Nothing kills the creative buzz of marketing teams quite like lengthy virtual meetings and isolated brainstorming. In response to the rapid move to remote work in early 2020, tight-knit office-based creative teams dispersed and were forced to tap into their creative mojo via video calls and clunky workarounds. While organizations made quick adjustments to ensure teams remained productive, some aspects of office culture weren’t as easily replicated.

Today, full-time working from home (WFH) has morphed into hybrid working as people embrace a more balanced approach to time in — and out — of the office, allowing employees to experience the benefits of both in-person and virtual work.

This new way of working may be popular, but it has come at a cost as many teams strive to get back to their pre-pandemic potential. According to a 2022 global study by Optimizely —  Hybrid work impacts delivery of exceptional customer experiences — 92% of marketers believe dispersed teams caused by remote or hybrid working dented their ability to develop ideas and execute campaigns.

A similar number (93%) went further and said their creative ideas were better before the pandemic.

Hybrid working needs to support creative marketing

For anyone involved in marketing, this is worrying. If hybrid working means that marketing teams have not been functioning as they once did, it could lead to campaigns that lack the creative edge to enthuse customers and keep them coming back for more.

As the report says plainly: “The creativity disconnect doesn’t only impact marketing teams and their ability to produce results; it impacts the most important metric of success for modern brands: the customer experience.”

Among the issues flagged by more than 900 marketers were a “lack of urgency” and an absence of “spur-of-the-moment creativity”.

The impact extends beyond the experience of the marketing team too. The study found that more than 80% of consumers would leave a brand to which they are loyal after three or fewer instances of poor customer experience.

It’s clear that as new remote and hybrid working practices become normalised and more widespread, marketing teams need to take notice and adjust accordingly.

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Technology is fundamental to the creative process

Clearly, in today’s digital world, technology is fundamental to facilitating the creative process.

Three in ten (30%) marketers said that disparate platforms and disconnected data sets meant that teams simply weren’t given the full picture to carry out their work during the pandemic.

As the Optimizely study summarizes, “organizations cannot achieve their customer experience goals without having a digital-first mindset and fixing the marketer’s experience first.”

To ensure hybrid working can continue without hampering creative campaigns, marketing teams need a seamless digital experience.

Four steps to make marketing work for hybrid workers

There are some clear ways to solve this creativity crisis. Above all, there needs to be an acknowledgement from senior managers that hybrid working is different and warrants a re-think of traditional ways of working. And in doing this, both the marketer and customer experience can be positively impacted in the long term.

1. Step one: Restructure how time is spent

Marketing teams should be creative with how they use their time together — both in-person and virtually. For example, think about implementing regular, intensive, in-person creative workshops. These can then be used as a springboard for further discussion using a marketing orchestration platform to bring creative ideas to life in an integrated fashion.

2. Step two: Implement strong collaboration tools

Having the right technology in place is key to marketing success in a hybrid world. Marketing teams need strong collaboration tools, such a content marketing platform, that improve their working experience and, in turn, improve external digital experiences to create more opportunities for the business. A customer’s experience cannot be improved if the marketers’ experience isn’t addressed first.

3. Step three: Set work aside for team building

It’s important that marketing teams feel connected not just digitally, but on a personal level. Team leaders ideally need to set aside time for team building activities that enable colleagues to get to know each other and help them feel comfortable as well as understood in the work environment. Creativity thrives when employees feel connected and that they can bring their full selves to work. Fostering an environment where no idea is a bad idea will allow employees to share ideas more freely and collaborate more successfully.

4. Step four: Create a “test and learn” environment

It’s critical for marketers to “fail fast”. In other words, they need tools to find the perfect customer experience faster by using accurate marketing data. By creating a “test and learn” environment, marketing teams can then use data-based insights to quickly devise winning campaigns.

If hybrid working is to succeed in the long term, marketers need to effectively drive creative ideas through unified digital experiences that help to bring these creative ideas to life.

The research is clear. By using the right digital tools, disparate marketing teams can continue to seamlessly manage content, assets, and channels to ensure their brand is laser-focused on the customer experience.

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