Adaptability: A Key Characteristic of Today’s Marketers

Adap­ta­tion was a strong focus among sev­er­al of the con­trib­u­tors of our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com over the last cou­ple of weeks. The world is con­stant­ly chang­ing, with new tech­nolo­gies dis­rupt­ing the sta­tus quo and con­sumer expec­ta­tions con­tin­u­al­ly evolv­ing. What’s rel­e­vant today could eas­i­ly be obso­lete a few years from now. Com­pa­nies that want to main­tain their com­pet­i­tive edge and keep up with the increas­ing rate of change must learn to be adapt­able in the face of change.

Dan Brotzel, con­tent direc­tor for Sticky Con­tent, explored the mean­ing of the word “con­tent” in today’s mar­ket­ing world. Giv­en that con­tent can mean many things to dif­fer­ent peo­ple, per­haps we need to come up with new ways to talk about what we mean when we say “con­tent.” Brotzel believes this is espe­cial­ly true because the var­i­ous things we often lump togeth­er under the con­tent umbrel­la “actu­al­ly fall into dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories.” Mar­keters need to be pre­pared to define what con­tent means and be ready to adapt as those def­i­n­i­tions change.

Katz Kiely, CEO and founder of Kiely & Co, chal­lenged some of the com­mon assump­tions peo­ple have about the role of fail­ure. For many com­pa­nies, the com­mon approach to fail­ure is pun­ish­ment and blame. How­ev­er, Kiely says, com­pa­nies that have this kind of blame cul­ture are “less cre­ative, less inno­v­a­tive, and less prof­itable” than com­pa­nies that take a more pos­i­tive approach to fail­ure. A bet­ter way to approach fail­ure is to encour­age peo­ple to try new things with­out fear of pun­ish­ment, and this tends to dri­ve bet­ter results.

Greg Jar­rett, head of UX at William Hill, chal­lenged busi­ness­es to become high­ly adap­tive in order to sur­vive the per­pet­u­al rate of change in today’s mar­ket. With the chang­ing envi­ron­ment, cus­tomer expec­ta­tions, and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions, busi­ness­es need to be flex­i­ble and con­stant­ly able to adapt to change. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for meet­ing the chal­lenges of being a cus­tomer-expe­ri­ence-first business.

Phil Thomas, CEO of the Cannes Lions Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Cre­ativ­i­ty, sat down for an exclu­sive inter­view with CMO.com to talk about why CMOs are com­ing to a fes­ti­val that isn’t focused on mar­ket­ing. Because the fes­ti­val focus­es on cre­ativ­i­ty, Thomas believes mar­keters keep com­ing because cre­ativ­i­ty is what will set com­pa­nies apart. Mar­keters want a return on invest­ment, but giv­en the choice between being effec­tive and being cre­ative, most mar­keters want a com­bi­na­tion of both. Thomas also shared how the event has evolved over the last 15 years and adapt­ed to the chang­ing world.

Klaus Som­mer Paulsen, CEO and founder of Adven­ture­lab and co-found­ing part­ner of CNA | SOPHIS, shared the expec­ta­tion of con­sumers to expe­ri­ence some­thing authen­ti­cal­ly real, even if it isn’t per­fect. Con­sumers want to be able to immerse them­selves in a phys­i­cal set­ting with all of its sights, sounds, and smells. Paulsen believes that we’re mov­ing toward a world where mar­keters should focus on an inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal and reality.

We hope you’ll take some time to read our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com and learn from some of the lead­ers in mar­ket­ing today. Please let us know what you think.