Milo is a content writer and editor for Signal. He spends his days crafting high-calibre content with readers and results in mind.

On Wednesday 6th November, we welcomed a packed room of senior marketers and business leaders to our sold out ‘Agile Marketing for the Real World’ event at CodeClan Edinburgh.

Agile Marketing is a powerful idea. It promises a more fun, collaborative and effective way of working that helps marketers get better results, faster. But with so many different approaches and methodologies, it’s not easy to know where to start. Our hashtag for the event perhaps puts it best: #WTFisAgileMarketing?

To help shed some light on this, we invited three speakers to share their extensive and varied experience adopting Agile ways of working in the ‘real world’ of marketing.

Our keynote speaker for the evening was Neil Perkin (digital consultant and bestselling author of two books on Agile), with Kate Bordwell (Creative Lead at RBS Open Experience) and our very own consultant David Hammond (previously Accenture) adding their unique perspectives. Read bios for each of our speakers here. 

The evening kicked off with a bit of informal networking (accompanied by lots of wine and cheese).

Guests might also have noticed a bit of a visual theme (one or two Post-Its were involved.)

And before the talks kicked off, a few attendees shared with us what the concept of Agile meant to them on our Wall of Agile.

It was soon time for the main event, which our CEO John Rowley described in his intro as “something of a journey through the key principles of Agile, its development and deployment in the real world.” 

First up was our keynote speaker, Neil Perkin, on the topic of Agile Marketing and Transformation.

 “There’s nothing wrong with linear ways of thinking, but too many companies do 95% linear, and maybe 5% iterative and Agile. There really needs to be a bit of a rebalance here, because the context is that we are in environments which are complex and adaptive." Neil Perkin

John set the scene for Neil’s talk by introducing him as a “taller, better-looking Yoda”. And Neil did indeed have a ton of wisdom to share with us about Agile Marketing, based on his experience helping a wide range of organisations adopt Agile ways of working (outwith technology teams). This included a stint at Time Inc. when the magazine giant was transitioning from print to digital. 

Neil’s half hour presentation was densely packed with insights and information, focusing on the massive impact that digital innovation has had on the competitive landscape, and how Agile ways of working (and thinking) can provide a way through.

He quoted Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, whose phrase ‘Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast’ encapsulates the key concepts of Agile. And he highlighted why each element is so important:

“You think big, because you need that good sense of direction. Being Agile is not an excuse not to have a plan. So you have a good vision and sense of direction, but in order to get there, you start small so that you can learn fast and you can scale fast. That way, you’re able to take account of the rapidly changing context.”

He also outlined the three core principles of Agile that he considers critical for making it a success within marketing teams: 

Manageably-sized multidisciplinary teams (6-10 people)

Finally, he pointed out that data has to be refined: "data is the new oil, in that it's toxic unless you refine it". Firstly, it needs to be turned into information, which in turn can be converted into knowledge and ultimately wisdom that drives organisational change. And he suggested that marketers would benefit from being more open to adopting some of the methods used by product marketing and service design teams. 

Next up was Signal’s David Hammond to give us the lowdown on ‘Agile Marketing in Practice’.

David also cited The Lean Startup, which he discovered in a previous role at Accenture, as a key influence on his career. 

Like Neil, he has also worked as a consultant, advising a wide range of business and marketing teams (as well as technology and product teams) on how to apply Agile principles to get better results.

One example David shared to show how effective Agile can be, covered his experience working on a project with McDonald’s:

“Their VP of marketing in the UK wanted to trial out new coffee products in some of their stores. But she was told it was going to take over a year to test that through their normal processes. So I worked with her and her team to develop an Agile marketing approach and get a trial out in the space of 3 months.” 

He also outlined seven very practical steps of how to get started with Agile marketing:

Form an Agile Marketing team (with tips on what good teams have in common)

Rather than conforming rigidly to any one methodology, David advised that in a marketing context, an ‘a la carte approach’ usually works best. Echoing Neil’s 3 key principles, he recommended 3 things in particular that he finds work well for marketing teams; Kanban boards, daily stand-ups and regular retrospectives.

