Project Management Office provides better marketing results

Many people believe that the rigor and discipline of project management mixes with the creative nature of marketing like oil and water. While it takes some getting used to, once the routines are established, the relationship not only works, but marketing effectiveness improves. The more channels of marketing – television, radio, print and digital media – and the higher the creative refresh rate, the greater the benefits. In marketing, media, and advertising, a cookie-cutter approach to project management won’t work. There has to be a better way!

Companies often implement a Program or Project Management Office (PMO) to manage large, complex or expensive projects. The differences between a Project and Program Management Office will be left for another discussion. Marketing budgets in some cases represent a significant portion of a company’s overall operating budget. When viewed holistically, marketing projects potentially require complex coordination across multiple agencies and across channels. Therefore, marketing is a logical candidate for a PMO. Unfortunately, marketing departments often see the full rigor of the approach prescribed by the Project Management Institute (PMI) as too structured to support the creative process. Additionally, many marketing organizations believe that the PMI process requires too much overhead for the agility required to quickly adapt to the market. The solution is to use an approach that balances rigor and flexibility while providing the necessary visibility into the status and control of marketing projects using only the highest value components of the PMI process.

PMI is a large project management training and certification organization. The PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) is only one certification available to project managers and is a widely known and accepted form of accreditation. The number of PMI-certified project managers influences most Program or Project Management Offices (PMOs) to follow the approaches established by PMI. The commonality promoted by PMI results in very similar documentation templates and processes, regardless of department or industry. While this similarity simplifies training and staffing issues—perfect for information technology projects, for example—it doesn’t provide the flexibility marketing and advertising organizations require. PMI certification is only one indicator of an individual’s project management competency. The marketing project manager will require more than project management skills to successfully manage marketing projects or establish a marketing PM. The project manager will need to become agile in managing multiple workflows in a fast-paced environment, where market forces can and often do dictate sudden changes in direction. The project management approach cannot slow down the marketing process.

Establishing a PMO in a marketing organization presents a special set of challenges that require creative approaches. PMO success requires a thorough understanding of project management principles. Experience in striking a balance between prescribed project management methods and avoiding disruption to creative development is essential. The right approach to establishing a marketing PMO adds value by:

Provide sufficient process to maintain financial and health visibility for organization leadership through CMO and above

Establish a communication process to improve the coordination of brand messages across marketing channels to achieve consistent impactful marketing that motivates customers and consumers to purchase goods and services

Flexibility to adapt to our clients’ specific objectives and market needs, as well as consistently deliver outstanding service

I have found that using a PMO approach tailored to the special needs of the marketing department offers additional value beyond the points listed above. These will differ by organization, but often include the following:

· Increase senior management confidence in the solution. Project sponsors and decision makers need to believe that the creative direction is strong and well supported before they can accept it. Regardless of the specific creative approach, senior management will have greater confidence when brand managers and other key stakeholders have contributed to a comprehensive consideration of the issues involved in the selection process.

· Alignment of stakeholders. By establishing coordination of multiple activities and providing a forum for all stakeholders to contribute, they will be informed of direction as ideas are transformed into branded content marketing and effective market execution.

· Efficiency improvement. Implementing marketing materials usually requires significant effort. There are planned events that need to be addressed such as sales conferences, new product launches, sporting events, concerts, etc. that require material to be available at specific times. The PMO provides planning to enable the highest quality materials without the inefficiencies and lower quality of a last minute fight. I’ve come across situations where important opportunities to connect with the consumer were missed or met with lackluster content, all due to lapses in the planning process.

· Improve marketing performance. I have witnessed situations where, after establishing the PMO, the marketing team was able to reverse declining sales and generate significant growth by improving cross-channel communication and the consistency of consumer-facing messages.

When all of your departments within your brand’s marketing group are working toward shared goals with a coordinated schedule, you know your PMO is working. You will be able to consistently present your brand across all channels and your marketing efforts will increase sales.