Here at Same Wave we started partnering recently with an awesome new startup client.
The team is hungry. The hierarchy is flat. They’re focused on who they are, the problem they’re solving and what they’re building.
This all came out in a great strategy session where we nailed our tone, defined our audience and agreed on our do-or-die topics to focus on.
We played it back to the client the following week in a punchy strategy. There was some tinkering at the edges but one of the founders said it best when he quipped, “If we’re still talking about the strategy next week, we’re already behind.”
He was on the money. While strategies take time, thinking and nuance, often agencies and in-house marketing leaders can get caught up in the strategy of a strategy.
Sure, in larger organisations the stakeholder list can be a mile long and there’s a process to follow. It’s there for a reason: once it’s pedal-to-the-metal time there’s less chance of internal dissent.
Strong core. Flexible edges.
Two days after we all blessed the strategy, our first piece of content was live. Even through that first creation process we had a hard truth when it came to strategy versus reality.
Instead of updating the strategy, redoing tone of voice and going around in circles, we all noted the lesson, edited our content and agreed that our strategy will be elastic.
We’re already looking like over-indexing on one communication pillar and under-indexing on another. A quick call to one of the founders to sense-check that against commercial priorities validated what we initially thought was a wonky seesaw.
Again, elastic strategy. Still firmly entrenched in our communication and marketing objectives but smart enough to duck and weave and evolve naturally.