-off loops
Real-time decision-making→ Adjust strategy based on what the data says today
Sustainable pace→ Avoid the burnout of always working at the edge of control

Agile gives your team the rhythm it needs to focus, adapt, and win under pressure.

Where Agile Slips

Even with the right tools, things stall:

Weekly priorities are set but rarely revisited
Meetings happen, but decisions don’t
Work is tracked, but progress feels stuck
Campaigns run, but lessons are skipped

Agile isn’t a label. It’s a living process.

What real agility looks like

In media and event marketing, agile shows up like this:

Clarity: Everyone knows what’s moving, what’s stuck, and why
Responsiveness: You pivot on facts, not fear
Confidence: Teams test, learn, and iterate fast
Visibility: Tools simplify, not clutter, the path to execution

From reaction to rhythm

To move from hustle to true agility:

Spot the sticking pointsWhere does work stall? What delays decisions? Clear the friction.
Shrink the cycleReplace long-range planning with tight sprints focused on one meaningful outcome.
Empower real autonomyDecentralise decisions. Don’t wait to move, equip your team to act.

Final word

You’re already moving fast. But if your speed isn’t strategic, your progress won’t stick.
Agile isn’t a checklist. It’s how modern teams build clarity in chaos, not just cope with it.
You’ve made the first shift. Now make it sustainable.

June 26, 2025 Sian Heaphy Agile Marketing In Practice, Publishing, Media & Events

The AI adoption divide: why some B2B marketers are pulling ahead and how the rest can catch up

We need to talk about the gap.

Not the buzz. Not the endless opinion pieces. But the very real performance divide opening up between B2B marketing teams who are experimenting with AI, and those who are embedding it into how they actually work.

27% of global CMOs admit their teams aren’t really using AI at all (TechMonitor).

Meanwhile, commercial teams are blending AI with customer experience and according to McKinsey are 1.7× more likely to increase market share.

This isn’t just a tech trend. It’s a strategic marketing shift.

The AI accelerators vs. the AI avoiders

Let’s be honest: every leadership team says AI is on their radar. But in practice, we’re seeing two camps emerge:

1. The Experimenters

Curious, but cautious. Teams dipping their toe in with the odd content assistant or AI generated image. But no strategic fit. No real integration and still asking ‘where does this actually belong and add value?’

2. The Accelerators

They’ve moved past pilots. They’ve embedded AI into campaign planning, content operations, and optimisation processes. They’ve built confidence and they’re gaining ground fast.

In fact, Deloitte found that 42% of top-performing B2B firms say AI is “critical” to their future competitiveness.

What’s holding others back?

From our work across fintech, SaaS, publishing, and industrial sectors, we’re seeing four big blockers that keep organisations stuck in experimentation limbo:

Skills and confidence gaps – across the whole team, not just senior leadership

Governance paralysis– fear of “getting it wrong” overrides the need to try

Unclear use cases– too many tools, not enough strategic focus

Scepticism on ROI – because we’ve all seen the martech hype fall flat

What the high-performers do differently

The B2B teams making AI work aren’t just tool-savvy, they’ve rethought how they operate. Three things stand out:

Cross-functional AI squads– blending marketing, ops, data, compliance and legal. No more innovation stuck in silos
Meaningful investment in AI literacy– not just a one off webinar. Structured training that includes prompt engineering, model interpretation and even ethical training for campaign planning
Agile ways of working– the real differentiator. Agile gives teams the framework and guardrails to test tools in live campaigns, measure what works, and scale quickly without the faff.

From theory to traction

Real world examples we’re seeing working right now:

A global publishing firm using agentic AI to build a new persona and create highly tailored content for a new market segment.

A global payroll and HCM solution provider integrating video AI tools to halve production time (and cost) for their quarterly internal marketing show reel production

A global industrial machinery firm is using generative AI tools to translate complex product specs into customer-friendly content at speed – to improve ad campaign performance and unlock localisation that used to take weeks.

These aren’t vanity projects. They’re operational advantages being built sprint by sprint.

This is a leadership moment

Marketing leaders have a choice to make.

Treat AI as a side project for “when we’ve got time” or we can treat it as what it really is – a lever for improving performance, agility and team effectiveness right now.

At Bright, we help teams bridge the gap. Not just by adopting and integrating the right tools, but by reshaping how marketing works, so AI becomes part of the engine.

