Our Monthly Round-up of the key pieces in Marketing for September – we’ve chosen four key articles, two substacks, and a new podcast. Curated for you – to enhance your marketing performance – all our monthly reviews are now available on our website. http://haiconsulting.com/category/views/

Our September highlights:

1. Our top pick, we pick a piece from the Boston Consulting Group. Marketing, sales, and service organizations are going all in on AI. Company leaders are making sizable investments and launching pilot projects based on the expectation that AI- and GenAI in particular – will be a cornerstone of re-shaping those functions in the coming years.

Here is the link: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/bold-ai-ambition-for-b2b-marketing-sales-service

2. Secondly, we’ve gone for a piece from McKinsey and it’s on B2B this month. Titled An unconstrained future: How generative AI could reshape B2B sales. Sales is one of the oldest known professions. The fundamental expectations of a seller’s role – building trust-based relationships, finding opportunities to create value for customers, and creating experiences that minimize friction – have remained constant over time. What’s new are the tools available to help sellers become more productive, especially with the rapid emergence of generative AI (gen AI) in recent years.

Here is the link: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/an-unconstrained-future-how-generative-ai-could-reshape-b2b-sales

3. Thirdly, we have picked an interesting piece from the Harvard Business Review, October /November Magazine edition on the new rules of Teamwork. Not that long ago, teams were typically composed of people with similar skills working in the same place. Their efforts were based on the idea that by working together in a well-managed process, they could deliver replicable results. Today, companies of all types are called on to demonstrate integrated, cross-functional, project-based teamwork in their operations

Here is the link: https://hbr.org/2024/09/new-rules-for-teamwork

4. Fourthly, we like the Moving Tribes Substack, it is always a good barometer for UK Retail performance, written by Ian Shepherd this blog covers the current mixed signals in the UK Retail market.

Here is the link: https://movingtribes.substack.com/p/mixed-signals

5. Fifthly, from the Harvard Business Review digital version this month, on why people will pay a premium to complete a task sooner. Traditional economic theory holds that people should always prefer to receive money as soon as possible and postpone paying debt as long as they can. Yet, a recent series of studies found that people are often willing to pay more money if it means they will finish a goal sooner. This is because the mental cost of an unfinished task can outweigh financial gains. The researchers offer insight into how to use their findings to boost motivation on your team.

Here is the link: https://hbr.org/2024/10/research-why-people-will-pay-a-premium-to-complete-a-task-sooner

6. Sixthly, we like the Creative Salon Substack and the weekly updates which are gathering momentum. This piece focuses on the levers of effectiveness. The chief strategists at adam&eveDDB (‘maestros’) know a bit about building brands. Here they debate the levers for effectiveness.

Here is the link: https://creative.salon/articles/features/salon-conversations-a-eddb-effectiveness  

Media: We attended the Future of News presentation at Stagwell last week, hosted by Goodstuff, and chaired by Mark Penn and James Townsend it was a fantastic journos panel event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z8MiPcSHjo

Podcast: Whilst some people question whether podcasts are fully listened to the end – this one hosted by Ben Fennell, is another belter from the Growth House here in Henley, its a good series, this one is on cheerfulness and adversity. https://shows.acast.com/thegrowthhouse/episodes/cheerfulness-and-adversity

Time for the Work: It is congrats to Virgin Media O2 and VCCP for their work creating the third chapter of its ‘To Better and Beyond’ campaign ‘Walrus Whizzer’ in a bid to highlight the freedom that better broadband brings. Love it, a boating theme, humour and memorability in one. https://creative.salon/articles/work/vccp-virgin-media-o2-walrus-whizzer

Back to Henley: Our weekly column in the Henley Standard continues where we interview local entrepreneurs. It’s called Let’s Get Down to Business. We were delighted this month to interview Emerald Brown, who is a Mother and Entrepreneur and runs a company called ODD manufacturing luxury garden furniture. https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/let-s-get-down-to-business/192164/let-s-get-down-to-business-emerald-brown.html

We are here to help you with your agency ecosystem, agile growth plans, resourcing structures and benchmarking to improve your marketing performance – do let us know, if we may set up a catch-up meeting in your diary.

Kind regards,

Will