Developing a Long-Term Digital Strategy

Kalev PeeknaChief StrategistOne North Interactive

Digital Endurance: Developing a Long-Term Digital Strategy

Dan TinesDigital Marketing ManagerPlante Moran

My complicated relationship with sports talk in business

“I dunno… it all looks like millionaires in their pajamas to me.”

Kalev: “So is that the one with the orange bouncy ball, or the one with the pillows?”

Colleague: “Pillows?”

Kalev: “You know, the pillows on the lawn. And then they throw something at the guy running around the pillows…Throwball?”

Colleague: “Want to join me and the client for golf?”

Kalev: “I don’t understand. What have I done to offend you?”

“If one more person interrupts this meeting to congratulate a grown-a** man who bounces a ball for a living, I swear I will loop the Paris fashion shows on every monitor in this office for the next two weeks.”

An Outsider’s Perspective on Which Sports We Talk About

Sport is a Huge Industry

$498.4BSize of sports industry, US

$34.9BSpent in sports advertising, US

US professional athletes earn a median annual pay of

$1,500BSize of sports industry, Global

14,000

$45K

You Love Sports, But Probably Not All SportsEach year, The Harris Poll surveys the US, asking respondents to name their favorite sport. In 2016, the winners were:

1. Football2. Baseball3. College Football4. Auto Racing5. Basketball ♂6. Hockey7. Soccer ♂8. College Basketball ♂9. Golf ♂

10. Boxing11. Swimming12. Track & Field13. Horse Racing14. Soccer ♀15. College Basketball ♀16. Basketball ♀17. Tennis ♂18. (Not sure)

Where Are the Endurance Sports?Of the top sports in America, only 4* are considered “endurance” sports that require athletes to train for sustained performance over long periods of time. They all require effort (cough, ahem, golf), but most of these athletes train for specific skills and short bursts of activity.

1. Football2. Baseball3. College Football4. Auto Racing5. Basketball ♂6. Hockey7. Soccer ♂8. College Basketball ♂9. Golf ♂

10. Boxing11. Swimming12. Track & Field13. Horse Racing14. Soccer ♀15. College Basketball ♀16. Basketball ♀17. Tennis ♂18. (Not sure)

*Source: ESPN. Only 3 if you count men’s and women’s soccer together

Not on this list:• Cycling• Triathlons• Hiking• Distance Swimming• Skiing

• Field Hockey• Canoeing/Kayaking• Rugby• Wrestling• Skating (speed &

figure)

Why Not Endurance?It doesn’t seem hard to guess why we don’t connect with endurance sports so easily:• “Favorite” = “entertaining” • Long attention spans are as common as

happy, earnest teenagers• Two words: commercial break• We all like a quick win

Introducing the Bimodal Problem

We Have a Problem, and It Looks Like ThisEf

fort

Time

$$$ $$$

Why “Bimodal”?

Economists and analysts call camel-humpcurves like this “bimodal” because theyreflect two different “modes” or clusters. In digital marketing, the bimodal problemworks like this:

• Years 1-2: Large investment to create a new platform (e.g., website)• Years 3-5: “Run the platform” with minimal reinvestment• Years 6-7: Replace with a newer, bigger, better platform

Introducing the Bipolar Problem

Welcome to the Emoticoaster

“Yay! We got our funding!”“Thanks, suckers… I mean…

stakeholders!”

You Dig In with Gusto

“Kickoff! So cool!”“I wonder if it comes in

purple.”

You Start to Get Slammed…

“This is harder than I thought. But still cool.”

Now It’s Pushing Everything Else Aside

“This is way harder than I thought…”

But You’re Dedicated – You’re In It to Win

“So close to the finish!Go go go”

Success!

“Launch! You’re awesome! We’re awesome! You know what this team deserves? Motivational T-shirts!”

You Deal with the Aftermath

“Wait, we can’t be out of money already…”

You Try to Stick to the Plan

“Just a few things to fix…”

Your Real Job Needs You Back

“I’d love to… but I gotta get back to my real job.”

A Competitor Launches Something New

“Yes, I saw what the other guys did. Yes, it’s cool. We’re still cool, right?”

Regret Sets In

“I really need this; I don’t dare ask for money.”

Indifference Sets In

“Eh. I guess it still looks OK.”

Same Old, Same Old

“I’m so sick of lookingat this thing.”

The Tide Turns

“I’m embarrassed to show it to people. Why can’t we ever

have nice things?”

Blamestorms Are Good at Hiding Irony

“Who the heck agreed to this? This is terrible.”

You Hit Bottom

“I hate this thing with the intensity of a thousand

burning suns."

You Get an Idea

“The partners hate it too? I know what to do.

Your Devious Plan Knows No Equal

“Dear partners: The struggle is real. This thing is single-

handedly responsible for everything wrong.”

…And It Starts All Over

“Yay! We got our funding!”“Thanks, suckers… I mean…

stakeholders!”

But WaitIt’s Worse Than You Think

Cycles Overlap as They RepeatChances are good that you approach most of your major investments this way –leading to a staggered, but relentless, shift of attention from one thing to the next.

Web CRM Brand EMM Proposals WebEvents

ExistingCapabilities

ExistingCapabilities

Over Time, the $$$ Only Goes Up

New Abilities

When you approach your major digital investments as “redesigns” or “replatforms,” then improvements can only be achieved as supplements to existing capabilities.

So What is This Costing Us?

Aside from the emotional whiplash, the Bimodal Curve presents you with bigger obstacles than you may realize:

• Feature hoarding leads to too much spend• “Strategy” happens in only one dimension, one moment at a time• Narrow focus on platforms and toolsets at the expense of what

you’re using them to accomplish• Inability to react to emerging needs and market conditions• Out-of-sync, siloed digital capabilities

So Why Does it Keep Happening?

