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Marketing Strategy

Heads up strategy: Why marketing needs a new modus operandi

By Matt Holt, director of digital strategy

April 2, 2015 | 4 min read

Marketing strategy practices born in simpler times are now out of date, according to OgilvyOne's Matt Holt. He argues it's high time for a new modus operandi that's fit for the 21st century.

Matt Holt

Before technological advances and increased consumer sophistication, marketing strategy was a simpler proposition. The channels to master were smaller in number, products fewer and consumer decision-making more straightforward. Strategy was a linear process, data was limited, and focus groups often the only chance to get close to consumers.

As a result, strategic practices were often inward looking and ‘heads down’ – designed to ensure the brand stood out in relation to competitors. They were not designed to deal with today’s external factors such as unstructured data and ever changing consumer behaviour.

Now a lot of marketing strategists are scratching their heads at the sheer complexity of it all, ill-equipped to deal with it because heads down strategy just doesn’t work any more. This is why I believe the world of marketing strategy needs a new modus operandi fit for the 21st century– and that’s heads up strategy.

Borrowed from rugby, heads up rugby refers to the ability of a player to play the field in front of them, reacting to the scenarios as they play out on the pitch. It’s a widely held view that the best teams are the heads up rugby teams. And I believe it will soon be a widely held view that the best strategy is heads up strategy:

Heads up means adjusting your play to what’s in front of you

The philosophy of heads up rugby is about adjusting your game plan and reacting to events as they occur. Data gives strategists an enormous opportunity to see the whole strategy playing out in front of them and to make incremental adjustments in real time.

Heads up means preparation, preparation, preparation

But not everything happens off the cuff. Heads up means expecting the unexpected and being prepared for it, practicing different scenarios - so that when things change rapidly, strategists react quickly, calmly and effectively.

Heads up means trial and error

Heads up players are prepared to back their talent and play instinctively. Strategists need to think creatively, hypothesise quickly and then use data to validate, either from existing sources by testing those hypotheses in the real world.

Heads up means being an all rounder

The best heads up rugby players are all rounders; they can kick, run, pass and tackle, meaning they’re well equipped to deal with any eventuality. Strategy needs more all rounders – those that can harness data and creativity; part artist, part scientist.

Ask yourself this question next time you’re tackling a problem – are you a heads up or a heads down strategist? Ultimately if marketing is going be a cornerstone of competitive advantage, then strategy has to be heads up.

Matt Holt is a heads up associate director of digital strategy at OgilvyOne

Marketing Strategy

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