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Ghennipher Weeks Q & A on Agile Marketing Class Oct. 28-30
GHENNIPHER WEEKS Q & A ON AGILE MARKETING CLASS
From October 28 to October 30 Dr. Alistair Cockburn and Ghennipher Weeks will be at the University of Utah for their course entitled "Agile Marketing." Santeon's Aaron Lemley had a chance to ask Ms. Weeks a few questions about the upcoming course:
Q. Let’s start with you just telling me a little about the class.
A. It is going to have a bit of a varied audience, which is interesting because most of the talks that you see about agile marketing basically overlay software development timelines as marketing timelines. Our take on agile marking is that there is more to it than sprints and backlogs and stand-up meetings, so that’s what we talk about in this course.
Q. Could you give me an example of a company you use as a case study in the course?
A. Sure, one of them has to do with the Super Bowl and Oreo cookie. Oreo launched a new social media campaign when the lights went out at the Super Bowl reminding viewers that Oreos are easy to eat, even in the dark. The thing that struck us most about that campaign was the level of trust that went into the infrastructure before that campaign was ever even able to go out. So, we talk about some of the things internally that allowed that campaign to go out physically.
Q. What is the level of penetration that agile principles have on marking as an industry?
A. Just this year agile marketing has really come on. I’ve been talking about agile marketing for four or five years, but it has only been this year that I’ve seen it get big. So the penetration for agile marketing is probably similar to what it is for agile software development.
Q. Could you give me a brief rundown of the course and the topics that you and Alistair will speak to?
A. First, we will spend some time talking about the origins of agile. I think it is really important to spend time on the principles and mindset of agile and its flavors. Then we will talk about increasing the agility of existing marketing campaigns. Then we will talk about our own particular agile methodology.
Q. What will I walk away with as a participant?
A. You will learn how the traditional software development techniques and principles can be applied to project management. You will also walk away with ideas on how to use agile outside of the door of your market. You will also leave with some techniques to be able to talk with management and those that need to “OK” all of this.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to touch on about the course?
A. One thing that I think is unique about this course is that we split a two-day course into two half-days and one full-day so that people will have an opportunity to work at their jobs or find something interesting to do with the half days. I kind of like that set up, so we’ll see how it works for people.