This is me in Times Square in 1998. I had never seen so many advertisements in one place. I did not see channels. I did not see departments. I saw brands.
Your customers still see you that way. Only now the “street” is also a phone, a television, a search box and an AI answer. A social post, a streaming spot, an email, a shelf in a store. To the customer, it is all one brand.
Many marketing departments are not built for this. They are built by channel: brand, digital, social, CRM, retail. Each plans its own piece. Each measures its own piece.
Not every company works this way. Many still do.
Here is what I have seen, more times than I can count. A brand hires a different agency for each function. Each agency gets its own brief. Each makes its own version of the work. Each does good work.
Then it all arrives in the same customer's week. And it does not match everywhere. Different messages. Different looks. Different offers.
Nobody did anything wrong. The structure simply pointed everyone at their own piece, and nobody at the whole.
Some companies have someone looking at things holistically: a chief experience officer, or a leader in a similar role. Many do not.
And those that do rarely give that person the means to see everything at once: every brief, every agency, every piece going out the door. A title without that view is a title, not a job.
The remedy is not a new org chart. It is a different starting point.
Start with the customer. Who are your target segments: who they are, and what they care about? What do they need from you? Where will they meet you along the way, from the first ad they see to the shelf, the search result or the email? Then bring the channels and the agencies together to serve that person, and run the work in a way that supports the whole experience.
In my experience, four things matter most:
Map your marketing the way your customer meets it, not the way your org chart is drawn. Where the two don't match is where the work will break.
Show how your work connects to everyone else's. If the client's teams are siloed, you may be the only one who sees things holistically, and that is worth bringing to the table.
The customer sees one brand. Somebody inside the company had better see it too.
Who is that person at yours?
Customers experience one brand across every channel, but many marketing departments are organized by channel, often with a different agency for each function. Each team and agency works from its own brief, so the pieces reach the same customer at the same time and don't match.
Start with the customer: who your target segments are, what they need, and where they will meet you. Then bring the channels and agencies together to serve that person, with one person who sees every channel and agency, shared goals, channel experts who serve the strategy rather than own it, and a side-by-side review of all work before launch.
One person who sees every channel and every agency, with the authority to make the pieces fit. Some companies use a chief experience officer or a similar role, but the role only works if that person has the means to see every brief, every agency and everything going out the door.