Thanks to @VickeKaravan for help crafting the slidedeck together.
We’ve been doing a lot of work recently looking into agile marketing. In the slidedeck above we want to make the case for and show off some worthy examples of how and where agile works in the three areas that we really care about and can influence as consultants – budget, people and processes.
Three examples in particular…
Take a look at the slidedeck, but there are three specific examples worth highlighting of other guys practicing interesting, agile marketing techniques.
AppSumos many failed experiments
AppSumo’s founder, Noah Kagan spoke out our SearchLove New York conference last year sharing some of the strategies and processes they have in house.
80% of their time, they spend doing what they know works well. The rest of the time they spend experimenting, iterating and trying all sorts of tactics to try and find a positive ROI. Here’s the kicker – 86% of their experiments fail. That’s a lot of fail!
For the 14% of experiments that really do work and deliver a positive ROI within 3 months, they assign an unlimited budget. That’s the protocol within AppSumo. No “2012 Q4 Marketing Plan”.
BetaBrand puts the customer at the centre of everything
BetaBrand is a fascinating online clothing website, focused entirely around the customer. Besides products like sock insurance (why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?!) and their ‘Model Citizen’ initiative (discounts for uploading photos of you wearing BetaBrand goods), they have a “ThinkTank” where they post product pages for their limited-edition upcoming products and have customers register interest in advance for the product. Product validation FTW!
Nike could disrupt health insurance, forever?
Finally, the Nike Fuelband example. A Fuelband can be strapped to your arm as your exercise and you get interesting stats, and music, on your iPhone as you do it. Nike are opening their Fuelband API to third party developers, so what’s to stop health insurers using Fuelband to offer discounts to customers who exercise at least four times a week? And building in further incentives?
You can’t plan for seismic waves in your industry like that. Moreover, there are outsized returns for the first mover, and arguably even greater returns for the first follower (learning off the first mover’s mistakes). Instead, it’s about creating flexible agile processes, teams and budgeting.
What are your thoughts on agile marketing?
How many experiments have failed for you? How do you organize your teams? How would you like to organize your team? How are you budgeting for your marketing spend for next year?
Please let us know in the comments – we’d love help researching this further ツ
