I gave a talk at a Marketing Conference recently. I began by asking a question of the participants that went something like this:

Imagine you are running a marketing department (most in the room were) and you’re allowed only one excellent skill set (the rest being meh) to help you as you try and meet your objectives. Which of these would it be?

• Tremendous design skills
• Tremendous copywriting or persuasive communication skills
• The ability to split test
• Building brand through excellent social media campaigns
• The ability to find pools of interest, media buying

After allowing the audience to debate amongst themselves for a few minutes, I asked for ‘pitches.’ Some said Design was crucial to get people to notice ads at all; others said Copywriting was crucial to present an argument for someone to take action. I heard a compelling argument about how filling a trout pond with more trout gives you a better shot at catching fish, i.e., Media Buying. And there was some gibberish about Social Media. Read more