The theory of Agile marketing sounds great. I mean, of course we all want to be more nimble and responsive; nobody is standing in line to be slower and less adaptive to change.
But the same questions continually come up: if this is so great, where are the Agile marketing examples? Where can I find a good Agile marketing case study?
It turns out they’re scattered all over this thing called “the internet.” Who knew?
For the past several years teams have quietly been accumulating success stories and sharing them in various ways, some more vocal than others.
This page, then, will be our ever-evolving attempt to collect those stories in an easy-to-consume format.
You’ll find case studies from tech and software companies, banks, universities, and more. Hopefully one or more will spark an idea to get you started, or provide the proof you need to convince your boss or team that Agile is right for you.
If you’re on an Agile marketing team that isn’t represented here, please drop our editor an email (andrea DOT fryrear AT AgileSherpas DOT com) so we can share your story!
(Or, if you wish you could join these illustrious Agile marketing examples, contact us to set up your own training program.)
Agile Marketing Case Studies:
Alberta Motor Association: Association Struggling with Dependencies & Handoffs Uses Agile to Improve
Aussie Bank: Large Bank Uses Agile Reorg to Improve Culture and KPIs
CA Technologies: Software Firm Connects Agile Teams to Business Units to Triple Win Rate
Chemmart: Pharmacy Boosts Satisfaction by 50% by Replacing Hierarchy with Customer Focus
Deakin University: University Uses Agile to Finally Hit Concurrent Deadlines
Dell: Disconnected Enterprise Marketing Streamlined Through Agile
General Mills: Enterprise Uses Agile Marketing to Focus on Customer Needs
IBM: Legacy Tech Firm Transforms Marketing with In-Person Agile Hubs
ING: Huge Legacy Financial Firm Uses Spotify Model to Implement Agile
Mozilla: Enterprise Agile Transformation To Move From Bi-Annual Releases
Northern Arizona University: 4-Person University Marketing Team Boosts Output 400%
Santander Bank: Financial Firm Uses Sprints for Quick Experiments and Better Results
SEMRush: Autonomous Agile Marketing Teams Brought 500k Users in 8 Months
SiteStrategics: SEO Agency Uses Sprints to Deliver More Value
Sleeknote: Software Firm Boost Efficiency with “Scrumban”
Sunlife Financial: Large Financial Firm Tests Agile with Clever Pilot Program
Teratada: Automated approvals and workflows have brought 13+ years of value
Cornell University: University Uses Agile Development to Perfect its Online Platform
Cprime: Consulting Firm Uses Agile to Boost Responsiveness and Transparency
UruIT: Tech Company Uses Agile Marketing to Prioritize and Deliver Value
Charles River: Agile Marketing in Health and Life Sciences
M&T Bank: Financial Services Going Agile
Thermo Fisher: Combining Content and Agile Marketing
HSBC: Banks on An Agile Insight Approach
Ableton: Agile Transformation of Software and Hardware Company for Music Makers
KONE: Agile in Non-Information Technology Company
Spotify: Agile at Scale in a Swedish Success Story
Agile Marketing Examples
Autonomous Agile Marketing Teams Brought 500k Users in 8 Months
Company: SEMRush
Category: Technology/Software
Spokesperson: Olga Adrinko, Head of Global Marketing
Case study summary: SEMRush's marketing department strives to be Agile at all levels. They've gotten as close to a purely flat structure as they can, which has allowed them to fully empower their various teams. According to Olga's presentation, leadership clearly identifies what needs to be done, but the team gets total control over how to do it. To her, she's like a soccer/football coach who sees the field and understands the opponent, but she's not the one kicking the ball.
This doesn't, however, lead to chaos. Their Scrum approach and its daily standup meetings ensure people are staying on track, and the trust placed in the teams make them both highly creative and deeply invested in their work.
Scrum-style sprints also allow the marketing teams to experiment rapidly, testing and learning on an ongoing basis. These small scale tests have paid off in a big way, netting SEMRush 500,000 users in 8 months.
Olga acknowledges that there are challenges too, particularly when it comes to hiring and firing. A mistaken hire, for instance, can take a big toll on the team if they don't pull their weight. It's also up to the teams to fire members who aren't contributing.
Most exciting takeaways: Thanks to Agile marketing, year over year average revenue growth from top 10 new markets was greater than 90%, and SEMRush gained 500,000 users in just 8 months.