“If there’s only one Agile practice to implement within your marketing team, regular retrospectives is the one that I’d recommend. Because it’s the one that allows teams to evolve their own way of working with more Agile practices in general." David Hammond

For more details, you can read David’s recent article: Agile Marketing (What it means in practice) 

Our third talk was an entertaining finale from Kate Bordwell on Becoming Agile. 

“For me Agile isn’t about Scrum and Kanban and all that, it’s much more about the core principles and values, and that collaboration, that team. It's the fact that you can bring the right people together in the room from the beginning, plus the fact that you can involve customers at every stage of your process, that you can co-create with people. That’s what motivates me and that’s what I think gets really good results.”

Kate talked us through her journey from solo planner to working within a collaborative Agile team and how she went on to become a fully-fledged Agile Practitioner. 

"I don't call it a 'war-room' because I'm a pacifist. I call it a 'mind-palace' instead."

She shared the different methods she’s used in different roles, from ‘a crash course in design sprints’ at Nile, to navigating tribes and guilds with Skyscanner, to her current role at RBS, where innovation is defined as ‘new ideas that have meaningful impact on customers’.

She also gave us advice on how to ensure there’s space for marketing fundamentals such as developing insight and ideas in an Agile environment, plus a whistlestop tour of some of her favourite Agile tools and techniques.

“There’s often a myth that being Agile means you don’t need a strategy. In fact, being Agile means you need a robust strategy based on data insight.  And for marketers that means you’re still having to think about what your brand is, what your core purpose is, who your target audience is, how you’re positioned and what your core proposition is. And you can and must build this into the Agile process.” Kate Bordwell

To close out the evening, all 3 speakers took part in a lively Q&A session with some challenging questions and fascinating answers that took in tree metaphors, data ethics and research methods.  

And the lively conversation continued afterwards with more informal networking, plus more wine and cheese, of course.

 You can find all of the presentation slides on SlideShare or embedded below:

Agile Marketing For The Real World event - Signal - 6th Nov 2019

Photos by Louise Brown (and Milo McLaughlin)

The team at Signal who organised the event and helped out on the night (especially our Marketing Manager Lauren Cormack!) 

All the staff at CodeClan Edinburgh - who made us all feel very welcome (this was our second successful event of 2019 at the same venue, following our Accessibility event in May).

And everyone who came along and made it such a great event.

Agile Marketing for the Real World - a summary of our sold out event

WTF is Agile Marketing? We asked three experts to share their experience.

The organisers of Accessibility Scotland describe it as “a friendly, affordable, and informative day focused on digital accessibility and inclusion.”  

The event has grown bigger every year, with both the 2018 and 2019 events taking place at the expansive Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC). 

Signal’s senior UX Designer Lauren Bowen and myself were fortunate to be able to attend this year’s (fourth annual) event, which was completely sold out, with around 250 people in attendance.

As well as the welcome sight of some familiar faces, it was pleasing to see that there was a real effort to make the entire experience as inclusive as possible. The venue and room layouts were fully accessible, and there were BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters and live captions for all of the main talks. 

There was even a simple code of conduct: 'be nice'.

It's a single-track event, so there was also no issue with catching all of the five main talks. These were loosely tied to the day’s theme of ‘Accessibility and Ethics’ but were wide-ranging in terms of subject matter, and all very interesting and thought-provoking. 

Below is a short summary of each, plus links to the slides.

1. Accessible public services – Are we there yet?

 Cat Macaulay, Chief Design Officer, The Scottish Government

This was a refreshingly honest account of the huge challenges (and opportunities) involved in designing inclusive public services, specifically Scotland’s newly devolved Social Security agency. 

Cat told us that she has multiple sclerosis, so is well aware of how difficult applying for benefits can be. “Applying for DLA & PIP is one of the worst experiences I’ve had in my life and I spent most of my 20s working in a war zone.”

