by Katie Pocklington
Does your day include last-minute fire drills to find or update content, briefs or marketing plans? Are you constantly chasing down team members for approvals on content? Do you find yourself living in spreadsheets and shared docs to communicate your team’s campaign and content plans with your broader org? Do you struggle to find campaigns and content other teams in your org have planned that impact your work?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you’re lacking one of the foundational elements of successful cross-channel marketing: visibility.
While at Opal, I’ve had the benefit of working with the most exceptional marketing and communications teams on the planet. One thing they have in common? No matter what function, channel, region or business unit they represent, winning teams have the visibility they need to be effective. And these teams achieve visibility by being united in the Opal planning platform.
When teams don’t have visibility into the bigger picture, they often struggle to produce quality work. What they need is an all up view of content that is planned, currently being distributed in-market and easy access to content that’s already been published. Some teams attempt to gain this through spreadsheets, decks and chat/email, but this form of collaboration causes even more chaos and prevents work from moving forward (no one wants to be updating slides at 10 p.m. after a last-minute messaging pivot).
Teams who work in Opal are able to visualize their work at every level and are able to see all of their work across any channel before it goes live.
Working in Opal enables multi-channel teams (e.g. retail, web, email, mobile, paid media, social, experiential, etc.) and cross-functional teams (e.g. global, regional, brand marketing, comms, creative, paid media, etc.) to have the visibility they need to effectively collaborate. And as a result? They are able to produce the work they need to bring exceptional campaigns and content to life across any channel…and in less time.
Opal unites a wide variety of successful teams at brands such as Target, Minted, IKEA, INTERMIX, Optum Healthcare, Activision, Microsoft, Rothy’s, CB2, Whole Foods, Chevron and more. Here is how these multi-channel and cross-functional teams have created unprecedented visibility, which allows them to spend less time doing busy work and more time on strategic work that counts.
Customizable views that keep everyone on the same page
With Opal as their planning platform, teams who work in any channel or function can develop work earlier when they know what other teams are doing. With multiple, customizable views in Opal, you can easily get to the view that’s right for you and your team. Target retail, web, email and paid media teams who work in Opal are able to stay in sync with the visibility they need to work faster, create better content and generally keep work moving forward.
Visibility into campaign briefs for consistent messaging across channels
Teams who are united in Opal are able to provide a consistent brand experience at every audience touchpoint. And consistency starts with visibility into the brief. This is especially important with direct-to-consumer teams now more than ever as every marketing dollar spent needs to work as efficiently as possible. DTC marketing teams like Minted and Rothy’s are experiencing the benefits of being united in Opal, and as a result, are producing exceptional work that stands out in the feed and IRL.
An efficient process for sharing and repurposing work
Everyone who works on a marketing and communications team feels stretched. Time is scarce, deadlines are constantly evolving and quality work needs to ship faster than ever before. When teams are united in Opal they are able to leverage assets by bring them to life in a blog post or email, share on social in organic content or through paid campaigns and extend the life of those assets through physical or retail experiences. And they’re able to do it quickly. When all of this work is done in the Opal marketing calendar, assets can be repurposed, duplicated, adapted to local markets and collaborated on in real-time with one source of truth for content collaboration, reviews and approvals. For global brands like IKEA, streamlining this process is critical for success.
There are several purpose-built capabilities in Opal that support multi-channel campaign development and orchestration, such as:
- The Opal Timelines view allows you to see content flighted over time for all of your channels to ensure messaging is always aligned.
- The Opal StoryFirst™ Framework allows you to keep work organized so it’s easier to stay aligned to brand messaging.
- Opal Presentations makes it easy to keep everyone on the same page so you can easily share work with other teams.
- In Opal, asset repurposing and content duplication across channels is streamlined, intuitive and effective.
- Teams who work in Opal have the ability to chat and collaborate within their own team and across other teams in real-time at any level of work.
- With Opal Insights, teams can measure channel and content volume support of key messaging, and adjust inline with intended strategy.
If you’re tired of feeling overwhelmed, misaligned, siloed or disorganized, now is the time to upgrade your marketing and communications calendar. Let’s connect and talk about how you can start uniting your teams and getting back to doing exceptional work. Contact our Solutions Architects to get started at solutions@workwithopal.com.