Miscellaneous

The challenges represented by ‘Pipe(line) dreams’ relate to;

• Campaign managers tasked with achieving unrealistic levels of investment return
• Head of sales and setting expectations on marketing and sales alignment
• Marketing and sales budget planners assigning ROI and results targets to demand programmes

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

Sometimes their territorial and ‘creative protectionist’ instincts can cause interesting dynamics for client relationships.

Often with overlapping capabilities, and with an eye on wallet-share, encouraging agencies to work together can sometimes feel like trying mix oil and water. But it’s time to grow up guys!

Check out the meme, ‘Agency slapfest’. Have you experienced the antics?

The challenges represented by ‘Agency slapfest’ relate to:

• Integrated campaign managers charged with bringing external teams together that don’t want to play nicely
• Account directors and managers agency-side that are encouraged to collaborate with fellow roster agencies
• External agencies that are encouraged to work with ‘internal agencies’ whose mandate is to reduced external efforts and budget spend

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

Being precious and (sometimes over-) protective goes with being innovative and creative. But going anywhere near the territory of Microsoft Word or Powerpoint should be at your own peril!

Requests for drafts of websites, videos, ad campaigns, event stands and brochures to be shared in Powerpoint are received with derision – and with an ‘air of deflation’ that shifts in the colours/layout/fonts are going to completely ruin the art.

Check out the meme, ‘Powerpoint rage’. Have you triggered or experienced ‘the stare’?

The challenges represented by ‘MS rage’ relate to;

• Campaign managers managing stakeholder input on programmes, where Adobe Acrobat is not a fully supported corporate tool
• Agency account relationship owners who have to take the client requests back into the creative team
• Content owners and managers who need to blend agency efforts with assets produced internally with corporate tools

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

Despite all your research, preparation and considered editing about what/what not say, you’re still very conscious about how well it’s going to be received. Your reviewers are often an array of critics with varying degrees of comment value; relevant and irrelevant, structured and random, useful and useless. 

It’s when you get the full spectrum of feedback that the situation can feel like the meme – especially if the content has a creative dynamic too (e.g. video script, presentation, ebook). 

Check out the meme, ‘Copy bashing’. Have you got the bruises – or joined-in the bashing?

The challenges represented by ‘Copy bashing’ relate to:

• Content marketers and managers producing critical content to support upcoming campaigns 
• Product marketing managers writing their own copy to support corporate campaigns and assets
• Marketers curating and editing existing content and copy to mobilise campaigns quickly and cost effectively 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

An over-elevated idea, with a complex set of concepts and enablement steps can alienate the key participants and contributors you need to make it happen. At this point, your thought leadership could be causing more confusion than motion. 

Check out the meme, ‘Avoid notion without motion’. Have you experienced thought leadership that’s too lofty and incomprehensible?

The challenges represented by ‘Avoid notion without motion’ relate to: 

• Campaign managers planning and deploying thought leadership campaigns to sellers, partner channels and customers 
• Product and seller enablement teams charged with elevating sales pitch and delivery
• Marketing leaders recognising the need to infuse thought leadership programmes within broader portfolio marketing efforts 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

The cold, lingering feeling of realising you’ve not applied it properly can ashen the face of the most seasoned digital marketer. 

Check out the meme, ‘Ooops, forgot the spend cap!’. Is this a sudden realisation you’ve felt?

The challenges represented by ‘Ooops, forgot the spend cap!’ relate to:

• Digital marketers running multiple campaigns and channels 
• Marketing finance and budget holders faced with higher media costs than expected  
• Search marketing pros underestimating the volume of interest and engagement with their campaigns 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

This fundamental consideration (albeit sometimes reduced to a gut feel or snapshot) is missing from too many programmes, where the signals should be decoded and actioned. 

The savvy teams (and agencies) tackle these perceptions head-on, threading and devoting efforts towards success. But it starts with asking the questions, and understanding the perceptions in the first place.

Check out the meme, ‘Do you have reception for perception?’. Is your marketing acting on your customer perception? 

The challenges represented by ‘Do you have reception for perception’ relate to:

• Heads of social and customer marketing who have the signals and data but struggle to embed into initiatives back within the business 
• Marketing leaders whose teams lack the feedback visibility, marketing rationale and actionable plans to inform their own team efforts  
• All marketing (and customer facing) team members should have some awareness of customer perceptions so they can help their collective efforts

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

But with a poor partner strategy, structure and management it can feel more like an exercise in crowd control. 

Check out the meme ‘Herding cats’. Does channel and partner marketing feel like this sometimes?