That means:

Mapping your current AI maturity (and be honest about it!)

Identifying the workflows where AI can actually drive value and measure it

Giving your team the skills, space, and support to experiment with purpose.

Because in this era of B2B marketing, experimentation isn’t the goal. Transformation is.

What about your team?

What’s the reality in your team right now – are you experimenting or accelerating? What would help you move faster, with more confidence?

Want to get more value from Agentic AI?

If you want to Make AI work for you B2B marketing team and not just add more tools to your tech stack, download our AI Activation Framework.

>Download the B2B AI Activation Framework

June 17, 2025 Zoe Merchant AI

Don’t bolt AI governance on. Build it in

We talk a lot about doing the right thing with AI.

But in B2B marketing, knowing what’s the right thing isn’t enough. We need to build it into how we work.

Because if we want to earn trust in the AI era, we can’t treat ethics and governance like a one-off workshop or a slide in a risk pack. They have to show up in our workflows, in our stand-ups, the sprints and the day-to-day decisions.

That’s where brand trust is built or broken.

Don’t bolt governance on. Build it in.

As AI use ramps up across marketing, we’re seeing the risks rise too – biased outputs, non-compliant targeting, hallucinated content.

Not because marketers are careless or reckless. But because processes haven’t kept up with the tools.

A recent Salesforce report showed that 68% of consumers say AI makes it more important than ever for companies to be trustworthy. Thanks to the EU AI Act, trust is no longer just a brand promise, it’s part of your compliance checklist.”

But governance doesn’t mean slowing down. In fact, done right it helps you move faster, with fewer (nasty) surprises, clearer decision making and more confident launches.

What does it look like in practice?

Here’s how ethical AI governance becomes part of your agile marketing operations:

1. Sprint retros with a conscience

Use retrospectives not just for performance reviews, but for ethical checks. → Did any AI outputs raise red flags? → Was customer data used appropriately? → Were any decisions made by AI that need a second look?

2. Transparent user stories

When scoping AI tasks in your backlog, make the ethical implications explicit. → “As a campaign manager, I want to use AI to personalise content without profiling based on sensitive characteristics.”

3. Bias checks = part of QA

Don’t leave it to the data team. Embed basic fairness checks into your review process across your teams. → Spot gendered language in AI copy. → Challenge assumptions in segmentation or recommendations.

4. Approval flows for AI outputs

Fast doesn’t mean free-for-all. Define what must get human sign-off – whether that’s automated campaign triggers, AI-generated images or model-driven pricing decisions.

5. Governance rituals

Just like stand-ups and planning meetings, set recurring checkpoints for AI ethics. Create a shared scorecard or checklist. Use it regularly, not reactively.

Agile governance = scalable trust

At Bright, we help teams work in ways that support ethical marketing best practice.

We don’t run one off ethics audits. We help you turn governance into repeatable processes. That’s how agile marketing works best as an enabler not bolted on.

Because agile marketing isn’t just about pace—it’s about make confident, data driven decisions That you’re doing the right thing and that your team can move fast andbuild trust in your brand – not break it.

How we help:

Embed AI governance into sprint planning, reviews and retros

Define agile-friendly usage policies for AI and automation tools

Co-create internal ethics scorecards to use in QA and approvals

Train teams to spot risks early and manage them.

We’ve seen this work across publishing and events companies using AI to generate insight-led content, to manufacturing marketers localising technical content at scale. The common thread? Strong, agile marketing foundations that turn ethics from theory into a habit.

Over to you. How are you building AI governance into your team’s way of working?

If you’re just starting or already deep into it, let’s compare notes. Because governance is only a blocker if it sit outside your processes and workflows.

Want to get more value from Agentic AI?

If you want to Make AI work for you B2B marketing team and not just add more tools to your tech stack, download our AI Activation Framework.

>Download the B2B AI Activation Framework

June 11, 2025 Zoe Merchant AI

Let’s be honest – we’ve all heard it before. Brand and demand need to work together. It’s not a revelation, it’s common sense.

And yet… senior B2B marketers are still stuck trying to prove the value of long-term brand investment. Still battling short-termism. Still explaining – again – why awareness and trust are just as important as leads and pipeline value.

This session isn’t about rehashing what we already know. It’s about how to make it stick—with the board, the wider business, and across your marketing teams.