Source: Brighton SEO
4-Person University Marketing Team Boost Output by 400%
Company: Northern Arizona University
Category: Education
Spokesperson: Ann Marie deWees, Director of Strategic Marketing
Case study summary: This scrappy four-person team once followed traditional marketing practices, creating an annual budget, creating goals, and designing highly specific projects. With the help of freelancers and agencies, they’d produce around 50 pieces of marketing collateral a year. Then, digital happened.
Despite multiple reorgs, they couldn’t keep up with client needs and expectations. Then deWees discovered Agile marketing. Instead of individuals taking on an entire project themselves, they now structure work in 2-week Sprints.
They joined forces with IT to create a single in-house design group for support, and phased out their reliance on external contractors. Tara Cobourn, marketing manager, says this new approach allows them to break projects down into smaller pieces, which are in turn given to team members based on skills and availability. Now they can get an entire project done in two weeks instead of waiting months for outsourced work to come back, get edited, get revised, and finally get released.
Now that budget isn’t going to contractors, they’ve been able to hire more writers and designers, increasing the team’s agility even further.
Most exciting takeaways:
- In their first year as an Agile team, content production increased 400% (50 pieces to 200 pieces)
- Sprint tasks have nearly 95% completion rate
- 20% cost savings have been realized
- Client satisfaction rating increased by over 30% in six months
Source: UniversityBusiness.com
SEO Agency Uses Sprints to Deliver More Value
Company: SiteStrategics - SEO firm in Indianapolis, IN
Category: Agency
Spokesperson: Jason Fletcher
Case study summary: Tired of seeing process get in the way of productivity, this SEO agency has recently adopted Agile to manage their work. They use 2-week sprints to constantly iterate on campaigns and adjust their spend on various channels.
They also use Sprint planning to keep a handle on their employees’ availability, which means they can give clients a much more accurate estimation of when work will be done. And when a Sprint is over, “all we have to do is walk back through the Agile Sprint to show them the completed list of all the items promised and paid for.”
Most exciting takeaway: A balance between keeping employees busy and doing high quality work that keeps both clients and employees happy.
Source: SiteStrategics.com
Enterprise Agile Transformation to Move From Bi-Annual Releases
Company: Mozilla
Category: Software/Technology
Spokesperson: Chad Weiner, Senior Director of Marketing Operations
Case study summary: In the true spirit of Agile, Chad and his 100-person team are in the midst of a long-term experiment to test and validate the application of Agile to their marketing practice. Chad has been documenting the journey via a series of posts on Medium, which I strongly recommend reading if you’re looking at a large, enterprise-level Agile transformation.
Like many enterprise teams, they struggled with silos, a deluge of incoming requests, and no objective means of prioritizing their work. Team members tended to hoard information as a means of amassing power, which often negatively affected quality.
This led to what Chad calls Metaprinciple #1: Design the organization to improve the frequency and quality of communication inside the marketing organization.
They were also struggling with the traditional practice of supporting two huge launches each year. In one post Chad recalls that they were “effectively spending twelve months on two big bets. And the cycles were grueling.”
To counteract this problem, they created durable teams of 5-7 people with as many generalists as possible. This style has worked well, but it wasn’t perfect out of the gate. It helped to organize teams based on core KPIs, i.e. improving Firefox retention rates, or important channels, i.e. email. Hiring or growing t-shaped marketers also helps.
They’ve also been employing user stories, a sometimes controversial but still crucial piece of an effective Agile implementation.
Most exciting takeaway: Executive support, a bought-in team, and an educated leader are all key components of a productive Agile marketing experiment.
Sources: Chad’s series of posts on Medium
University Uses Agile to Finally Hit Concurrent Deadlines
Company: Deakin University
Category: Education
Spokesperson: Trisca Scott-Branagan, Executive Director of Marketing for the education institution
Case study summary: It wasn’t the lure of Agile that brought Trisca and Deakin to Agile. Instead it was the perfect storm of deadlines. The team had to deliver four programs within a few days of each other, and their existing processes just couldn’t handle it. They made some initial changes, bringing together project-based teams and “chunking down” activities to hit their deadlines.
Then, it was time to embed the Agile way of working across the whole Deakin marketing division. Now all the staff have been trained, and they’re applying Agile to daily tasks as well as project work.
