Case Study – ACG
ACG is a multinational pharmaceutical company with a presence in 138 countries and is the world’s largest integrated supplier of solid dosage products and services. ACG provides hard-shell capsules, film and foil barrier solutions, track and trace systems, and process, packing and inspection equipment.
A new CMO was appointed in 2020 to build the ACG brand as a leading global, innovative and tech-driven pharmaceutical manufacturer. The Marketing team was not functioning efficiently due to outdated working practices and without a systematic approach and structure. As a result, campaigns were off track and not necessarily meeting stakeholder expectations, leading to a negative perception of the Marketing team.
Rapid improvements were required to ensure the Marketing team could deliver on the new brand strategy and wider ACG business vision. The CMO asked for concrete transformation results within the first two to three months.
Digital Works Group placed an experienced Marketing and Communications expert into the Marketing team to lead on fixing issues, make things work and “put the house in order”.
A full audit of the marketing function was conducted with a focus on the people, processes, platforms, and performance. Four key issues were identified:
- Limited systems and processes in place
- Poor visibility of work and resource
- Lack of marketing and project management skills
- Teams working in silos
Remedial actions and opportunities were prioritised with the CMO and implemented, including:
- A system to ensure full visibility of the work and available resources which created transparency and accountability to senior stakeholders, plus efficiencies in project and resource planning
- A new creative process with stages and steps was developed. A campaign planning framework and a process for tracking and measuring project performance was established to keep campaigns to budget and time constraints
- A marketing operations platform was implemented as a central hub for the entire management of marketing activities. Workflows were standardised and templatised, and data gathering, charts and reports were automated
- A set of assets including templates, training materials, and checklists were created to ensure ongoing consistency and quality
The siloed teams were broken down and cross-functional teams were introduced to create effective communication, clear roles and responsibilities, and a system of common values and behaviours.
All of these actions improved the infrastructure of the Marketing function, and refined and optimised their activities.
Marketing efficiency, resource optimisation and productivity were all boosted.
The new ways of working rapidly improved team communication and collaboration which led to improved quality, transparency, and accountability.
Centralised and streamlined processes ensured full control of resource management and campaign management.
With established processes for the planning, measuring, reporting and closure of campaigns, wasted efforts of Marketing resources were reduced.
