Is it Time for Marketing Teams to "Kill Their Darlings"?
Ned Stark. Tony Stark. Other darlings not named Stark. We have all experienced our favorite characters stripped from the book, movie, or tv show far too soon. Writers have used an approach called “Kill Your Darlings” for generations.
The idea is simple: the story is bigger than any one character. Sometimes, for the story to move forward, something you love must go.
Authors may ask:
- What should we kill?
- Why is it hard to kill?
- What do we do with the resources, space, or time we get back?
That is where I think marketing teams have something to learn. Because “killing your darlings” isn’t really about deciding what should stop. It’s about what you are willing to sacrifice to make room for something new.
Working with marketing teams on annual plans is one of my favorite parts of my job. Teams are energized and excited. They dream up all sorts of new ideas. Every year, the plan gets bigger.
No one really mentions the flat budgets or the team is smaller. Or that there are fewer resources available. The plan is just… full.
Marketing teams in casinos have always impressed me. Year after year, they continue to do more with less. Less money, less team members, less of just about everything, except maybe meetings.
But there is a problem with continually doing more with less that we don’t talk about enough. Dilution. Are we doing all the things? Yes. Are they a slightly watered down version of what they have been in the past? Also, yes. That is the part I think marketing teams should talk about more. Because we add something new to the plan, we rarely ask what comes off the plan.
We add a promotion.
We add a direct mail campaign.
We add another event.
We add another report.
We add a campaign.
We add a channel.
But we don’t say, “Ok, what are we going to stop doing?”
The things we are doing today are valuable. We may even enjoy them and have done them for years. Some of them we have spent years building. And some have worked really well. But the story is changing. The market is changing. And we certainly know the customer is changing.
And if we don’t make room for what’s next, how do we get to what’s next?
So, as you are building the next annual plan, perhaps ask:
What are we going to kill?
Why is it so hard to kill?
What could we do with the resources we get back?
Sometimes the smartest thing a marketing team can do isn’t just adding another great idea. It is making room for one.
Or, as Ron Swanson would say, don’t half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.