She admitted that “we’re still pretty rubbish at designing public services and don’t get it right often enough”, in part because the public sector has traditionally tended to design services based on the internal structure of the organisation, which results in fragmented experiences for end users. 

However, her team's high level mission is to “ensure everyone in Scotland has the chance to be part of designing the public services they need and use.” 

The new agency gave them the opportunity to put this into practice when designing a completely new end-to-end service (of which digital is only one aspect) from scratch. It also helped that ‘treating people with dignity and respect’ was part of the ministerial remit for the service. As a result,a large scale user experience panel has been  at the heart of the process, made up of “thousands of people with lived experience of applying for benefits”. 

Cat also shared the Scottish Approach to Service Design Principles which sets out a framework to ensure users are included in public service design now and in the future. And she also said she has been impressed by the levels of genuine engagement with accessibility in the public service design community (many of whom were in the room).

This is just a snapshot of Cat’s talk, which was full of loads of fascinating insights about public service design. 

In the second session, Léonie Watson (founder of TetraLogical, W3C Web Platform WG co-chair and Inclusive Design Principles co-author, amongst many other things) took us on an entertaining whirlwind tour of the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. 

Using Isaac Asimov’s famous ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ as a framework, she highlighted how hard it is for machines to replicate the complex sensory intelligence of humans. 

Despite this, there have been some very impressive advancements since 1950 (when the work of Alan Turing got people seriously thinking about A.I.). This has led to innovative accessible technologies such as ‘text to speech’ and image, text and facial recognition.

As a screen reader user herself, Leonie gave a first-hand account of the benefits of using such tools, for example, Alexa can be invaluable for blind and visually impaired people as they can use it to set timers and do other simple tasks. 

It was also moving to see the positive impact of Microsoft’s ‘Seeing AI’, which turns the visual world into an audio experience in a way that seems almost magical.

Seeing AI app – Overview

It was particularly fascinating to see how the emphasis and intonation of synthetic speech can be tailored using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML). Léonie played audio examples of how Stephen King’s IT, Winnie the Pooh and The Princess Bride might sound with a bit of clever tweaking.

Léonie also highlighted the importance of addressing the limitations of these tools, including ethical issues such as privacy and gender bias. The ‘intelligence’ of A.I. is still very much restrained by the parameters provided the people who created them, so it’s another case of ‘with great power comes great responsibility’.

3. Design to build bridges: when to use disability simulation

Next up was Ashley Peacock, founder of Edinburgh-based inclusive design agency Passio. She talked us through three examples of technology solutions that they’ve created for people who are neurodiverse or who have accessibility needs - or as she put it, “see and experience the world differently from the norm”.

In each case Ashley made sure these were co-designed with users, which meant taking three very different approaches to fit the purpose of each tool and the specific circumstances and needs of the users.

For example, she co-designed an Autism Simulation Game with the aim of giving teachers, mental health professionals, public sector workers and carers a better understanding of what it’s like to have autism. 

When interviewing autistic people, she found that discussion prompts worked better than questions, and that an even better solution was to have autistic people write the questions themselves.

She also found that because everyone’s experience of autism is different, it was important to let autistic users change the settings to personalise the simulation. They could then share it with the people close to them to give them a better idea of how they personally experience life.

The below video shows the simulation game being played by a person with autism.

Autism Sensory Simulator

The other examples Ashley showed were a Public Transport Assistant for people with a wide range of disabilities and a reading tool to help people with Posterior Cortical Atrophy access a wider variety of sources. In both cases, she shared details of how she adjusted her approach so as to ensure the users needs were met.

Matt May, Director of Inclusive Design, Adobe

When the title of the fourth session appeared on the screen, we were steeling ourselves for a controversial diatribe. But we needn’t have worried, as Matt’s talk was a real treat.

He presented a very convincing arguments that empathy is a loaded, overused word - for example this year’s SXSW had 70 sessions with the word empathy in the title. 

