Our 2023 Global Marketing Trends report explores how successful marketers use creativity as a force for growth. In part three of this four-part series, select Deloitte Digital leaders share critical actions marketers can take to embrace this trend.
1. Take an inventory of your organization’s creative capacity—and spot the rising stars
“Creativity is not an outside-in perspective; it’s inside-out. In your organization, there are hidden creatives. They may not have a creative title, they may be an engineer, they may think differently, have a different perspective, and they're influenced by things your customers might be seeing. For these hidden creatives, you’ve got to give them the space and freedom to put themselves out there. Creativity is this notion of a lot of perspectives coming together, where people are open, willing to learn, and willing to listen.”
Mark Singer
Principal, US Chief Marketing Officer, Deloitte Digital
TAKE ACTION
Look to a wider group of people for creative inspiration. It can be as simple as identifying someone who looks at a problem through a distinctive lens. This can be accomplished by bringing together different disciplines, or reaching out to newer colleagues to ask what they think the organization should be doing. Look for the challengers in the culture—especially those who may be a bit misunderstood—to find your hidden creatives.
Discover how our practice can help you align your talent and assets to maximize creativity.
2. Use data to accelerate your creative capacity up and down the organizational chart
“One way to use data and analytics is spotting underserved opportunities in a customer journey. It could be service challenges, drop-off points in an experience, or segments that we are completely not tapping as a brand or business. It can’t just be traditional market research; it’s gaining access to the full complement of customer data from first-party and third-party data. Once you’ve spotted those opportunities, that’s where creative and design come in—to understand the why behind that opportunity not being met and come up with compelling ideas and solutions to overcome that drop-off point, or attract and retain customers.”
Jeff Wordham
Principal, National Offering Leader, Customer Strategy & Applied Design, Deloitte Digital
“Creativity isn’t always about winning. Creativity is about learning. Sometimes you have to fail to learn, sometimes you have to take risks. People want to play it safe. All of that has led to this gap in leadership skill sets, from the CMO down through the organization. When you find organizations that can strike the right balance of driving growth and being creative, they’re the ones that are excelling the fastest.”
Mark Singer
Principal, US Chief Marketing Officer, Deloitte Digital
TAKE ACTION
You can tap into a litany of data sources to determine how third parties, such as creators, are transforming the customer journey—then turn that understanding into a tailored go-to-market strategy.
Deloitte Digital’s head of social and influencer strategy, Kenny Gold, explains. “The next transformative idea for your brand could come from outside your organization: via collaboration and co-creation with an influencer or creator. A creator’s intimate knowledge of their audience and what moves and motivates them offers insight to shape campaigns in fresh and creative ways … and even influence the product itself.“
Explore our just-launched research on the new creator/brand landscape.
1. The ever-expanding responsibilities of tomorrow’s CMO
3. Nurture creative ecosystems
“If data allows you to spot opportunities, and creative allows you to spot interesting ideas, the creator ecosystem is understanding which influencers are going to be most relevant for the opportunity. It’s not just finding an interesting post that someone could amplify, but really understanding partnerships that are based on relevance and alignment with the target audience and brand objectives. By combining data and analytics with creativity, you get a much clearer sense of partnerships that are going to drive business outcomes.”
Jeff Wordham
Principal, National Offering Leader, Customer Strategy & Applied Design, Deloitte Digital
“Organizations need to start looking at ways that AI can function as a creativity accelerator. There’s an entire ecosystem emerging around AI, from helping with ideation and iteration of copy and images to the early development stages of campaigns.”
Mark Singer
Principal, US Chief Marketing Officer, Deloitte Digital
TAKE ACTION
Think about ways creativity can help you transform the consumer experience and what that might mean for your business model, profit model, and ecosystem of partners. What can deep data tell you about broader purchasing behaviors? How can you tap into ecosystems, creators, and influencers that are relevant to your sector?
Want more insights into our 2023 Global Marketing Trends, and how you can take action within your organization? In part two of this series, Deloitte Digital leaders share how successful marketers are using internal sustainability investments to help drive growth in their organizations.