The challenges represented by ‘Herding cats’ relate to:

• Relationship marketers charged with leading the partner down the vendors path
• Marketing and sales leads scaling business and revenue streams with new channels, alliances, and partners
• Channel marketers scaling GTM efforts through channel partners with different visions and expectations 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

But this increase in data capture is rarely echoed with a commensurate increase in resources, tools and capabilities required to convert it into meaningful, actionable, timely insights. As an industry we’re getting there, but the delta between captured data and converted insights is not narrowing quickly enough. 

Check out the meme ‘Data deluge’. Have you suffered from too much data and not enough insight?

The challenges represented by ‘Data deluge’ relate to:

• Marketing leaders dealing with increasing volumes of data afforded from platform adoption
• Digital marketing heads challenged with converting the digital signals into meaningful marketing insights that the business can act on
• Managers of marketing channels with insufficient fractional data for decision making  

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

The harsh reality is that many journeys are bumpy and take more energy to navigate than they should. 

Check out the meme ‘Dead ends and detours’. Do your customers experience the inefficiency and distraction of a mazy journey?

The challenges represented by ‘Dead ends and detours’ relate to:

• Marketing leaders who are starting to recognise the need to seize the CX opportunity
• Marketers exploring the value of good customer experience practice and starting to understand the relative performance of their business
• Digital journey and content strategists planning to align efforts with an exemplary customer journey 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

It’s at this point that the joint instincts are tested and ‘marketing telepathy’ is proven. 

Check out the meme, ‘Message mind-reading’. How good is joint instinct and marketing telepathy between you and your agency?

The challenges represented by ‘Message mind-reading’ relate to; 

• Heads of Marketing who are challenged with an agency/client relationship that struggles to get on the same page   
• Campaign leads who are looking for an agency expertise that feels like a natural team extension 
• Communications Heads who seek a collegiate partner for creating break-through initiatives

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

Unarguably, it makes sense to repurpose proven assets and collateral, especially when budgets are tight and partner channels are still in proof mode. But recycling doesn’t always fit with the flow, narratives and unique context of partner campaigns and engagements. It’s at this point that priming or more wholesale upcycling or development must be considered. 

Check out the meme, ‘Second hand marketing’. Could your partner content do with a better fit?

The challenges represented by ‘Second hand content’ relate to; 

• Heads of Sales and Marketing required to extend function support to emerging partners and channels models 
• Relationship managers challenged with supporting valuable partners but restricted by available content provided by product and corporate marketing 
• Channel leads balancing corporate budget and channel programme performance

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

Aligning it with parallel sales motions and plays is unarguable too. But, the risks run with a 100% marketing focus on ABM initiatives are the loss of serendipity, peripheral vision and broader exploration that drives innovation. 

Check out the meme, ‘The ABM bandwagon’.  Have you seen too many people, projects and platforms jump on the bandwagon? 

The challenges represented by ‘The ABM bandwagon’ relate to; 

• Heads of sales, marketing and channels recognising the need to consider ABM, but not quite knowing where to start 
• ABM managers starting to mobilise the conversation and motions within the business 
• Heads of Marketing who have over-committed their resource and investment to ABM 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

The investment: emotional, time, creative, client distraction can be quite considerable. It often heads towards the $20-30k range as you overthink and overdeliver to prove your agency has the right critical skills for their challenge. It can be a tough call to take when the client cancels the very project you’ve been awarded after 2 months of bidding. 

Check out the meme, ‘The pitch U turn’.  Feeling slight guilty that you’ve been a player or on the side-lines of this?

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!

It’s role in convincing customers is not as singular as it used to be, but competitive difference is still key to achieving an edge. So why is it that so many sales and marketing teams lack the ability to explain the difference clearly. 

Too often they revert to replaying a (louder, slower and more emphatic) summary of the benefits. BUT THAT’S NOT THE DIFFERENCE!  

Check out the meme, ‘Dunno’.  Is this something you can relate to in sales and marketing teams?

The challenges represented by ‘Dunno’ relate to; 

• Sales and enablement leads driving teams with key corporate initiatives  
• Marketing leaders managing teams with a close and influential role with sellers 
• Leaders inheriting sellers from aquired or merged organisations 

This post is 1:50 from #WhenTheAgency, a witty collection of observations through the eyes of the tech marketing agency. All memes are available to drag and drop into presentations or social posts. Visitors are encouraged to share and create knowing smiles amongst your colleagues and peers.

The full library of memes for #WhenTheAgency is available here. Enjoy!