Most exciting takeaways: Increased productivity through staff empowerment, reduced meetings and email, and greater real-time communication
Source: CMO.co.au
Disconnected Enterprise Marketing Streamlined Through Agile
Company: Dell
Category: Software/Technology
Spokesperson: Greg Davoll, Senior Director of Marketing and Product GM
Case study summary: With nearly 200 people in Dell Software Marketing worldwide, Greg had a lot of ground to cover: SEO, lead generation, channel, web, field marketing, channel marketing, etc. And everybody was doing things a little differently across product lines and portfolios, leading to “disconnect points and gaps” and processes that weren’t repeatable.
To counteract these issues, they reorganized into an Agile marketing formation and combined it with an inbound marketing approach. Over about 7 months they created a worldwide team across all product lines that’s organized into an Agile formation that operates on one-month Sprints.
Most exciting takeaway: Size and complexity aren’t obstacles if the problem is big enough and leadership is committed.
Source: ClearPivot.com
Enterprise Uses Agile Marketing to Focus on Customer Needs
Company: General Mills
Category: Food Processing
Spokesperson: Chris Campbell, Director of Marketing and Sales Solutions
Case study summary: General Mills has founded their Agility in the right place: with their customer and their needs. They’ve then taken three steps to create Agility:
- Embrace mobile as the device of choice.
- Build a standard set of components that can be deployed across any site.
- Invest in “always on” teams.
These teams include marketing, agency, and tech resources that work as a single unit to ensure the customer gets the best possible experience.
Most importantly, everything is founded on hiring amazing people and removing any barriers preventing them from delivering a world-class customer experience.
Most exciting takeaway: Agile is rooted in a desire to deliver for the customer. This holds true for great marketing as well as great software.
Source: ChiefMarTec.com
Bank Uses Sprints for Quick Experiments and Better Results
Company: Santander
Category: Financial
Spokesperson: Keith Moore, Chief Marketing Officer
Case study summary: The traditional marketing cycle of long booking times and lengthy review cycles with agencies wasn’t working for Santander anymore. In their place they adopted a more Agile approach, releasing small, low-risk campaigns in two-week Sprints. Those that were successful got more budget and more attention. Unsuccessful experiments were abandoned.
Now that it’s comfortable experimenting, Santander has expanded its Agile approach. Recent results of an experiment combining its first party CRM data and Facebook data were “staggering,” and the application of those learnings to search, social, and programmatic activity is already delivering amazing results (see takeaways below).
Most exciting takeaways: Their new approach to iterative experiments is delivering measurable results:
- Loyalty increased 12%
- NPS (Net Promoter Score) at its highest in 17 years
- Account satisfaction increased 10%
- Highest ever positive sentiment at 90%
Sources:
MarketingWeek
Software Firm Boost Efficiency with "Scrumban"
Company: Sleeknote
Category: Software/Technology
Spokesperson: Sam Thomas Davies, Content Marketing Manager
Case study summary: On the surface, Sam and his team were doing everything right. Shipping content, marketing their product, building links, and generally doing solid marketing. But they knew they weren’t being as efficient as they could be.
So, they turned to Agile marketing and Scrum. They followed four steps:
- Choose an application
- Plan your Sprint
- Add Sprints to your chosen application
- Decide on meeting frequency
(Truth be told this sounds more like Scrumban to me...but it’s really a to-may-to to-mah-to situation.)
Sam also gives a detailed walkthrough of their tool of choice, Favro, if you’re looking for guidance on tool selection and implementation.
Most exciting takeaway: “It’s not about getting things done; it’s about getting the right things done and feeling productive rather than busy.”
Source: Sleeknote.com
Association Struggling with Dependencies & Handoffs Uses Agile to Improve
Company: Alberta Motor Association
Category: Insurance
Spokesperson: Carole Stevenson-Roy
Case study summary: The AMA leadership was looking for a way to kickstart innovation and creativity in their marketing, and so they turned to Agile during a 2017 reorg. With about 40 people spread across multiple interdependent teams, they struggled with dependencies, handoffs, and achieving transparency into their process.
AgileSherpas joined them and helped all the teams redesign their kanban boards, resize the cards being used, and improve their communication across teams (among many other things). We also transitioned the creative services team to a more flow-based Agile approach to try and free them from some of the stress being caused by overloaded sprints.
One of my favorite things we tried with the AMA teams was the creation of Pen column on their boards. This is where all work lives that’s currently outside of the team’s control, and it helps them maintain visibility into its status without the need to stop all work while they’re waiting for feedback.
Most exciting takeaway: The Pen can help mitigate a difficult review process.
