How to Avoid Random Acts of Marketing
A Recap of StudioSpace’s Recent Event Featuring Ne-Lo
Recently, StudioSpace hosted a breakfast session in Sydney, focussed on "How to Avoid Random Acts of Marketing", a challenge many organisations face when their marketing efforts are siloed, uncoordinated, and lacking whole-of-business engagment. The discussion was led by one of our agencies, Ne-Lo, and co-founders Kieran and Ross delved into how these disjointed efforts can lead to inconsistent messaging, wasted resources, and missed business opportunities. If you missed it, here’s a quick recap of the key takeaways and insights that emerged from this thought-provoking discussion.
This event, featuring insights from the co-founders of Ne-Lo Business Design (a Studiospace agency) was aimed at providing clarity on how companies can refine their marketing strategies so that everyone in the business “thinks like a marketer”.
Setting the Stage: The Importance of Marketing Culture
Marketing in today's fast-paced world has become increasingly complex, and for many organisations, it often feels chaotic and/or disjointed. From battling information overload to navigating misaligned priorities across departments, business leaders are often left wondering how to make sense of it all. This event tackled that very problem head-on, with a focus on bringing order to marketing efforts and fostering a healthier marketing culture within organisations.
The key message was clear: marketing should not be seen as a standalone department, but rather as an integral part of the entire business’ culture - across all of the functions (because it has implications for all).
Introducing Ne-Lo and the Anatomy of Marketing
The session was led by the dynamic duo behind Ne-Lo, Kieran Antill and Ross Hastings. Both are leaders in the field of marketing and business design, bringing together years of experience in creative strategy, executive coaching, and organisational leadership.
Kieran Antill, known for his award-winning creative work, emphasised the importance of linking creativity with strategic business objectives. Ross Hastings, with his deep expertise in psychology and leadership, highlighted the psychological underpinnings necessary to foster a strong marketing culture. Together, they introduced the Anatomy of Marketing model, a framework designed to help companies establish a common language across departments. By building a unified understanding of marketing and a common language, brands can break down silos, create more efficient collaboration, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
The event provided several actionable insights for senior business leaders. Here are the five key takeaways that you can apply to your organisation:
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Marketing is a Culture, Not a Department:
One of the central ideas presented by Kieran and Ross is that marketing should be viewed as an organisation-wide culture rather than a single department. Modern marketing encompasses much more than just promotional efforts; it touches everything from product development to customer experience. This is why establishing a common language is so critical—it enables cross-functional teams to work together toward a shared vision.
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How to Measure ROI:
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of marketing initiatives is a challenge for many companies. Ross emphasised that while metrics are important, they should not be the sole focus. Instead, companies should measure progress, not just outcomes. This means testing, iterating, and adjusting based on real-time feedback, rather than being overly reliant on historical data. As Kieran put it, “The effectiveness of marketing comes down to how well it supports business objectives, usually (but not always) growth.”
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The Next Step for Your Business:
Engaging the entire organisation in a conversation about marketing is the first step toward transformation. This starts with asking fundamental questions like, “How do we define marketing around here?” and “What does success look like?” Ne-Lo’s Anatomy of Marketing model has been developed around this to facilitate such conversations, helping teams align on common goals and create a cohesive marketing culture that spans all departments.
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How AI Fits Into the Picture:
Technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), is playing an increasingly significant role in modern marketing. However, Ross cautioned that while AI can provide valuable data and insights, it is not a magic bullet. AI should be seen as an enabler, not a solution in itself. He stressed the importance of having a disciplined approach to aligning teams around structured processes, cultural values, and clear hypotheses to ensure that AI-driven initiatives are effective.
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The Mission of the Anatomy of Marketing:
Ultimately, the Anatomy of Marketing model aims to create a common language for marketing within organisations. This shared understanding is essential for breaking down departmental silos and ensuring that all teams have a consistent view of what marketing entails and how it supports the business. By fostering this alignment, companies can avoid random acts of marketing and unlock sustainable growth.
Why This Matters
This session was more than just a discussion about marketing tactics; it was a call to action for business leaders to rethink how they approach marketing at a fundamental level. The Anatomy of Marketing provides a roadmap for creating a more strategic, aligned, and innovative marketing culture that drives real results across the entire organisation - helping every stakeholder realise and embrace the fact that they are, to some extent, a marketer.
By embracing this model, companies can move away from the chaos of random acts of marketing and toward a more purposeful, customer-focused approach that benefits the entire company.
Complementary Ne-Lo Engagement Workshop
To help companies further explore and implement the principles of the Anatomy of Marketing, StudioSpace, in partnership with Ne-Lo, is offering a limited number of free engagement workshops. These workshops are designed to help teams bring the model to life within their organisations, fostering a healthier, more cohesive marketing culture.
If you're interested in securing a spot for one of these workshops, or if you have specific marketing challenges you'd like assistance with, reach out to StudioSpace (simply email liz@studiospace.com).