There were some great insights shared by our B2B marketing expert panel, including:

95% of buyers aren’t in-market, so marketers need ‘always-on’ brand activity
The role of storytelling to help justify brand investment to leadership
The importance of social listening to provide real-time insight and improve campaign relevance
B2B search behaviour is shifting with buyers now searching via social and AI platform.

Plus, we reveal the biggest growth opportunity in B2B.

If you’re trying to educate the business, prove marketing’s value, and deliver consistent performance across brand and demand – this is your session.

Meet the panel

Zoë Merchant

Managing Director,
Bright

Zoe Merchant is the founder and managing director of Bright, a strategic B2B marketing consultancy that gives marketers the power to do great work and deliver business results. With over 20 years of experience in agile marketing, she helps clients reinvent their marketing operations, align with business goals, and deliver tangible value.

As a leader and innovator in her field, Zoe has been recognised as a top 10 women leader of 2020, a 3x #40overforty advertising and marketing leader, and a #CannesLions70 Creative B2B juror in 2023. She is also a certified Agility in Marketing professional.

Zoe is passionate about investing and reinventing marketing teams, promoting diversity and inclusion, and championing marketing’s role in business transformation.

Christina Minshull

CEO
The Brand Audit

Christina Minshull is the CEO of The Brand Audit, helping CEOs, Founders & Execs transform influence to impact through personal brand strategy.

A storyteller with a spreadsheet mindset, she has nearly two decades of experience leading high-performance Brand, Social, and Digital Marketing teams at global enterprise corporations like EY, LinkedIn & WestJet. Christina is passionate about helping others turn potential into reality with the visibility that comes from social media.

A Top LinkedIn Voice in Brand Strategy & Social Media, Christina is a sought-after global speaker and creator, with 25K+ followers across LinkedIn (@ChristinaMinshull) and TikTok (@thelinkedinguru). Her human-centric approach to social media has attracted high-profile clients from EY, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and more across the UK, EMEA, US, and Canada.

Emma Moorman

Senior Director, Demand Generation
Informa

An experienced and commercially driven leader with global experience in driving growth in marketing and product management roles; a strong product background in building solutions to empower and solve problems for marketing professionals.

May 21, 2025 Alaina Roberts Bright Videos & Podcasts, Marketing Effectiveness

It’s not the tools. It’s your marketing leadership that makes AI work

There’s a gap opening up in B2B marketing, and it’s not just about tech. It’s about fluency.

AI is moving fast. And while tools grab the headlines, it’s how we use them and how we organise around them that will separate the leaders from the laggards.

Let’s be clear: you don’t need to become a machine learning expert. But you do need to understand how AI can shift how your team works, what you prioritise, and where you place your bets.

57% of UK B2B marketers now rank AI understanding as the most important skill for future success – above data analytics and collaboration (Marketing Week).

McKinsey found organisations with AI-literate marketing leaders are significantly more likely to see ROI from their investments.

And the EU AI Act puts responsibility firmly on business users, not just developers, to ensure AI is used safely, ethically, and effectively.

That means marketing leadership must understand how, where and why to adopt these tools and scale them across their marketing operations.

The role of marketing leadership

We need to build a growth culture focused on establishing the value of the tools available to us or that we want to test. We need to ask better questions, set smarter, measurable expectations, and create space for our teams to experiment without fear of failure.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Working within test-and-learn frameworks grounded in clear hypotheses

Equipping teams with the training and guardrails to operate and maintain tools confidently and correctly

Building prompting best practice

Understanding the biases and blind spots in models

Creating an AI adoption roadmap tied to your commercial priorities

And developing the instinct to spot vendor nonsense a mile off

But here’s the catch: AI only delivers value if your ways of working are actually built for it.

Agile ways of working are crucial

It’s hard to get value from AI if your processes are broken.

If your team is stuck in long planning cycles, siloed roles and perfection paralysis, AI won’t help you, it’ll confuse the hell out of them!

Agile marketing unlocks the value. It gives teams the frameworks needed to successfully test and learn. It’s data driven and customer centric, so it can help leaders spot what’s working and scale it quickly. It reduces risk while speeding up results.

Being agile allows you to use:

• Short sprints to test value

• Early indicators of success (or failure)

• Data to scale what works, fast

• The confidence to stop what doesn’t.

It’s not about moving faster. It’s about moving smarter and proving value as you go.

A brighter approach

At Bright, we believe this is another challenge for marketing leaders and the importance of reshaping how we work so we can lead confidently in an AI-enabled world

We’re not AI evangelists. We’re practical optimists. We help teams:

Cut through the hype and find where AI can genuinely add value to their marketing

Build business cases that stand up in the boardroom

Use agile ways of working to integrate new tools, data and tech in a systematic and scalable way.

Because if we don’t, we risk falling into the same trap that’s caught us many before: investing in the latest tech, without the strategy, mindset or muscle to show it adds value.

May 20, 2025 Zoe Merchant AI

Cut the fat, not the impact: how smart CMOs are squeezing more from less in 2025

Let’s not sugar-coat it: This year is a pressure cooker for B2B marketers.

Budgets are under strain. Teams are stretched. The ask? Deliver more commercial impact with fewer resources. And no, you can’t hire.

But the best CMOs aren’t flinching, they’re pivoting. They’re treating constraint as a catalyst. Getting lean. Getting sharp. And crucially, getting agile.

Here’s how high-performing marketing teams are turning challenge into competitive advantage:

Ruthless prioritisation, not polite compromises

Top marketing leaders aren’t hedging their bets across 10 campaigns, they’re backing three that actually drive results. That means trimming the fluff, shelving the vanity projects, and focusing on what aligns with commercial strategy.

Agile isn’t a theory, it’s a working style

Agile ways of working aren’t new, but they’re becoming non-negotiable. The teams leading the pack have baked in agile rhythms: sprint planning, backlog prioritisation, iterative testing, and regular retros.

They’re not just reacting faster, they’re learning faster, and delivering faster.

It’s not about doing more work. It’s about doing the right work. In the right order. With the right people in the room.

Collaboration over control

Marketing doesn’t sit in a silo anymore (and if it does in your org — fix that). Smart CMOs are forging stronger ties across sales, product and finance, aligning on outcomes, not just outputs.

It’s a team sport now. And marketers are the ones keeping the scoreboard.

Data is your proof point and your power play

Marketing has to justify its seat at the revenue table. That means mastering the numbers such as CLV, CAC, pipeline velocity, engagement-to-conversion rates, and using them to steer investment.

Gut feel isn’t good enough. Real-time insight is how you earn (and defend) your budget.

Content that cuts through (not just fills the funnel)

Paid is plateauing. Content is climbing. But the bar is higher. Mediocre messaging gets ignored, especially in a market flooded with AI-generated ‘meh’.

It’s not about more content. It’s about braver content. Useful, opinionated, and properly distributed.

Fractional, flexible, and faster to value

Permanent headcount is harder to come by, so leaders are tapping into a more elastic talent model such as outsourced experts, fractional CMOs, freelance specialists, to fill gaps fast and keep momentum high.

It’s smart. It’s scalable. And it’s how high-growth teams are staying agile without overloading their core.

This is agile leadership in practice

Constraint doesn’t kill marketing. Complacency does. The CMOs thriving in 2025 are the ones embracing agile principles, making bold decisions, and embedding experimentation deep into their team’s DNA.

Where are you doubling down this year?

How are you embedding agility into your strategy and operations?

Would love to hear what’s working…and what’s not.

May 15, 2025 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice, Marketing Effectiveness

On-demand webinar: Growing audiences and driving engagement in B2B publishing, media & events.

B2B publishers and media firms are juggling events, content, subscriptions, and communities to grow audiences and keep them engaged year-round. But what’s actually driving results — and what’s just making more noise?

In this panel, senior marketing leaders who’ve been in the thick of it share real-world insights on what’s working (and what’s not). No fluffy theory — just practical strategies for building connected audience experiences across events and media.

We explore:

Connecting events, content, and digital products to keep audiences coming back for more
How to cut through the noise with compelling narratives and storytelling that turn audiences into engaged communities
What works (and what doesn’t) and how to craft content that actually resonates
Practical ways to test, learn, and adapt faster (without burning out your team)
How leading B2B publishers are transforming unknown audiences into loyal, engaged communities

There’s candid, experience-backed insights — plus actionable ideas you can implement right away to sharpen your audience strategy and make your marketing more effective.