Source: Client Engagement
Large Financial Firm Tests Agile with Clever Pilot Program
Company: Sunlife Financial
Category: Banking/Financial
Spokesperson: Dave Noyle
Case study summary: Dave and the rest of the marketing team at Sunlife saw the value in Agile marketing, but knew they couldn’t put everything on hold to undergo a huge transformation. Instead they implemented one of the smartest pilot programs I’ve seen, creating a single cross-functional team to work on a finite project as a test case for using Agile.
When that project succeeded they added another Agile team, and then another, incrementally expanding their agility further and further into the department. They’re still early in the process, but Dave (who led the original pilot) and his colleagues have gotten rave reviews from their internal partners. Expect to hear great things from these teams in the near future!
Most exciting takeaway: Pilot teams and projects are excellent proving grounds for Agile marketing’s viability.
Source: Client engagement. See more details in these slides.
The Agile Marketing [R]Evolution: How to Harness the Power of Change from Andrea Fryrear
Huge Legacy Financial Firm Uses Spotify Model to Implement Agile
Company: ING Netherlands
Category: Banking/Financial
Spokesperson: Nick Jue, CEO
Case study summary: Harried by fintech startups, Nick felt that ING was starting to become an elephant trying to race against greyhounds. He believed it was time for a big change, so he visited some of the world’s most innovative brands: Google, Netflix, Zappos, Spotify, etc. He and his executives then launched 5-6 pilot teams to prove the Agile approach while they simultaneously drew up a whole new structure for the 2,500 employees at the Netherlands headquarters. They modeled themselves on Spotify, creating Squads, Tribes, and Chapters (as illustrated in the video below).
Another big company proving that size isn’t an impediment to Agility, ING is seeing quicker time to market, increased employee engagement, reduced impediments and handoffs, and an improved client experience, even though they’re still early in their transformation.
Most exciting takeaway: The Spotify model can be modified to work outside of software development.
Sources:
McKinsey.com
Frismakers.com
YouTube
Large Bank Uses Agile Reorg to Improve Culture and KPIs
Company: Aussie
Category: Banking/Financial
Spokesperson: Richard Burns, general manager of customer experience and technology
Case study summary: This mortgage broker went Agile in a big way, using its $25 million brand relaunch in 2016 to test the approach in its marketing organization. A major catalyst for the transformation was the move to new premises, which were designed to facilitate collaboration within and between all departments.
Equally key was the “comprehensive agile training program” taken by both executive team members and the staff. This provided a solid understanding of the “why” behind the switch as well as the information needed to make it successful.
After 18 months of transformative effort, Aussie now uses 2-week Sprints and combines physical boards with digital project management tools. Each team designs their own board and optimizes their process from Sprint to Sprint, helped along by Scrum masters.
Most exciting takeaway: Building a strong team and culture that’s finally focused on the right priorities.
Source: SimpleHQ
Pharmacy Boosts Satisfaction by 50% by Replacing Hierarchy with Customer Focus
Company: Chemmart
Category: Healthcare/pharmacy
Spokesperson: Darren Gunton, national marketing manager
Case study summary: Darren originally met Agile while working at a national gaming company. So when he joined Chemmart he decided to roll out this alternative process there. His first objective was to tear down silos and reduce hierarchy while also increasing customer focus.
Their marketing activity centers around themed monthly loyalty campaigns designed to drive sales in franchisee-operated pharmacies, as well as loyalty marketing programs that refresh every two weeks. This set up made them an excellent candidate for Scrumban, where they combined two-week sprints with the use of a Kanban board and pull-based work.
Testing and experimentation have become part of the team's DNA, with A/B tests running constantly and online feedback from customers driving decision making. Chemmart has not, however, sacrificed quality for speed. Their catalogues continue to win awards, and they give each little campaign as much love as they once devoted to their annual big-bang campaigns.
Most exciting takeaway: Turnaround times reduced from 2 months to 2 hours, customer satisfaction is up by 50%, and they’ve saved millions by creating an in-house agency.
Source: SimpleHQ
Legacy Tech Firm Transforms Marketing with In-Person Agile Hubs
Company: IBM
Category: Technology/Software
Spokesperson: Michelle Peluso, Chief Marketing Officer
Case study summary: In 2016 IBM’s new CMO called the company’s 2600 marketers back into the office only a few years after they’d all been asked to work from home. It was time to trade productivity for innovation, and for Peluso that also meant a focus on Agility. She stated that the newly co-located teams would be going Agile by “creating small empowered teams with the right skills, clear accountability, sprints, and a constant focus on prioritization.” These teams would be cross-functional as well, boasting “a strong mix of creative, process, digital, and data science skills.”
