In our fifth episode of our Ask the Experts series titled “Agile Decision Making”, Claudia Sestini, Global CMO of Gain Theory, discusses best practices and advice for being agile in the face of changing priorities with a full panel of industry experts.

With regards to media allocation decisions across brands, Claudia Sestini asks:

“Many marketers have evolved their media plans and strategies to meet the needs of their customers in 2020, which can be particularly difficult when managing media allocations across multiple brands, products, industries or customer sets.

How should marketers decide media allocations across these portfolios to avoid spreading advertising budgets too thin?”

Panel Guests:

Georgia Thodey, Head of Brand and Media Planning at NatWest Group

Matt Hill, Research and Planning Director at Thinkbox

Matt Chappell, Senior Partner at Gain Theory

Key Takeaways:

• There are four key factors that can help marketers, whether you’re allocating media across a full portfolio of brands, products, or different segments.

1. Consider all marketing and media allocation as investment choices:

• Look for opportunities to invest that will drive ROI financially for the brand and benefit the customers. Look at where and how much you are investing, what you’re driving from that investment, and analyze the gaps to see if you’re over or underinvesting anywhere.
• Look at the market as a whole, where you think the market is going, and compare your activities to others.
• Consider your investment and activities to see whether they align with your business objectives.

2. Create a level playing field for assessment.

• Create this level playing field across all your brands, products, or segments and find a way to compare apples to oranges to see where the true value of investment is for each.
• Work with an econometrics expert to build a model that can help you make these investment comparisons.
• Utilize multiple sources when researching and assessing.

3. Prioritize and make the tough decisions.

• Doing fewer things well is a key to success.
• Make informed decisions that align with your objectives and strategy to help you say “no” when needed.

4. Set the guard rails and be prepared to adapt.

• Once you’ve established how much you will invest, where you will invest, and why – be ready to shift continuously through the year.
• Review your results, analyze how the market is changing, and encourage agile decision-making.

Other topics addressed in the “Agile Decision Making” Ask the Experts Session: 

• How to pivot marketing strategy, at the right pace and place
• How TV advertising is changing for more agile decision-making
• How to measure marketing efficacy, at speed

To stream the full video click here.