Culture x Creativity: How a Strong Marketing Culture Drives Innovation

This week our Pan-Europe CMO community met to discuss the importance of having a culture of creativity that can drive innovation in the permacrisis world we are all doing business in. Creativity is an essential tool for all of what we do, from driving sustainable future growth to maintaining our brand ethos to driving organizational changes. To this end, our group posited that creativity does not necessarily come at the cost of performance. As one member put it, “If you do want innovation, and if you do want creativity and flair, then it needs to be an environment where people can challenge the norms. Change doesn’t happen unless you have that environment.”

The digital revolution has driven a lot of counter-creativity; science, precision, and commoditization aren’t always in line with creativity. “There is more confusion about how to hold an idea and make it work across the digital experience,” one member opined. “But, arguably, this is more imperative than ever because creativity is the differentiator and is the path to growth.” Some companies are now reviewing creativity progress in the business in board meetings. One member summarized five points of performance for fostering creative practice within a company:

How do we foster a creativity culture?

1. Risk:?Budget a certain percentage for creative risk.
2. Celebrate:?Celebrate the best creative work internally.
3. Efficacy:?Commit to measuring the efficacy of creative works in both the short and long term.
4. Methodology:?Focus on “now and next” in order to anticipate the next situation you will be in by monitoring new growth from new players in the market.
5. AI:?Find where AI can build efficiencies and extra productivity and then reinvest into top-of-funnel creativity endeavors. (Not doing more with less!)

In the uncertain times we find ourselves in, our instinct can be to sustain and protect the core business. However, it might be just the right time to harness our creativity and expand and grow in more bold, radical, and innovative ways. To do so, we need to allow ourselves to be uncomfortable, to say “I don’t understand,” and to let go of preconceptions, ego, and the “we’ve always done it this way mentality.” Doing so will unleash our creativity and lead the way to business (and marketing!) innovation.

Many thanks to Tricia Weener , EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Kone, and Rohit Dogra , Vice President of Marketing at Fazer, for kicking off the conversation about our topic.

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埃森哲 Accenture Song

Dinah Laredo Harriet de Swiet Christian Budtz Nina Holdaway Lotte Jakobsen Adam Kerj Nicolai Stahl