This transition is part of a larger business transformation that has seen IBM spend $380 million on “agile hubs” in Austin, San Francisco, New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Raleigh, North Carolina. They’re also investing $1 billion in training and development programs for the US workforce over the next four years.
I heard Michele Peluso speak at DMA’s &Then in 2017, and she was overwhelmingly positive about the success that Agile marketing was having with her team. Hard data on IBM’s transformation remains scarce, but if it surfaces we’ll share it here.
(Incidentally, agility in marketing isn’t new at IBM, as you can see in this 2014 interview with Ben Edwards, then VP of Global Communications and Digital Marketing.)
Most exciting takeaway: With the right budget and level of executive buy-in, you can turn a ship of any size towards great organizational agility.
Sources:
TCV via Medium
Diginomica
Software Firm Connects Agile Teams to Business Units to Triple Win Rate
Company: CA Technologies
Category: Software/Tech
Spokesperson: Cameron van Orman, Senior VP of Product and Solutions Marketing
Case study summary: The reasons behind CA's Agile journey were familiar: be faster to market, iterate rapidly, prove their impact on the business, and improve team morale. It's taken two years and a lot of learning, but CA is now using Agile marketing with over 100 team members across six Delivery Groups, each of which is aligned with a particular Business Unit. Sixty of those team members are full-time and part of the core Agile teams. The rest are leaders, specialists, data scientists, and regional marketers who offer support as needed.
Like many success stories, CA started with a small pilot team. Most members were co-located and worked on a single product: CA Agile Central. They also drew inspiration from the Rally Software marketing team, which they acquired in 2015. Once their pilot proved successful, they expanded steadily over the next 18 months or so.
While pipeline improved, delivery times shrunk, and win-rate tripled, the journey wasn't without its obstacles. A lack of co-location and marketing work that didn't lend itself to traditional two-week sprints kept them on their toes, but it was management that had the hardest time. The need to relinquish control and start coaching rather than directing was a tough hurdle in the early days.
Most exciting takeaways:
- Pipeline improved 20% with a flat budget
- Campaigns can now be delivered in two weeks rather than 1-2 months
- Win rate of marketing-sourced opportunities has tripled
Sources: Cameron's posts on the CA Blog
Automated Approvals and Workflows Have Brought 13+ Years of Value
Company: Teratada
Category: Technology
Spokesperson: Lisa Arthur, former CMO of Teradata
Case study summary: In 2009 Teradata undertook an Agile marketing implementation that needed about nine months to complete. The company collaborated with Gartner to make the successful transformation. They automated workflows and approval processes as well as ensuring clear collaboration with Gartner by specifically defining how they would be involved.
Now, more than a decade later, Teradata is still running its marketing and software development with Agile. The value of this approach has been consistently proven to Teradata’s leadership.
Most exciting takeaways: The Agile marketing transformation led the company to more effective campaigns and better customer relationships.
Former CMO Lisa Arthur shares, “Marketing needs to be agile, to be nimble, and to get to market sooner, rather than later, to drive revenue and excite consumers.”
Sources: Toolbox
University Uses Agile Development to Perfect its Online Platform
Company: Cornell University
Category: Education
Case study summary: Cornell University used Agile marketing to transform their online platform and draw more students. They have an online certificate program known as eCornell. The university wanted to extend the reach of their platform to better compete in a digital world with many different online courses. To do that they implemented a series of iterations to change its functionality.
eCornell released one new feature at a time to test and improve. This enabled quick reactions if any problems arose. If they had used their traditional approach it would take the university tremendous time to adapt the features once they were already launched.
Most exciting takeaways: Cornell University's website is more user-friendly, attracting new students thanks to elements such as testimonials, changing pricing structures, and pricing plans. As a result, Cornell has been able to meet customer needs in a responsive way.
Source: Study.com
Consulting Firm Uses Agile to Boost Responsiveness and Transparency
Company: Cprime
Category: Consulting
Spokesperson: Traci Taylor, Marketing Director
Case study summary: Cprime's marketing team struggled with transparency. This created accountability issues, a disorganized backlog, and strained relationships with internal stakeholders, including product management and sales.
