Build a modern marketing team, with both sides of the brain

Does your marketing team have the right balance of skills to tackle the challenges of tomorrow? In the past, data and creativity skills were polarised and separate, partly because they use opposite sides of the brain. But in the future, marketing teams will need to embody both skillsets in order to achieve their business goals.

Any CMO looking to establish a marketing team of the future, should look at embracing data and insights into their department to inform decisions and provide direction that enhances the customer experience. However, it’s not as simple as just employing a few data pros and letting them get on with it. It’s essential they get on with and feel comfortable integrating into your creative team – they need to collaborate to add value. And that can be the tricky part. But once you get every part of the brain working together, you’ll have one powerful, unified marketing team for the future.

So, how can you do it?

Scott Allen, CMO at Microsoft UK, was at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2017 where he took time out to speak with Russell Goldsmith from the csuite podcast. In the interview, Scott shares his thoughts on the value of data and creativity skills in his marketing team, including the pleasure and pain he’s experienced in finding talent for the future. Hear more from Scott in the recording below:

Scott Allen has also appeared on a panel with three other industry experts at MOI’s Disrupt Forum in London. Scott discusses his team structure and the people he looks to employ when building a modern marketing organisation of the future. The way he has hired people has changed over the past five years, with his team now made up of people who are part scientist and part creative. Hear more from Scott at 6 minutes 25 seconds in the recording below: