Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

A common myth is that the development of creative marketing content happens in a smooth linear fashion, thanks to the toil and ingenuity of an inspired designer, writer, illustrator, or other such right-brain maker. That idea is especially appealing to project managers and heads of marketing who'd like to oversee that ostensibly straightforward process with their spreadsheets and GANTT charts.

But the reality is less GANTT chart and more goat rodeo.

Ideas, drafts, and iterations are tossed around almost at random. Feedback and approvals go back and forth—and sometimes sideways. Unanticipated obstacles knock progress off course, and too often great ideas are thrown onto the dirt and trampled into dust. Inevitably, the goat wins.

It isn't easy to find a balance between the two extremes of super-efficiency and chaos....

...Yes, everyone now carries a full production studio in their pocket, new networks are popping up every day (anyone looked at Ello yet?), and your customers can complain or praise at any hour of the day -- but these all require new skills and resources to be successful. And CMOs are worried. In that same IBM survey, 2/3 of CMOs report they’re not ready to cope with the demands of social media.

To weather it all, we need to collectively start sharing the truth instead of glossing over it. The truth that it can sometimes take more time to properly strategize a campaign than it can to execute it....