Wouldn't it be great if marketers and agencies had a standard checklist, similar to the Cessna 172RG Airplane Checklist above, which tells you to monitor 11 things before starting the engine, 10 things while starting up, etc. etc. through taxiing, take-off and climb. Pilots do this, or they fall from the sky. Marketing is even more complex, and if something unexpected happens -- say, legal kills an ad over copy at the 11th hour -- everything stops.
Sounds logical -- trouble is, there is no single person to check everything. Marketing campaigns are a string of causes and effect, touching executives, budget managers, marketing or communication directors, supporting managers, creative shops, IT, designers, copy writers, media planners, media buyers, media outlet sales reps, contract reviewers, media production depts, review teams, lawyers, publishers, print shops, telephony, list brokers, mail houses, and postal workers. You could build a checklist, but it's hard to clear lift-off when you can't even see parts of the plane.
Heck, a marketing campaign is more like a series of planes, each with its own pilot, handing off the pieces in flight.
The first step is to audit the part of the entire marketing process controlled your own team. Hey, lean six-sigma it -- map it, remove redundant steps, then create little checkboxes. Then, think of everyone three steps upstream and three steps downstream from your group. Make boxes for them. Tell them ahead of time you'll be checking 10 things, then send a polite email titled "Nudge: is the oil level OK?" "Nudge: Did legal approve of the wings?"
Then, think of the things wildly out of your control but that could still derail the campaign. The pilot four planes down could do THIS which causes THAT. For those key things, reach out. "Hey, how are you? And hey, tire pressure OK down there, too?"
Nudge nudge. Check.
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