He almost managed to convince us that Adam Smith, who championed the concept of ‘mutual sympathy’ during the Scottish Enlightenment, appeared to have a pet Dalek - if Smith's statue on Edinburgh's Royal Mile (pictured below) is anything to go by. 

Matt suggested that empathy is usually led by emotion, often materialises as pity (further cementing existing power imbalances) and can create a feeling of aversion and resistance to taking action. 

He also revealed that he himself is an ordained Buddhist minister, which added extra weight to his suggestion that compassion may be a more effective route to helping others as it involves less emotional investment. 

He also suggested a number of other ways to reach people that unlike empathy, don’t result in exhaustion and feelings of self-superiority - including professionalism, equity and authority (ensuring that there are appropriate policies in place).

Laura Kalbag, Co-Founder, Small Technology Foundation

Laura Kalbag is co-founder of the Small Technology Foundation, and author of Accessibility For Everyone, published by A Book Apart. She rounded off the day with a very powerful and densely packed session (consisting of almost 230 slides!) that directly addressed the ethical theme of this year’s event.

“Not everything should be accessible - some things shouldn’t exist at all.”

The above quote from Heydon Pickering set the scene for the rest of her talk, which raised ethical issues with our current online world, including:

Lack of accountability and responsibility

Whilst these issues affect us all, she pointed out that "when tech is a lifeline (as it is for people with disabilities), you are affected more by the unethical elements.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Laura shared - she also gave advice on how we can avoid using, or put protections in place against the unethical platforms that currently dominate online culture. Thankfully, she’s made all of her slides and a bunch of other handy resources available online here.

Hopefully this brief round-up gives you an idea of how inspiring, informative and entertaining the day was. And we haven’t even covered the Lightning Talks hosted by Girl Geek Scotland during lunch. You can also check out excellent write-up from volunteer and Lightning Talk participant Stephanie Krus and front-end developer Claire Brotherton, both of which go into even more detail on each of the talks.

If you’re interested in attending next year’s event or finding out when the videos of this year’s talks are live, head over to the Accessibility Scotland website or follow them on Twitter.

All slides: https://accessibility.scot/slides/

What we learnt at Accessibility Scotland 2019

A summary of the fourth annual Accessibility Scotland conference in 2019.

On 6th November 2019, Scottish marketers and business leaders will have a unique opportunity to explore the challenges involved in adopting Agile ways of working in the ‘real world’.

Signal are delighted to host an informal evening at CodeClan Edinburgh, with Agile expert Neil Perkin (bestselling author of 'Building the Agile Business'), creative strategist Kate Bordwell (Skyscanner and RBS) and Signal’s David Hammond (formerly Accenture and Argos), for unmissable insights into the importance of not just doing Agile, but BEING Agile.

Read David's latest article for The Drum: Agile marketing (what it means in practice)

With marketing teams facing rapidly changing competitive, market, and consumer contexts the need to be more Agile, responsive and manoeuvrable has never been greater.

What are the secrets for applying Agile principles in marketing in ways that really drive results?

When: CodeClan Edinburgh on 6th November 2019 at 6pm.

Who is it for: Marketing Directors and Managers who need to adapt rapidly to technological disruption and expectations of faster, cheaper and more measurable results.

There will be an opportunity to network with like-minded marketers and refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Neil is the author of two books on digital transformation and organisational agility: the bestselling ‘Building the Agile Business’ and the new book ‘Agile Transformation’. He is the founder of digital consultancy Only Dead Fish, and has been named by BIMA as one of the most influential people in the UK digital industry. He has years of experience helping a wide range of organisations transform or adapt to be truly fit for purpose in a digital-empowered world, including Google, Disney, BBC, LEGO, Samsung, Oxfam, and Warner Bros.

Kate is a creative strategist who has been using lean agile methods throughout her career, even before she knew it was a Thing. Now working in innovation at RBS, she has previously led design research and strategy at Skyscanner, Nile, The Union and Equator.

