Perceptint Musings

With the continuing growth of digital marketing technologies, many companies are faced with the challenge of dipping their toes into new channels they may not be fully prepared for. Given the complexities of new channels like mobile advertising and social media, to move from a pilot marketing program into an official marketing protocol is a tall order.

That’s why I firmly believe that most companies need a digital risk center. This would be a marketing group that’s sole charter is to experiment with new channels and help guide the company through the potentially rocky roads without exposing the entire corporation to a greater risk. They are like the digital Sherpa’s, setting the ropes and ladders for the greater hordes following behind.

Here’s a quick list for how it could work:

1. Digital Risk Center is formed. Their charter is to identify new channels that might satisfy current marketing goals.
2. The group would have a separate budget from overall marketing. They would be responsible for vendor management.
3. From the first pilot of a new campaign, the group would be responsible for documentation and case studies of each new channel.
4. From the case studies, best practices for the organization should be developed. Once best practices are in place, the group would be responsible for partnering with the appropriate internal sponsors to turn the best practices into official marketing protocol.
5. As channels are approved and move through this process, the group would be responsible for assisting in the hand off of the channel to the larger marketing organization.
6. Repeat and rinse.

In this model, experimentation and learning are actively encouraged. One of the goals is to ensure that someone’s job isn’t hanging in the balance due to a lapse in judgment by their use of a new channel and subsequent failure. This model accepts that failure will occur, but understands that failure with learning’s can help the overall organizational health. It is also an acknowledgement by the company that they need to mitigate risk and create a method for keeping up with the ever-changing digital marketing picture.

What are your thoughts on this digital risk center concept? Does your company actively take chances or does your corporate culture wince from the thought? As always, your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

Until next time, may risk and the proper handling of it bring you and your organization the rewards they deserve.

This past year, it seems everything around me is going green. From the rise in organic foods at grocery stores to the explosion of green cleaning products and more energy efficient lighting, it seems consumer preference has shifted completely into the green camp. And marketers are certainly capitalizing on the idea like never before.

But what is harder to tell is if the dollars are chasing the hype? I know in my household, we are trying more and more to buy “green” products if they are available. We’re not exactly sure they’re going to help, but it makes us feel better trying to make a difference.

A recent episode of Oprah featured “freegans” - people who get all of their food and household goods from discarded items in dumpsters. It was amazing to see the sheer amount of waste of perfectly good products and food. Even though it produces an emotional first reaction of “that’s gross”, to see the people in action was actually quite inspiring.

What’s your experience or feedback on the movement to go green? Are you making a conscious decision to buy green products or are you sticking to your 20th century ways?

When you’re dealing with an organization with more than a hundred thousand employees, it’s very likely you could end up bumping into a negative zone version of yourself or your team on any given day. Discovering others within your organization with a similar charter, goal, time-line, project or scope can throttle into a Monday morning like hot soup in your lap.

My team has had several instances lately of running into new internal people trying to solve similar problems to the ones we face. They have their own budgets, their own clients, their own agenda and our sudden discovery of each other usually leaves both groups puzzled. Did I just run into my shadow? Do we own this part of the business now or do they?

We’ve recently been in process of looking at vendors for a certain need.  We’ve had preliminary interviews with all of the companies we wanted to speak with. The next step for us was to find additional internal sponsors and then begin the RFP process. Right after we crossed the threshold of speaking to the first round of vendors, we discovered another group that has a similar goal related to the need we are trying to fix.

This group is already in the dog and pony part of the show with vendors. So now we’re quickly tagging along with them to see where they’re at, what they know, how far along they are in their process etc. We’re also hoping they don’t jump the gun and start down a path that we aren’t able to influence.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. I realized I need to start documenting our strategy for dealing with these types of issues. This is my first draft for handling these types of situations.  I’m very open to feedback and any thoughts you might have about this list.

