Marketing in the New Age: Obsessing over Effectiveness is Key

Leading the Next Transformation

In her leadership, she celebrates and always claims her team is the best mix of arts and science. After all, marketers are not all about “façade” and glam – there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make the magic happen. This is why the 80/20 rule prevails in her philosophy.

“80 percent of your time should be dedicated to campaigns and activities with proven results. The remaining 20 percent can involve ‘experimental projects’ so that you continuously learn and are one step ahead of your audience and competitors,” she said

As a member of her team, I can vouch that she is always game for being bold and forward-thinking. She believes that marketers today can no longer focus on millennials alone. In fact, Generation Z – or the Post-Millennials – should already be on a marketer’s radar.

“If you’re still learning to reach out to millennials, you’re out of time. The next generation appears to be quite different from the millennials we are familiar with. Being in the education industry, we have to reach out to the young and have the clear abilities to attract Gen Z,” she said.

Marketing today has diversified beyond native advertising and now includes social media, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, market-driven data, personas, sponsored advertisements, and many more variables. This makes it even more challenging for marketers to stay committed to the ‘what’ before the ‘how’.

As the journalist in her team, I have a big role to play in getting our content to go viral, as well as boosting our social shares and website traffic. As there is no formula to making content go viral, my teammates and I are heavily involved in trial and error. It’s frustrating, complex and mind-boggling all at the same time, but our boss’s fixation with raising numbers gives us the right push to create relevant, focussed and creative content.

At the end of the day, the biggest differentiator I have seen [among leaders] is her accessible style of management, which trades off her obsession with digits.

“Marketing is a team sport that requires collaboration [first] within the team and then the company. To succeed in this fast-paced and ever-evolving profession, what you really need – apart from resilience and foresight – is an A-team,” she concluded.