David started his career as a digital strategist and agile coach with a four-year stint at Accenture followed by a period in-house for Argos. He brings these skills and experience to help Signal’s clients identify and progress their highest priority business and marketing initiatives.

Join us at our Agile Marketing event in Edinburgh

Unique insights on applying Agile principles in a marketing context, with Signal, Kate Bordwell and bestselling author Neil Perkin.

As 2018 comes to an end, and we look back on the last twelve months, what really stands out is the central role data has played not only in the world of marketing, but also on the world stage.

Access to users’ data has given big brands unprecedented power (if they have the processes and expertise in place to harness it properly). And yes, with that comes great responsibility.

Of course, compliance was very much on marketers’ minds in the lead-up to the GDPR deadline in May. The new regulations were complex and somewhat open to interpretation.  As many brands scrambled to ensure their internal and external processes met the necessary requirements, our inboxes were flooded with last minute privacy policies and slightly desperate sounding pleas to opt-in again. And then everyone let out a big sigh of relief when it was all over.

It’s safe to say however that GDPR will continue to have an impact in 2019 and beyond. Writing on May 25th, the day the new laws came into force, Signal Business Partner Mark Collins advised that charities in particular now have to do much more to nurture mutually beneficial relationships with their audiences. This applies to other sectors too, as he points out:

“GDPR will (quite rightly) mean that every individual is more aware of their data rights, and they will be more likely to turn off this consent if their relationship with an organisation gives them reason to do this.”


But while the new laws are undoubtedly a big win for data protection, web usability has taken a hit due to general confusion over what best practice means (please, make the pop-ups stop!). Still, maybe the new ePrivacy regulation, which is likely to be finalised/come into force in 2019 will clarify things.

The regulation didn’t stop there. We’ve also seen the rules around influencer marketing clarified by the ASA, although, as our Outreach Manager Lauren Cormack writes, there is still room for interpretation there too.

Once more unto the breach - a very bad year for Facebook

Speaking of social media, Facebook were hit by mainstream news reports of one data disaster after another during 2018, no doubt further eroding public trust in how their information is being used (or misused) by big companies. 

The company’s nonchalant approach to user information in the past came back to bite them, when the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light in March. CEO Mark  Zuckerberg ending up testifying in Congress - refresh your memories on the key points with this helpful summary from Planner Jamie McAdam. 

Facebook’s annus horribilis didn’t end there however, with news of further dodgy data practices coming thick and fast, including leaked emails that seemed to confirm that the company might not always have users’ best interests at heart. 

Meanwhile, even Facebook-owned Instagram, which previously seemed immune to its parent company’s run of bad juju (or at least negative press), has recently been shown to be a hotbed of Russian propaganda. More trouble at t’mill was hinted at when Instagram’s founders also called it quits this year, following the less than stellar launch of the IGTV platform (likely an attempt to reduce the impact of the TikTok video app, which is growing incredibly fast among young audiences).

Google didn’t escape either, announcing the abrupt closure of their social network, Google Plus in October. What had once been a much-vaunted threat to Facebook had of course been long abandoned by the search giant. Which made it a convenient sacrificial lamb when they eventually got round to disclosing a data leak that had come to light in the spring. CEO Sundar Pichai ended up in front of Congress anyway, where the questions being asked only highlighted a startling lack of insight amongst senior lawmakers into how the internet and technology actually works. Something that should be of concern for the big tech companies, given that increased US regulation of the sector now seems increasingly likely.

Big brands of course don’t have the same luxury as the US Congress when it comes to remaining ignorant of technological progress. The need for big organisations to adapt to our ultra-connected, data-centric world became even more pressing this year, and digital transformation showed impressive staying power as a buzzword. But as digital now permeates everything we do, it has become an increasingly meaningless term. 

Focusing on the idea of digital and data maturity can provide more clarity for brands however, not least in helping them identify the specific changes they can make to serve their audiences better, sooner.