Code of Conduct for Internal Comet-Like Collisions

1. Stay calm, you didn’t worry about this team or their projects before today
2. It is highly likely that the discovery of the other team(s) will be of benefit to your projects if you handle it properly
3. Begin an ambassador outreach program to this team at once
4. Get any and all background that you can and provide them with the same
5. Document their team structure, reporting structure, etc.
6. Make it official - do your two teams overlap and where? If they do, put it out there in the organizational mind-share.
7. It could benefit both teams and help management better plan future resource development
8. Look for opportunities to spread your buying power into theirs or vice versa
9. Keep in touch - don’t let your projects and day to day worries keep the other team out of your mental picture, you may need them and their expertise sooner than later
10. Share knowledge and learning’s often - you both stand to benefit from the others experience
11. Do you now have a bigger story to sell within the organization? It may be that the combined efforts of two teams produces better results than one team alone. If it does, tell people and sell the cross-over success. If it doesn’t and your tripping over each other, let people know that too
12. If a mirror image team within the organization existed for this project, there is a greater probability that there are more mirror teams for other projects as well

Keeping your cool is what it’s all about when things get wacky like this. Discovery and knowledge are a faster path to enlightenment than denial and worry.

Just because another project or team overlaps in your area of expertise doesn’t make you any less of an expert. If anything, it keeps the kettle warm underneath you and pushes that competitive corporate button that can help you excel.

So never fear the negative zone, its just part of some bizarre corporate duplication theory that physicists are just beginning to document. Until these scientists know more, you can operate in peace knowing that the collision of corporate anti-matter does not have to end with a big-bang.

When I took the dive this time, I swore my goal in starting this business was to keep myself smiling. My background in start-ups educated me to the level of work and dedication it will take to make Perceptint real and ongoing. What I was
striving for mentally was creating a job with a perfect blend of excitement, engagement, execution, and open-ended flexibility.

When I posted the bullet list that kicked the business idea for Perceptint into a reality, I believed I knew how my model would play out. I would begin an engagement with an ongoing client, dive in deep with them, and then resurface three months later, ready to take on another client or two. Basic risk analysis said my need to get more than one client was very high and should be acted upon with haste.

In the reality of those three months working as a digital marketing advocate for my first client, the client and I realized the engagement we had needed to grow. My time was proving to have more of an immediate impact than expected because I was providing more benefit to the team in the short term as an operational medic, helping stave off a world of fast moving bullets.

The digital marketing strategy of the client is in pretty good shape. It needs some sculpting, but overall it’s running on a well defined track. The world that is bleeding and suffering most is the internal pipeline tasked with getting all the digital marketing projects out the door. Second behind that is a need to tie together a vast mountain of campaign reporting data into a more digestible, public facing team data point.

The client employs well over 150,000 people across a variety of regions. As more of the organization wonders about digital marketing tactics, the need to satisfy those demands grows even faster. A group that a few years ago was managing fifty to one-hundred projects is now pushing close to one-thousand projects through a pipeline that has not scaled as much as needs.

My background in project management and delivery in the agency world means I am bringing new ideas about running production and forecasting into a group where these concepts can have a very rapid impact. If we implement it correctly, it should help them scale to meet ongoing demand, and help build a clear picture of the groups’ immense value within the very large world of the organization.

These are near real time additions to the work that I defined early in the client engagement. Some of the elements we identified for me to work on are coming to fruition now that we’re through the deep dive – building a centralized knowledge base using wiki technologies and creating the Vision Report for this group to help broadcast success, failure, what we’re learning and where we’re going.

The core information offering I put forth is also proving to be a helpful addition to the team. Technology reviews, being a better ambassador to IT, and helping them better understand their agencies and their need to better lead them are all becoming topics I am no longer selling internally in conversations.

At the same time that we knew the first engagement needed to grow, I also knew that my need for diversity in my business wouldn’t be served with another direct client relationship. My scalability in the consulting side would only be to add more hourly based projects for myself or begin hiring other consultants. I’m not ready to hire and I’m not ready to triple my workload, so…

Since I have the freedom to do it, I can toss the first growth model in the virtual waste bin. Sizing up the next chapter of the business, writing, publishing and speaking more - the true core of what will keep me smiling - are to be attacked
with haste and urgency.

The satisfying part is that I’ve laid out this plan with my client and they are whole-heartedly onboard. Part of their perception of my ongoing value is my presence in the organization as an outside thought leader.

Developing this flexible model of the insider/outsider within the organization engages both sides of my brain in a way that I was not expecting. Being an ER stabilizer and a surgeon in the same day pushes my thinking, keeps me nimble, and forces me to focus in ways I am just now discovering.

I’ll keep you in the loop as to how it all develops and give you tips from what I’m learning as they come along. As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

© 2008 Keith Boswell