The Vice President of Marketing, a Marketing Manager, and a Marketing Specialist attended a two-day Agile Marketing Boot Camp. They managed to immediately start implementing their new learnings. The first pieces of Agile the marketing team tested were standup and weekly planning meetings. They were able to break down complex campaigns by using a structured backlog, Kanban board, and team velocity chart.
Most exciting takeaways: After their Agile transformation, the Cprime marketing department was able to launch campaigns, generate insights, and make changes far more quickly. The increased visibility of activities and strategies made room for collaboration within the entire organization.
“It far exceeded my expectations. I believed that Agile would help, but I never expected it to have as significant an impact as it did.”
-Traci Taylor, Marketing Director
Source: Cprime.com
Tech Company Uses Agile Marketing to Prioritize and Deliver Value
Company: UruIT
Category: Technology
Spokesperson: Ana Jorcin, Marketing Manager
Case study summary: UruIT’s marketing department struggled with long to-do lists and confusion regarding the real priorities. Constant context switching led to low productivity and frustration. The marketing department had already seen other teams in their company apply the Agile ways of working so they decided to test them for themselves.
The implementation began with introducing 2-week sprints, status update meetings, and an Agile project management tool to better organize the workflow.
Most exciting takeaways: Using the Agile ways of working within their marketing department, UruIT acknowledged which situations were impacting their team negatively. They managed to focus on delivering value by prioritizing activities and breaking complex tasks into achievable, small steps.
Source: Clutch.co
Agile Marketing in Health and Life Sciences
Company: Charles River Laboratories
Category: Health and Life Sciences
Spokesperson: Darci Helbling, Executive Director, Global Marketing Operations
Case study summary: Charles River has supported the development of over 80% of all drugs approved by the FDA over the past three years. The reality of operating in a highly-regulated industry and dealing with the volatility brought on by a global pandemic was already a source of delays and inefficiencies in their internal processes. In combination with the influx of new products and services to support, as well as an ongoing digital transformation, their marketing was facing great difficulties.
In October 2020, amidst a global pandemic and still acclimatizing to remote working, Charles River decided to undertake a systematic Agile transformation across their marketing department.
The journey to marketing agility included preliminary assessment, certification training for Agile teams and leaders, and embedded coaching and workshops, all led by expert Sherpas. Charles River marketing trained their teams and leaders in Agile ways of working for marketing, successfully completing a three-month Agile marketing pilot, and gradually expanding the implementation to 10 more teams within the department.
Most exciting takeaways: In just 3 months, the Charles River marketing teams enjoy an average 50% increase in their speed to market for marketing campaigns, all while team members report higher morale. In a highly collaborative environment, they’re also seeing better communication with stakeholders, who in turn feel more connected to the ongoing marketing activities. All of this combines to produce more value for their customers.
Source: AgileSherpas
Financial Services Going Agile
Company: M&T Bank
Category: Finance
Spokesperson: Zach Meixner, Senior Digital Program Manager
Case study summary: M&T Bank Corporation is an American financial services company with more than $142.6 billion in assets. They were facing challenges such as siloed communication, lack of effective prioritization, and context-switching.
To make a holistic transition, they relied on the 70-20-10 learning model, placing the appropriate level of emphasis on structured learning through training, along with near-the-job informal learning and on-the-job experience through coaching. This allowed marketers to apply their newly-acquired knowledge while building a higher level of comfort among team members to practice the new frameworks.
Even after initiating their Agile transformation, M&T experienced serious difficulties in managing the capacity of their people. To solve this problem and similar structural issues, M&T applied a management model called Center of Excellence (CoE). Its essence lies in forming service groups within the marketing department that support the Agile teams with additional capacity when needed.
Most exciting takeaways: Since the M&T Bank Agile marketing journey began, they have optimized the team structures to be able to prioritize marketing campaigns based on the value that they truly bring to their customers.
Source: AgileSherpas
Combining Content and Agile Marketing
Company: Thermo Fisher Scientific
Category: Laboratory equipment, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare
Spokesperson: Todd Linden, Marketing Manager
Case study summary: Thermo Fisher’s marketing team recently took on a project to combine content and agile marketing to help their teams be involved in the entire customer journey from start to finish.
They reorganized their teams and how they supported each other. The first step was to craft a strategic vision and increase communication by introducing daily standup meetings. The marketing team put the theory into practice giving them an opportunity to make mistakes and learn. They also implemented a project management system that allows them to have transparency and better prioritization.
