The Bucket – Innovation and ROI Killer.

Kick the Bucket. No, kick all the buckets–the ones you divide your annual marketing budget into each year. It’s a decision based on a laughable glance at the past and a wild guess about how to best spend your money next year. Kick the outdoor, television, printing, magazine, production, direct mail, newspaper, interactive, PR, mobile, social media and the agency fee bucket. Once that money gets dropped into a bucket, it literally takes an Act of God–or at least the CFO, who’s a close second–to move it.

As reaching the consumer has become more complex and the channels more fragmented, those buckets have turned into deadly innovation and ROI killers. Cutting-edge creative teams are hungry to spark integrated campaigns that generate the greatest impact, but find their ideas severely limited by buckets. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter that the objective might be reached for half the overall budget. Not that the Advertising Director doesn’t understand that, but hands are tied and God is busy these days. Not to mention the plan was due yesterday. Want to get real innovation and better impact? Tell your agency to kick the buckets and the rules. Trade them in for a single budget and a clear objective. You might be surprised with what they come up with.