By Sophie von Pflugl, M.A, Senior Vice President Client Services, InnerGroup
Marketing teams already know that responsiveness matters. But staying agile isn’t just about reacting fast – it’s about being adaptive. It’s about making smart and coordinated moves in the face of shifting demands.
That’s why we asked in our recent #MondayQuestion:
What is the biggest challenge your team faces in maintaining agile marketing cycles?
Here’s what we heard back:
✅ 36% Changing priorities
✅ 29% Team miscommunication
✅ 21% Economic uncertainty
✅ 14% Inefficient workflows
The intent behind agile marketing is clear: move fast, test, learn, repeat.
In my 15 years working at global brand agencies, I’ve often seen that the reality inside many marketing teams is much more complex. Agility breaks down when strategy isn’t aligned, communication lacks clarity, and the system around the team isn’t built to flex.
Let’s analyze what you told us.
Changing priorities (36%) It’s easy to blame bad planning for what feels like endless changes, but in reality shifting focus is good planning. It’s about completing an objective, resetting the strategy based on data, and adjusting content and timelines.
Too often, marketers are in a state of triage, responding to leadership asks, channel pivots, and campaign needs without a clear north star. Agility without direction causes chaos. What’s missing? Strategic cohesion.
Team miscommunication (29%) Agile teams thrive on tight loops of communication. But unclear handoffs, and overloaded workflows create silos. Agility only works when everyone from brand to ops, to creative is working off the same playbook. Taking five minutes to explain the cause for the shift will avoid misinterpretation and team frustration. Remember, miscommunication isn’t just a process issue, it’s a performance blocker.
Economic uncertainty (21%) Budget pressure turns every choice into a cost-benefit calculation. What gets deprioritized? Long-term thinking. Brand-building. Experimentation. But agility without the breathing room for creative thinking becomes purely tactical. Great marketing requires the freedom to test, not just produce.
Inefficient workflows (14%) Surprisingly the lowest concern – but in my experience, it’s often the hidden cause of the others. Clunky processes slow teams down, no matter how strong the strategy. That’s where smart operating design and tools like Mediaferry AI, our proprietary workflow automation platform, can help.
So what works?
Agility is about more than process—it’s about culture, clarity, and system design. That’s where the challenge lies for in-house teams.
At InnerGroup, we’ve seen that agility improves not only when teams get faster, but when the system around them is smarter, and built to deliver results. And that is our focus.
Our Inner8™ framework helps in-house leaders assess and improve the eight elements essential to healthy marketing operations – from cross-functional alignment to workflow design, creative capacity, and strategic influence
InnerGroup’s advisory practice helps with:
- Designing modern operating models that flex with the business
- Building strategic clarity into creative production
- Integrating tools like Mediaferry AI to reduce execution drag
The future of in-house marketing is not only agile – it’s adaptive, strategic, and outcome-focused. If your team is struggling to stay agile in the face of shifting priorities or siloed collaboration, it’s not the people or lack of effort. It’s a signal that the system needs a health audit.
We help align operations to enable in-house teams to adapt faster and more continuously to evolving demands, so marketing stays relevant and brands stay resilient.