Most exciting takeaways: The marketing team has been able to communicate core messages quickly and develop a better overall content strategy. They noticed better delivery of value and campaign success.
Source: Relationship One
A Global Bank Takes on An Agile Insight Approach
Company: HSBC
Category: Finance
Spokesperson: Lucy Fairhall, Head of Research & Insight
Case study summary: HSBC is a customer-oriented company. They wanted to deliver insights that meet the increasing pace and complexity of business and customer requirements. To do that effectively, they decided to blend innovative and traditional B2B research methodologies with Agile insights while also providing valid and credible results.
They used Agile tools for social media, listening for customer experience and reputational insight and using them to draw out strategic insights on corporate customers. They facilitated predictive foresight by providing the capability for broader listening and identification of emerging themes.
Most exciting takeaways: HSBC understood that they must embrace newer trends, not only as a way to enhance differentiation but also to manage shrinking timelines, ensure the effective use of budget, and deliver the desired always on and always ready approach. Their current solution employs social media listening intelligence and Google Consumer Surveys to deliver timely results.
They intend to continue and add to this toolkit of approaches by reaching out beyond the traditional insight ecosystem to explore, embrace, blend and enhance.
Source: Marketing Week
Agile Transformation of Software and Hardware Company for Music Makers
Company: Ableton
Category: Music Software and Hardware
Spokesperson: Burkhard Lustig, IT Product Owner
Case study summary: Although Ableton’s product teams had already been leveraging Agile development and practices for 10 years, this was not the case for the business department. When theit trade-in program revealed gaps in organizational capability, they decided to make changes.
Ableton introduced team planning. To make work visible, they organized “expos” – demos more suited to their laid-back culture.
Because WIP was too high and not enough was getting done, middle management was brought together to own the work and the process combined with coaching. The second top impediment was a lack of alignment, so they focused on establishing a shared purpose.
Most exciting takeaways: Thanks to Agile and finding a common purpose, Ableton is able to prioritize and focus on important pieces of work. Limiting WIP has helped them get more done, and be smart and efficient in their processes.
Source: Business Agility Institute
Agile in Non-IT Company
Company: KONE
Category: Elevator and Escalator Industry
Spokesperson: Antti Koskelin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Case study summary: Fueled by their strategy to build sustainable success with their customers, KONE wanted to be even more customer and data-driven.
KONE started with learning, introducing a full cloud environment, building an integrated enterprise architecture, and deployed a business-driven IT operating model. They continued to explore their Agile transformation and moved from annual-based planning to quarterly planning and prioritization.
Most exciting takeaways: KONE’s end-user satisfaction is stable. They have reduced running costs with targeted actions, reduced project cycle time to half, and introduced several digital capabilities in multiple processes and business function areas.
Source: Thesus
Agile at Scale in a Swedish Success Story
Company: Spotify
Category: Music streaming service
Case study summary: At Spotify, they have found a way to integrate an agile way of working into the core of the organization. During their Agile implementation, the following organizational design principles were applied - continuous improvement, iterative development, simplicity, and servant leadership.
The Spotify model is made up of Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds. This way employees with diverse expertise are grouped together in Squads to collaborate independently while employees with the same expertise are enabled to share knowledge and experiences in Chapters and Guilds, so that they can grow in their field of expertise.
Most exciting takeaways: The Spotify model now serves as an example for various multinationals. Spotify has, since its founding in 2006, grown to a service with 191 million monthly active users who have access to over 40 million songs. The company employs almost 3,000 employees and had a turnover of $4.6 billion in 2018.
Source: LinkedIn
Parting Words
By reaching the end of this article, you've glimpsed at the value Agile can bring to marketing organizations. To get all the benefits of marketing agility in the quickest possible time, you should make frequent stops to resupply your knowledge.
Of course, we know how difficult it is to fit time for learning in a busy marketer’s schedule.
That’s why we developed a library of content based on years of working with Agile marketing teams, and broken it down into 4 microlearning paths for different contexts:
- Path 1: Agile Basics
- Path 2: Agile Team Applications
- Path 3: Agile Leadership
- Path 4: Agile Culture & Transformation
Each of them contains 10 bite-sized lessons, 20 short engaging videos, and 10+ downloadable resources that can boost your Agile knowledge in minutes even during the busiest days.
Check them out!
Before you move on, why don't you take a second to get the most recent State of Agile Marketing Report?
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