A growing trend in recent times has been the rise of what is being called the ‘project economy’.
For marketers, the project economy brings with it a growing need to adopt an agile methodology as they continue to digitise.
One business that has been at the forefront of this shift is project management software company Wrike.
Speaking with B&T, Wrike regional manager APAC Fintan Lalor explained how he has seen marketers start adapting.
“The more focussed marketing teams are on an agile methodology – or any particular methodology – the more they can benefit from a software like Wrike,” he said.
While such a method has often been associated with software development and other highly-technical projects, Lalor pointed to the use cases for marketers.
“One of the things in Wrike that marketers find particularly useful is the way they are able to adjust a workflow and adjust the approval flow that you go through,” he said.
“I think marketing is a particularly good use case, because campaigns need to happen really fast, they need to go across a number of different stakeholders need to get approved as quickly as possible, but they also need to be right.
“You see those horror stories where a campaign has gone out and it’s been completely wrong and the backlash from that.”
working from home
If marketers weren’t using software management tools before COVID-19, it is likely they have been forced to adopt such tools as they adjust to remote work.
Lalor confirmed there has been an increase in usage in recent months.
“We’ve seen an increase across across a number of different industries and marketers and advertising companies are one of them,” he said.
“There’s been an increase in the usage and an increase in the type of usage. We deal with marketing teams that have been using it for the majority of the team or using it in an on-ff capacity.
“Now it’s become their tool of choice as they try and increase their communications.
“Being able to attach messaging to your campaigns and put all your action items in there considering you can’t be in the office has certainly seen an increase in the kind of usage.”
Remote work brings with it questions of productivity.
While some will tell you the time saved on commuting has opened up more time to get work done, others will say they have struggled with being out of the office.
Lalor confirmed this variance.
“Some industries just can’t cater for working from home,” he said.
“Those industries that can work from home, if they have the right tools in place, can certainly report similar levels of productivity.
“The most crucial thing to focus on when working from home is being in touch with the team and having a daily structure in place that replaces the office environment.”
