When I interned at a Dallas-based advertising agency, departments were organized by delivery channel and separated by floors. People who worked on television would hardly interact with those who handled print, etc. Digital production team, my team, was newly added and were assigned a small corner, sharing with the graphic designers.
After two years of learning and consulting on marketing initiatives of different industries, I now learn that developing marketing programs based on delivery channels will not work. There are too many channels of different sizes or appearances. Splitting the marketing department by delivery channel proves to be costly and disconnected. Most importantly, customers will quickly drop out of the engagement cycle early because they will be frustrated with the inconsistency in messaging on different channels.
Unlike the traditional marketing structure where teams are divided by delivery channels, the restructured ecosystem above ensures marketing team follows the customer’s journey consistently and transparently. This diagram shows that to be a successful team, members specialize in certain marketing aspect but need to be knowledgable of ALL delivery channels (television, radion, print, web or mobile)