Oliver Kimberley:

Now let’s get into the third cog — people. People are the company. They shape the culture. They’re the ones we go to work for.

We’ve talked about creating new marketing operations processes and enabling them with technology, but none of that works if we don’t bring the team members along. We want to make work enjoyable and meaningful. So how do we reduce low-impact, mundane tasks and increase high-impact, creative, strategic work?

The goal: shift focus to ideation, market research and campaign planning.

Here are some questions to reflect on:

  • What are 10 things you don’t need to do every day? Even five will help. Ask your team too.

  • What’s slowing you down? What delays you at 5 p.m.?

  • What would make your day more fun? Great client partnerships often have a fun, collaborative spirit.

That late-night worker image? That’s all of us at some point. But busy work isn’t a badge of honor anymore.

Let’s step back and be intentional — smart marketing operations and tools can prevent burnout. Imagine actually being ahead.

Here’s another case: We worked with a large retailer on creative execution. They had different teams running variations of the same process using different tech.

It could’ve been a single common marketing operation. We helped stabilize and streamline it.

Shockingly, we identified over 300 pain points. Yes, 300 — not 30. We double-checked.

There’s huge potential to simplify and reinvest saved time and money.