The octopus principle: how to fast-track digital transformation

"With all this innovation, advertisers now have at their disposal far more tools than they know what to do with. This has resulted in greater fragmentation and blurring of the once-clear lines that divided advertisers and agencies, resulting in a complex myriad of operating models and responsibility allocation. Having just a few marketing leads is no longer enough to successfully curate digital advertising campaigns."

"The upshot: an advertising company's success depends more and more on its technological infrastructure. Measurement is also more complex, as we can longer rely on AdServers or analytics platforms; instead, we need a multi-layer approach incorporating tech, manual processes, old-school analytics, and a deeper understanding of our businesses. Campaign operations now need to align set-up with an advertiser's owned data and must drop into a wider customer engagement strategy."

"Marketing leaders can make their companies more adaptable in the long run by adopting what I call the 'octopus mindset': distributing command and intelligence throughout your organization, rather than concentrating all the power in the C-suite executive office. The octopus model is a reorganization that requires the democratization of power and control so that all the moving pieces can act autonomously, just like an octopus and it"

Digital advertising now offers far more tools and complexity, causing fragmentation and blurred lines between advertisers and agencies. A small set of marketing leads is insufficient to curate campaigns; an interconnected system of technology, analytics, and campaign management is required but often absent. Advertising success increasingly depends on technological infrastructure and multi-layered measurement that combines platforms, manual processes, traditional analytics, and deep business understanding. Campaign operations must align setup with advertisers' owned data and integrate into broader customer engagement strategies. The octopus model reorganizes governance by democratizing power and control so distributed teams can act autonomously and increase long-term adaptability.

Read at The Drum