Marketers only have one shot at launching new brands, products and services. The pressure can come from internal and external stakeholders. They may only launch a few new products in their careers and a successful launch can catapult or bury them. But now, a newly formed body called the Launch Marketing Council (LMC) is aiming to help marketing teams plan and execute launch campaigns more effectively.
“We’re aiming to progress the canon of knowledge around launch marketing to help entrepreneurial businesses and brands succeed” said Matt Lawton, Managing Director of Five by Five and Founder of the LMC. “We’ve assembled a distinguished panel of experienced marketers, investors and board advisors who’ll meet twice a year to share their insights and experience.”
The launch marketing panel
The Sydney based panel is chaired independently and includes:
- Lara Thom, CMO, Guzman y Gomez
- Nick Baker, CEO of Outdooria and Go See Australia
- Lisa Connors, Manager Corporate Relations and Programs, Huawei
- Nicole McInnes, CMO, Ovo Mobile
- John Studdert, Advisor and Investor
- Alexandra Sloane, Head of Marketing ANZ, Facebook
- Tasman Page, Director of Marketing, Menulog
- Serena Leith, Director of Marketing APAC, Spotify
- Matt Lawton, Managing Director, Five by Five
Lawton commented, “Shay Hamama and Ryan Keller from LuxGroup were guest presenters at our first meeting. They told us the Luxury Escapes launch story and relayed recent developments candidly enough to convey some real nuggets that will help marketers beyond the travel category.”
“We explored themes including the changing nature of ‘soft launches’, the technical considerations of launch, launch channel planning, the coordination role within the organisation and the importance of C-suite alignment.”
One-day launches no longer
Lawton takes the view that there are fewer and fewer one-day-in-time launch events as brands adopt a more agile release schedule borrowed from the start-up world. LMC Chairman, Alex Hayes concluded, “Almost every panel member had experience of working within a corporate attempting to operate more nimbly and launch new products using an agile method, but failing. We want to understand how they can overcome some of the issues tabled by our very senior marketers in a way that goes beyond theory and is instead rooted in experience.”