Why Are We Stuck on the Bimodal Curve?

Because “projects” are how your partners -

consultants, lawyers, bankers, etc.- solve

problems

Effort spikes tightly limit your attention

We tend to think in campaigns

We like shiny new things

Fear that once the project is over, you can never touch it again

Only a big, quick wincan make all the work

worthwhile

Because you need to be terrible in order to convince others to be

great

Let’s Look at an Alternative

Welcome to the Digital Endurance CurveEffor

t

Time

Hallmarks of the Digital Endurance Curve

Digital Endurance involves a completely different mindset, one closer to product (and software) development than a typical marketing campaign:

• No presumption of obsolescence. Platforms are here to stay.• Investments and improvements are iterative, incremental, sustained.• Predictability of spend over time.• Increased ability to assess market conditions and refactor strategies.• Coordination with other platforms is easier.• No more redesigns / replacements

Any Real Life Examples?

20062007200820092010201120122013201420152016

amazon.com, ca. 2006

amazon.com, ca. 2016

Going for Endurance

Digital Endurance

Digital Endurance requires an entirely different mindset – a shift in perspective, planning, skills, budgeting, measurement, and so on. And just like marathon training, most of the changes have to start with you:• Moving from project execution to program management• Dedicated leadership, both in and out of marketing• Data-driven, results-oriented decision making• Iterative budgeting and dynamic adjustment of goals

From Project to Program ManagementPerhaps the biggest change needed is to stop thinking about your major digital efforts – Email, CRM, Website, even Brand – as projects. It’s much better to think of your digital efforts as ongoing programs rather than discrete projects:

Project Management Program Management

• Defined beginning, middle and end • Ongoing – literally never ends

• One big effort • Arrangement of successive efforts

• Isolated schedule • Tied to financial/governance schedules

• Manager-level leadership • Executive-level leadership

• Execution focused • Vision focused

Long-Term Vision, Short-Term ActionsOne important discipline program management inherits from its roots in software development is the arrangement of efforts into a release schedule rather than a big launch followed by minor tweaks:

A release structure doesn’t just even out effort and spend. It is the key to providing better control, predictability, and flexibility into your efforts. It ensures continued progress while also discouraging focus on tactical, ad hoc adjustments.

ProjectTweak Tweak

Release 1 Release 2 Release 3 Release 4

Rethinking How You ScopeIn a program managed on a release schedule, success is only possible if you break down larger efforts into components that build on each other. A traditional project often squeezes too much into a single effort, making it very hard to control your focus:

Website Problems?

Let’s do a Big, Giant, Redesign Project!

Brand AlignmentVisual Design

Tech Platform

Data Integration

Services StructureContent Focus

SEO

Analytics

Internal Engagement

Geographic LocalizationSearch

Rethinking How You ScopeYour thinking about budget also needs to change. One of the biggest shifts is to start thinking about your efforts as budget and/or schedule-constrained, rather than scope-constrained.

You won’t know (even one year ahead) everything that will be in each release. This approach may seem risky, but it actually limits feature hoarding and trains your team to focus on the highest-impact investments.

Budget to Scope

How much will all this cost?

Scope to Budget

How much can we get for this much $$

Establishing New Marketing LeadershipAt many firms, the Comms Director often owns “digital” by default. But an enduring digital program requires dedicated leadership of the sort that few PSOs have in place today:• Executive-level interaction (i.e. Director)• Focused on business vision, governance and

performance• Develops digital capabilities across tools and

platforms• Manages cross-functional teams of Marketing,

IT, BD, etc.• Does not have 100+ other things to do

Data is a Habit, Not a Fad

Most PSOs have lots of data to look at, but in a bimodal cycle, where there’s no promise of being able to do anything in response, it can seem a little pointless. Data tends to be used only when you have to ask for money.A well-run digital program should operate like it’s addicted to data.

Release 1 Release 2 Release 3 Release 4

Review &

Decide

Review &

Decide

Review &

Decide

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review Data

Review &

Decide

Budgeting Dynamically, IterativelyMost firms still budget on a strict annual basis. But some professional service firms are switching to a quarterly model that allows more flexibility. There are many benefits of budgeting this way for a digital program:• “Big asks” become smaller, less frequent• Spend predictability• Avoiding sunk costs• Ability to pivot on priorities

Also, make sure you fill your partner’s food bowl before the budget meeting

Of course, you still need to budget. And you need to explain how it will be spent. The big difference is that instead of “extraordinary” projects, you build the cost of your digital program into your regular operating budget.

Parting Thought

Poor, Poor TwitterTwitter has been looking for a buyer almost since Jack Dorsey re-took control in 2014. Salesforce seemed like a likely choice, but Marc Benioff’s board rebelled against the idea. The problem isn’t usage; it’s momentum: Twitter hasn’t significantly improved its offering in years, and because of that, investors aren’t confident they can turn usage intorevenue. In short, no one knows the vision forTwitter.

Snap This SlideConsider, on the other hand, Snapchat. Despite the same revenue model as Twitter (advertising) and lower projections, the one-time “sexting” app is set to be one of the largest tech IPOs in history: $4,000,000,000.

The secret? Snapchat has made a regular habit of new features and integrations, creating confidence about its ability to grow in the future.

Snapchat’s vision, which ultimately extends to a complete disruption of consumer imaging, is clear and compelling.

People don’t invest into past accomplishments, nor into current performance.

People invest into the future.

Developing a Long-Term Digital Strategy

Marketing

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