The charity sector in particular faces a ‘change conundrum’, according to Signal’s Senior Planner Mark Dibden - with a current lack of commercial urgency reducing their likelihood to take action, despite the knowledge that the world is rapidly changing around them. But as he suggests, data analysis can help provide the clarity needed to move forward so charities can work out the scale and speed of change that’s right for them.

Breaking down internal silos was also a big theme at the Institute of Fundraising’s annual conference, as evidenced by articles from Senior Planner Maxine Horsman and Marketing Manager Lauren MacRae:

Collaboration, not competition - why charities need to challenge the silo situation

IOF Convention 2018 - challenging the fundraising status quo.

We’ve also been busy breaking down internal barriers at Signal. In November we announced that Brightsource and Signal have merged, bringing together our expertise in digital, analytics and decisioning (Signal) with our expertise in automation and marketing operations (Brightsource). See Managing Director Barney Hosey’s article for more details. 

Earlier in the year, Signal’s Strategy Director Phil Adams announced our purpose and principles, and explained the process involved and why getting it right is so important:

“We believe that if we get the culture right, we’ll get the work and the client relationships right, and if we get those things right, commercial success will take care of itself.”


Our commitment to chasing a vibrant culture was exemplified by initiatives such as our annual Wellness Week and an incredible effort from our intrepid team of China Trekkers who raised over £7,900 for The British Heart Foundation.

As well as creating not one but two websites for The European Championships (one of 2018’s major international sporting events), supporting the Innovative Medicine Initiative and European Diabetes Forum, and continuing to support the world’s biggest arts festival, we were also involved in a few other happenings this year:

We were delighted to enter the Econsultancy Top 100 Digital Agencies list at number 23 this year.

We sponsored, and provided the creative for the Marketing Star Awards (spoiler alert - we’ve done it again for 2019), and even picked up an award for our social media success for Jim Beam. 

We donated our time and expertise to the BIMA Digital Day (the biggest ever in Scotland) and to create a brand new website for the football-themed charity Street Soccer.

The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) in May led to the formation of an in-house, cross-discipline accessibility team.

The D&AD Festival gave two of our creatives a boost of inspiration. And REACT Amsterdam had a similar impact for two members of our software development team. Meanwhile, two of our copywriters picked up storytelling tips from the Harper’s Bazaar Literary Salon.

We also had a good showing at DMA Scotland’s Copywriting Club. Signal’s Head of Media Technology Andrew Girdwood joined me to talk about how Signal uses AI. And our Marketing Manager Lauren MacRae gave the lowdown on ethical (and not so ethical) influencer marketing in the health industry. Thanks to our friends at Yard who kindly wrote up both events.

We were also delighted when The Drum called attention to our short film for The Famous Grouse and online dinosaur keeper game for Scottish Friendly. 

All in all, it’s been a busy year for us and our clients, and no doubt for all of our colleagues across the marketing industry. Here’s to another unpredictable year in 2019. But first, let’s enjoy a well deserved festive break!

2018 Marketing Review: With Big Data, Comes Great Responsibility

Looking back on an eventful year for marketers.

The traditional view of CRM (Customer Relationship Marketing) is too simplistic. Relationships, by their nature, are constantly changing - and our approach to communicating with customers must evolve to reflect this. 

In her recent opinion piece for The Drum, Signal senior planner Joie Chapple makes the case for viewing CRM not just in terms of making the most of which channels are being used, but also in terms of the overall customer experience: 

“All of this doesn’t mean the demise of email and DM as a key tool to build relationships. These channels can still help to build trust if they provide real value, but we need to use them in a way that considers the broader context of how a customer experiences your brand.”

Joie also addresses ways in which agencies can work together with clients to support and challenge them to create better experiences for their customers.

Read the full article at The Drum or below.

To find out more about how we’ve helped clients improve their CRM programme, read our case studies for npower and the British Heart Foundation.