Check out the reading list:

Download your Reframe cards:

Meet the panel

Chelsey Lang

Head of Brand, Content & Community Marketing
Informa Markets, Dubai, UAE

Chelsey is passionate about the way storytelling and data work together to drive action and craft profitable user journeys. She specialises in bringing content marketing into the events marketing sphere, leading on brand building, audience growth and community development across global event portfolios.

Dasha Dollar-Smirnova

Founder,
Frog Talk

Dasha Dollar-Smirnova is a seasoned storyteller and the founder of Frog Talk, a communication and public speaking training company, where she empowers individuals to harness the power of their narratives for greater confidence and impact.

She has developed a unique methodology that blends her background in performing arts as an actress, years in the advertising industry, and her Master of Science in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health.

Having shaped brand communications across multiple channels and markets for global giants like Apple, Nike, and Starbucks, she understands how to craft messages that cut through and connect.

Now, she applies this expertise to coaching, helping individuals and teams communicate with authenticity, clarity, and influence.

Zoë Merchant

Managing Director,
Bright

Zoe is passionate about investing and reinventing marketing teams, promoting diversity and inclusion, and championing marketing’s role in business transformation.

March 13, 2025 Alaina Roberts Bright Videos & Podcasts, Engagement, Publishing, Media & Events

Why traditional marketing fails – and how agility future-proofs your team

Markets shift. Budgets tighten. Stakeholder expectations change overnight. And just when you think you’ve nailed your strategy, something new disrupts your plan. Sound familiar?

For B2B senior marketing leaders with good sized teams, the challenge isn’t just about keeping up; it’s about staying ahead. The ability to pivot quickly, effectively, and with minimal waste is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a commercial imperative. And that’s where agile marketing skills make all the difference.

Why traditional marketing models fail under pressure

The problem with traditional marketing approaches is that they rely on long-term planning, rigid execution, and an often-siloed structure. That’s fine when the world is predictable. But in today’s climate? Not so much. When a competitor makes an unexpected move, a customer need shifts, or a campaign underperforms, legacy processes don’t allow for quick shifts without major disruption.

Agile marketing: your built-in pivot system

Agile marketing flips the script. It’s not about having a set plan and sticking to it no matter what. It’s about creating a framework that allows your team to move fast, test ideas, and adapt based on data and insights.

Here’s how agile marketing enables your team to pivot effectively and efficiently:

Sprints keep the team focused and adaptable – Instead of rigid annual plans, agile teams work in short cycles (sprints) with clear goals. If a market shift happens mid-sprint, you assess, adjust, and course-correct without derailing everything.
Data-driven decision-making – No more ‘gut feel’ marketing. Agile marketing prioritises experimentation, with continuous A/B testing, real-time performance tracking, and data-informed tweaks that help teams respond to what’s actually working (or not).
Collaboration breaks down silos – When cross-functional teams work together in agile marketing hubs, communication improves, and pivots happen smoothly. No waiting for a ‘sign-off process’ that takes weeks. The right people are in the room, making decisions in real-time.
Fail fast, learn faster – One of the biggest mindset shifts with agile marketing is that failure isn’t the enemy—stagnation is. By rapidly testing small-scale experiments, teams get insights quickly, double down on what works, and ditch what doesn’t before major budget is wasted.
Flexibility without chaos – Some worry that agility equals disorder. In reality, agile marketing operates within a structured framework of prioritisation, backlog refinement, and sprint planning. This means you can pivot without panic and adapt without losing sight of business goals.

The commercial impact of agility

For senior marketers leading teams in complex B2B organisations, agile marketing isn’t just about ‘working differently’—it’s about delivering better business outcomes. When done right, it results in:

Faster go-to-market – Marketing teams get campaigns out the door in weeks, not months.
Higher ROI – More frequent testing means budget is spent where it has the most impact.
Stronger alignment with sales & product teams – Agile structures foster collaboration between marketing, sales, and product, ensuring alignment on commercial priorities.
Increased team engagement – Marketers feel empowered and energised, with clearer visibility of impact.

Are you ready to pivot?

If your team still operates with lengthy campaign cycles, rigid plans, and a fear of failure, it’s time to rethink your approach. Agile marketing gives you the tools to navigate uncertainty with confidence—and drive better results while doing it.

So, how agile is your marketing team right now? Are you set up to pivot, or are you stuck in a structure that slows you down? Let’s discuss how to make marketing agility your competitive advantage.

February 20, 2025 Alaina Roberts Agile marketing mindset, Marketing Effectiveness