The Ghost Man – where the beat, discrete and elite come to talk about sheet.

There’s an article in Strategy + Business about the a-changin’ times in our industry.   Booze Allen’s Richard Rawlinson says, “The typical business marketing career has attracted gregarious people who operate comfortably within a familiar professional culture with well-defined techniques.” 

Well, duh, some of you may be saying.  But here comes the cool part.  Or, at least what I thought was cool… 

“But now marketers must not just select and purchase proven instruments. They must envisage, shape, and develop new tools for designing and engendering more effective consumer connections. This demands an openness to experimentation, an inclination toward pioneering, and an ability to integrate marketing with strategy as never before. The new marketing team must do this while honing the number crunching analytical ability that is needed to justify and fine-tune new strategies.”

I’ve always longed for the day when an agency could bust out some killer creative for a client, and follow it up with surveys, studies, etc to explain why we done did what we did.

It just goes to show, though.  Homework doesn’t stop with school.