Redefining CRM: relationships are about experiences, not channels

Agencies and clients often think of Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) in very narrow terms, focused solely on what channels are being used. But most of us would agree that the opportunity to strengthen, change, or damage a relationship occurs at every brand interaction.

 Wouldn’t it be better if we all began to consider all of our activity; online, offline, digital, real life, and the product or service itself, to be a form of CRM?

Ask a typical agency or brand manager how they would define CRM and they would probably describe it along these lines: 

‘Direct communications between a customer and a brand, with the aim of building a long-term relationship with the customer, and delivered via email, DM or another 1-2-1 channel.’

 As our ability to analyse, interpret and utilise customer data has grown exponentially, so has a laser like focus on tailoring, automating and optimising CRM as a channel. And for many brands, this has undoubtedly improved the relevance and effectiveness of their communications.

 But the old definition is still too simplistic. If we really want our direct marketing efforts to connect with customers, we need to break down silos and think much more broadly.

 Think about a brand you have a connection with. How did it form? How would you express it? How would you say it gets stronger or weaker? 

 Take my mum for example. She’s a lifelong advocate of a Center Parcs holiday. We’ve been going there as a family since shell-suits were acceptable and have photo albums dedicated solely to documenting our highly embarrassing badminton antics. A pretty solid brand-customer relationship, then. So, I asked her how she views it:

 “We get a discount every time we book because we’ve been so many times, and I like the little chat we have when we arrive at the arrivals lodge and that they can see we’ve been before – it’s great that they care about the memories we’ve created as a family. They are also really good if something goes wrong. I remember Dad once put the electric kettle on the hob (don’t ask) and within an hour they had replaced the entire hob, no questions asked. I loved the recent advert with the bears, it made me feel all nostalgic about when you were kids.”

 Note she did not mention the ‘CRM’ email she gets every fortnight, or the occasional glossy brochure.

CRM is not a channel, it is every brand experience

 If as customers we view relationships as experiences, not channels, and don’t silo the interactions we have with brands, why do we do so as marketers? It’s ironic that the activities we’ve historically defined as being responsible for ‘managing relationships’ may not even feature in a customer’s view of their relationship with a brand!

Of course, this differs dependent on the market, brand, product or stage of that relationship, and different experiences will play more of a role at different times.

Center Parcs is likely to have an easier job of delighting customers at every stage of the process because they are associated with pleasurable memories. While low engagement brands, who provide necessities such as bank accounts and home energy, need to work harder to engage customers – which makes getting CRM right even more essential.

 But with so many brands using the same tactics, it’s no surprise that people are either overwhelmed by the sheer volume of brand communications, or underwhelmed by the generic nature of a lot of the content. According to our email delivery partner Communicator, email unsubscribes doubled in the lead up to the GDPR deadline on May 25th and this doesn’t account for all of those who simply ignored re-permissioning requests.

If consumers aren’t finding enough value in these traditional forms of CRM, what’s next for us as agencies, clients and brands in our quest to build valuable and sustainable relationships?

Brands need a holistic Customer Relationship Strategy

All of this doesn’t mean the demise of email and DM as a key tool to build relationships. These channels can still help to build trust if they provide real value, but we need to use them in a way that considers the broader context of how a customer experiences your brand.

 It is about picking the right way for your brand to achieve its goals, not jumping to traditional CRM thinking as the answer by default. There is little point in investing in a specific channel if there are critical problems elsewhere having a much bigger effect on the way you attract, develop and retain customers.

We should be developing holistic customer relationship strategies that meet (or exceed) expectations - regardless of ‘channel’. It must be driven by need and desire, and by asking what kind of relationship you want with your customers, what do they want from you and how best can that be done at every relevant touchpoint?

Unfortunately, big organisations are often not set up to facilitate this way of thinking. Legacy structures can create silos and put invisible barriers between brand, sales, digital, retail, etc. An external catalyst is often required to break the inertia and implement new approaches.

