Welcome Mark Anand, CEO of Blueprint Partners, shares insights on The Evolving Role of AI in Marketing, Leadership Strategies, and Creating Impactful Campaigns as part of the MarTech Thoughts series.
How do you describe your job to a 5-year-old?
My job is to get excited about ideas and help the people we work with get excited too. If I can get enough people enthusiastic about an idea, we find the money to make it happen so others can see it. After that, we see what people thought, figure out what worked and what could’ve been better, and use that information to come up with new ideas.
What is the one marketing platform/app/solution you can’t live without? Why?
I can’t live without the Adobe suite of products. They’re essential for quickly mocking up ideas, concepts, MVPs and prototypes, which help communicate our vision to the team and clients. Using them feels more like playing the piano than typing on a keyboard; you get into a rhythm.
Beyond that, I can’t live without the Blueprint team. No platform in the world can beat the speed at which they turn whiteboard scribbles into something meaningful for our clients and audiences.
How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?
The skills that have always been important won’t change: curiosity, adaptability and enthusiasm. How those skills are used will differ, depending on the type of business you work for. At the largest companies and agencies, there will continue to be specialists – individuals who are true experts in their field.
But the barriers to entry to marketing are falling. Every entrepreneur, small business, corporate intern and more can now deliver effective marketing campaigns, so when they do bring in the experts, they don’t see the value in paying for multiple different departments, or they expect their marketing experts to be able to do multiple different tasks.
How do you keep your team motivated to get the best out of them during challenging economic times with additional external pressure?
Communication, clarity and consistency are key. We are completely transparent with our business about trading on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis, so every team member knows our exact revenue position each week. They know when times are good, and they know when times are tough. We’re also consistent with our long-term goals, which means the team understands when we must change short-term strategy to deal with challenging economics. Additionally, being a values-driven business helps the team buy into our approach—not just what we’re doing but how we do it.
Please share with us one of the best campaigns you have seen recently or your all-time favourite campaign, and tell us why.
Digitally, Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice is everywhere at the moment. I think the combination of a nostalgic title and marketing it for the TikTok generation has led this campaign to get huge coverage, as young and old have got involved, and the imagery and iconography stand out really well against a sea of other digital imagery.
The Stella Artois ‘When It Rains We Pour’ Wimbledon campaign was brilliantly executed across all formats, especially the PR stunt billboard.
I also think the experiential retail activations and brand extensions Jellycat has been creating in recent months are very special, with their pop-up patisserie in Paris the perfect fit for the brand.
What do you need to have in place to create experiences that flow? What are the challenges your organisation has faced to get there? and what good practices you have adopted?
Being consistent and keeping it simple, I think, are key. There are so many messages competing for people’s attention that if your message isn’t clear right away, you’ve already lost them. Creating experiences that are deep enough to create engagement but simple enough that the audience is immediately clear on the proposition is the balancing act we’re always trying to achieve. For us, the right mix of concept, writing, UX, design and execution is crucial. Creating hands-free experiences following lockdown, using consumers’ own devices and installations really taught us a lot and we’ve kept many of those principles running through our latest work.
What’s the best advice someone has ever given you?
“Always have your passport close to hand, you never know when the chance to travel is going to come”. I think this is great advice, but it goes deeper than just literally having your passport. It’s more about a willingness to say “yes” to whatever opportunities come your way. The more you say yes to, the more things you experience, and the more experiences you have, the better-rounded you are as a person and in your profession.
Any fun facts about yourself that you want to share?
I love learning. Spanish, playing the piano, 3D CGI design and DJing are all things I’ve started (and in some cases stopped!) learning in the last five years.
A big thank you to Mark Anand, CEO of Blueprint Partners, he shares his expert insights on The Evolving Role of AI in Marketing, Leadership Strategies, and Creating Impactful Campaigns. If you want to connect with Mark, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn!
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Last updated: September 2024
