As marketing becomes more valued for its contributions to success within companies, more is expected out of it.

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Campaigns should not only be fast-paced and ready to launch within weeks but also creative and world-shaking. The oversaturation of the industry makes it imperative to come up with something different to stand out.

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The pressure on marketing teams is such that, often, it ends up working in silos.

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These isolated compartments are easier to build and launch campaigns in. Especially compared to how hard it is to get multiple teams to work together and be excited about something.

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In this system, campaigns just move sequentially through the teams whose input is needed until release.

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Calendly’s CMO, Jessica Gilmartin, coined the term “ticket tape parade” to refer to this phenomenon.

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Keep scrolling to learn what the concept means, the main issues it creates, and how it can be avoided!

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The phenomenon

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The term “ticket tape parade” is a play on words on “ticker tape parade”, which refers to big urban parades where a celebrity is driven down a street as confetti (formally ticker tape) is thrown every which way to celebrate them.

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Here, it actually refers to tickets. Those little requests from one person to another to get what they want from them.

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In companies that work in silos, campaigns just move forward from team to team, getting showered with tickets through which one employee expects another to just do the work without asking questions, without understanding the strategy behind it.

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So they have the appearance of being cross-functional because they involve people in different functions, but they haven’t been a part of the thinking from the start.

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They've been assigned something to do, they do it. But they're not problem-solving. They're just doing their part.

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This usually leads to less-than-optimal results because campaigns tend to not be strategic. The teams involved don’t understand why they're doing things, so they can't provide input as to how to make things better.

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The problem

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So the work is done in silos.

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A small group orchestrates an idea and then simply asks the specialists –in content, demand generation, branding– for the technical aspects of the campaign, without really bringing them to the table

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One of the main issues this brings up is accountability.

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With everyone contributing just a small part and then passing it on to someone else, no one is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the campaign.

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And it’s not hard to understand why. People are just doing what is being asked of them, checking the mark, and sending it off.

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Even if it seems like there may be a direct “culprit”, especially when things go awry, it’s hardly fair to blame them, when they probably got little to no context and weren’t included in the planning stages.

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By having real cross-functional teams that can own up to the success of campaigns, there is an incentive to look at results and analyze them to work on improvements.

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But how do we get everyone on board without making a mess?

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The solution

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Having too many hands on deck can be hard to manage. And it may require a big culture shift that some may not be too happy about.

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The key to these situations is leadership.

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Company leaders must take the reins and the responsibility of ensuring collaboration between teams, setting priorities, and supervising campaigns.

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By drawing a clear path to guide efforts in the right direction, teams can further understand what is expected of them. Why. How. When.

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This also applies to the project managers leaders should assign to each campaign. They are the delegates who need to make sure the vision is respected and carried out.

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Mapping out a plan and staying on track can avoid the rush and urgent ticket requests that stem from a lack of communication.

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Working in teams from the get-go can allow leaders and managers to rethink configurations, regroup, and try different approaches depending on results.

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Starting fresh

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The beauty of collaboration is the mix and blend of ideas that come out of it.

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Each new project might require a completely different set of brains. And even if configurations don’t change, everyone can learn from previous campaigns to improve themselves.

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The “ticket tape parade” approach might be more expeditious, but it removes all possibility of true partnership. People just join in by specific request.

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Accountability is near-impossible because no one seems to be working with full knowledge of the bigger picture. How can you blame someone who was just doing what they were asked?

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Leaders must take it upon themselves to encourage teamwork and cross-functionality from the start to make sure each new project results in lessons that lead to a better, more efficient, and more successful future.

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If you’d like to hear more about this phenomenon from a real case, listen to this week’s episode of TOP CMO with Calendly’s CMO, Jessica Gilmartin.

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