The Agile Imperative: Why Brands Need to Move Faster or Get Left Behind

It’s all happening and it’s happening fast. Are brands keeping up? Is anyone? Those are the questions we posed to Kevin Kincaid, managing partner (North America) at the Inspired Thinking Group (ITG). Brands across sectors – though Kevin notes particularly retail ones – are facing significant challenges in an environment that’s changing rapidly. “A major challenge is siloed operations, which create bottlenecks and slow decision-making. Many organisations still operate with legacy processes where multiple teams are responsible for overlapping aspects of marketing strategy. This fragmentation hinders efficiency and delays speed to market,” Kevin explains.

Alongside workflow inefficiencies, data connectivity is another critical issue. “Creative data is often scattered across disparate systems that don’t communicate with one another, making it difficult to act on insights quickly. Instead of responding to data in real time, teams spend too much time simply trying to consolidate and interpret it.” Resource constraints amplify these challenges; with tighter budgets and limited internal capabilities, organisations struggle to execute essential tasks.

All this paints a picture of demanding environments that brands must compete in with increasing levels of agility or they will get left behind. And, while speed is of utmost importance, it must be pursued with intelligence. “This is where partners like ITG can provide value: offering both technology and managed services to help businesses streamline operations, improve agility, and accelerate execution,” Kevin says, pointing to ITG’s AI-enabled, agile content solutions.

Siloes and Inefficiencies 

In Kevin’s view, the reason behind continued siloing and inefficient operations comes down to management. He says that “many organisations, especially in retail, were originally structured around traditional marketing, with systems designed to drive consumers to brick-and-mortar stores.” He adds, “when digital emerged, rather than restructuring, many businesses simply bolted on new teams and processes to address digital, retail media networks, and personalisation."

This fragmentation has only reinforced siloed operations, slowing agility and efficiency with teams working toward the same goals, often duplicating efforts instead of streamlining them, creating redundancies. “Overcoming this requires not just better tools but also a fundamental shift in how organisations manage change, which remains one of the biggest hurdles brands face today,” Kevin adds.

Lack of skills around agile and strategic thinking is another major issue. To successfully adopt a more holistic approach, brands must have the right skill sets in place. There’s a growing demand for talent and resources that can help drive organisational transformation and more effective ways of working, according to Kevin.
But what does it even mean for brands to be agile today? Kevin has the answer: “Agile marketing borrows principles from software development, such as ‘sprints’, to help teams respond quickly to changing consumer behaviours, emerging trends, and new technologies.” In essence, agility is essential for maintaining relevance and competitiveness.

“This approach enables brands to test, learn, and optimise campaign delivery – ideally in real time – maximising impact while minimising wasted resources. Agile marketing fosters cross-functional collaboration, accelerates execution, and enhances customer engagement.”

However, achieving this speed and flexibility requires the right technology and the ability to pivot quickly to meet consumer demands in real or near time.

Agility for All

Agility is a principle all brands, no matter the sector or size, must consider. “In today’s environment, where consumers engage with data and content more dynamically than ever, brands have a greater ability to test and learn quickly in the marketplace. Adopting an agile approach to consumer engagement allows brands to iterate, refine, and optimise their content and strategies more effectively, making it a valuable practice for all.”

At ITG, implementation of agile methodologies is a key service offering for clients, allowing them to operate flexibly and responsibly. Using its Storyteq content marketing platform (CMP), which has been named a leader by Gartner for the last three years, running ITG provides not only the technology to enable agile workflows but also the expertise and resources needed to support them,” Kevin says.
“We help brands deliver high-quality, scalable content at lower costs and in less time through our AI-powered technology. Our expertise lies in automating workflows, leveraging automation tools for asset management, creative automation, content distribution, and campaign optimisation to enhance efficiency. These capabilities within our CMP platform enable brands to accelerate speed to market while maintaining an agile way of working.”

But what does this all mean? For brands operating cross functionally, with multiple areas and projects to be on top of and know intimately at any given moment, operational coherence is their best friend. Rather than having multiple tools serving separate functions, CMPs like Storyteq consolidate resolutions for operational challenges.

In action, one example where ITG has leveraged technology to create a streamlined, data-driven workflow is the US grocery retailer, Walgreens. “By using our platform as a single source of truth, Walgreens can build all their promotions and content through automated workflows, enabling broad omni-channel distribution in near real-time,” explains Kevin.

He continues: “In cases where supply chain issues arise, our technology is directly connected to customer-facing experiences powered by Storyteq. This allows Walgreens to adjust pricing, address low inventory at a local level, swap out content at the store level, or even suppress offers when necessary.”

This level of agility has been instrumental in helping Walgreens respond quickly to market conditions while driving personalisation at scale.

By using ITG’s Storyteq platform to create and distribute offers and content, Walgreens has been able to deliver a more tailored experience for consumers that’s enhanced with personalised loyalty data. “Additionally, our data-first approach has helped them reduce reliance on traditional marketing channels like print, redirecting investment into digital strategies.”

“Beyond just increasing content output and personalisation, we've also transformed Walgreens’ workflow efficiency,” Kevin states. “Before adopting our Storyteq platform, their content production required 50% more lead time. By implementing automated workflows and an agile way of working, we’ve helped them cut production time in half, significantly accelerating speed to market.

No matter the size of the brand, agility really matters in today’s marketplace. Achieving it – and doing it well – requires the right technology, expertise, and holistic integration. “What sets ITG apart is our deep understanding of both the power of a consistent brand identity and the need for localisation. We recognise that while brands must maintain a unified message, they also need the flexibility to tailor content for local markets,” concludes Kevin.