Agencies need to play a fundamental role supporting and challenging their clients to create better customer experiences:

Bringing client teams together, when politics or structure make this a challenge;

Relentlessly championing the consumer, when it’s easy to forget who you’re talking to;

Taking a holistic view of experience, when the nitty gritty takes over the big picture.

If clients and agencies can work together to make this happen, we can collectively do a much better job of developing a meaningful, long-lasting relationship with customers – and finally do proper justice to the concept of CRM.

Relationships are constantly changing - and so must our approach to communicating with customers.

This is Part Two of an interview about last week's D&AD Festival with Signal's Matt Higgins (Art Director, Edinburgh) and Aaron McCarthy (Art Director, Cheltenham).

In Part One Aaron and Matt talked about their overall impressions of the event, plus Matt shared video footage to give us a flavour of what it's like to attend. 

What follows is their top 5 highlights from the event.

Signal on Twitter: "Day two of #DANDAD2018 underway ✏️… "

Milo: The Festival sounds pretty amazing. Do you have any particular highlights from the 3 days?

Aaron: “What about the cheese toastie Matt?”

Matt: “Best cheese toastie I’ve ever had. But let’s not include that in our top five."

1. Caroline Pay - Do Not Watch This Talk!

Matt: "For me, the talk I enjoyed the most was Caroline Pay, joint CCO at Grey. She was just so refreshing, because she’s so down to earth, she’s extremely funny, she’s very straight-talking, and she made me feel like it’s okay to stick up for what I actually think we should do. Oh and she had a ton of great work to show for it.

Signal on Twitter: ""Don’t do what you’re told, and definitely don’t do what you’ve done before". Words of wisdom from Grey's CCO Caroline Pay. 

#DANDAD2018… https://t.co/f8LN7vgjkk"

For example, when answering a brief, you sometimes think too much about ‘oh, the client may not like that’, or it’s not quite what I was asked to do. But if you think it’s a great idea, stick up for it and push for it a little bit. Be on the right side of passionate. She gave me the motivation to do that more. 

And there’s so many people at her kind of level that can be a bit annoying to listen to, because they think they’ve got the industry all figured out, they’re kind of snobby when it comes to advertising. She just seems like.."

Matt: “Yes, real. She was a very real person.”

Aaron: “She had my attention for the whole 45 minutes. Some of her favourite creatives are people that don’t follow the rules and come up with amazing ideas because of that. The title of her session was ‘Don’t Come to this Talk’ and the first thing she did was get everyone to applaud each other for breaking that first rule.”

Caroline Pay On Breaking The Rules | D&AD Festival 2018

2. Ben Priest - The Importance of Getting Things Utterly Wrong

Matt: "Ben Priest of adam&eveDDB talked about all the mistakes he’s made and why they were important, and he was hilarious too. he made me feel that if I make mistakes, it doesn’t mean I’m shit at my job."

Signal on Twitter: "Learning why it’s important to get things wrong with Ben Priest, Creative Director of adam&eveDDB.

#DANDAD2018… "

Aaron: "It was quite refreshing to know that as one of the main figureheads at adam&eveDDB, he initially didn’t think that the Penguin John Lewis ad from a couple of years ago was actually any good. It was his colleagues who ended up convincing him to get it in front of the client, and then the client cancelled a trip to China to get the idea to run.

So again, he was laying down the fact that he makes mistakes as much as anyone else, because that ad went on to be one of the better ones."

3. Jeff Goodby - How Vandalism Will Save Advertising

Aaron: "For me, Jeff Goodby, who is a veteran ad guy from America, was also immense. He was relaxed, and had the same appeal as Caroline did, in that he seemed very real. His talk was about taking inspiration from the rebellious, humorous and surprising nature of “vandalism” in advertising.

Signal on Twitter: "Next up - Jeff Goodby is going to tell us why our futures are dependent upon a sense of fun and why we all need to be more naughty to be more famous.

#DANDAD18… https://t.co/DazDYoEQol"

Milo McLaughlin

Content Writer

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