Question

Topic: Strategy

How To Manage Complex Marketing Campaign/process

Posted by kenneth.sun on 11/30/2008 at 5:52 PM ET 250 Points
Hi All, I have a question with regards to the general management of a marketing department. My department is responsible for doing the following categories of work:

1) Executing one-off Projects, e.g. developing a new website

2) Executing Business-as-usual (BAU) tasks that repeat, e.g. monitoring the bounce rate of a website, performing multivariate testing on a website

Microsoft Project is a good tool for managing one-off projects. However, I found that it is not so great for managing BAU tasks. For example, you could use MS project to build a McDonald's restaurant, but you can't use the same tool for the day to day running of the restaurant.

I am looking for a tool or methodology to help me organise a large number of tasks arising from both projects and BAU process. In another words, when both projects and BAU processes are running concurrently, how do you manage all tasks and resources and keep everything under control?

Please let me know if I haven't articulated the question clearly. Thanks for your help.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by pgothier on 11/30/2008 at 6:05 PM Member
    Kenneth, my Development Team uses AT Task, an excellent web based project management system.

    We are a creative Marketing & Internet Devlopment Agency that is passionate about producing very high quality internet presentations, and delivering teriffic service,

    Lol, must be that IBM background. I'm addicted to structured and disciplined processes that drive results. And my project mgr's do a gret job delivering results using AtTask.

    Good luck.
    Paul Gothier
    Owner/GM RTP Designs, LLC
    [Phone number deleted by staff]
  • Posted on 11/30/2008 at 7:45 PM Accepted
    FWIW, I have managed several marketing departments ... some organized around brands and others around functions (all serving a single brand). I found the "Plans for Improving the Business" report useful for all of them.

    The idea is that all active projects are listed, along with the objective, next milestone, timing and responsibility assignment for each. Then it's updated once a month (or every 2 weeks, depending on the nature of the business). Each time you compare the previous version to the new one to see if a project is slipping or on schedule (or even ahead of schedule), and take any corrective action.

    The old P&G culture also forced each manager in the marketing department to submit his/her report on one sheet of paper ... the theory being that nobody can manage more than whatever fits on a single sheet. It forced us to set rigorous priorities and only tackle what we could accomplish. It was very embarrassing to not meet milestones on each project every cycle, and if you tried to do too much you were bound to miss some.

    Not very high tech, but very effective in both B2C and B2B situations. I've used the tool successfully in at least a dozen companies (including clients).

  • Posted on 12/1/2008 at 2:25 AM Accepted
    Hi Kenneth,

    There is not big difference between a one-off project and a BAU. BAUs can be broken down into cycles, which makes them look like a one-off project both in your eyes and in your boss' eyes. They are just repetitive compared to one-off projects.

    Whether you're running one or the other, in my experience I noticed two things: a)Set milestones and breakdown the whole project(or BAU) by into smaller tasks which you'll monitor constantly(daily!!); b)Be rigorous with yourself first, and then expect it from your colleagues.

    It might be a little cumbersome on your side, but you'll make sure everything runs smoothly and there are not surprises at the end of each project/BAU cycle.

    What is important, no matter how complex the campaign or marketing department is, is that you have enough human resources to stay on track and meet your deadlines.

    Davide
  • Posted by kenneth.sun on 12/2/2008 at 5:35 AM Author
    Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my question.
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