Was your marketing decision-ready this summer?

The holiday checklist: 15 questions, 5 minutes.

The advert was ready by mid-July, but nobody could approve it. The colleague in charge was on holiday, and her stand-in wasn’t authorised to approve it. The advert deadline in early August: missed. The summer puts all those workflows to the test that, in day-to-day business, rely on verbal instructions, text messages and personal filing systems. A look back at the past few weeks reveals which processes were dependent on specific individuals.

Our holiday checklist asks 15 questions across five areas:

• Responsibilities and deputies
• Campaigns and deadlines
• Content and advertising materials
• Budgets and approvals
• Reporting and management

Do your stand-ins have the necessary access and approval rights? Have you set spending limits up to which your deputies are authorised to approve funds independently? Questions like these reveal whether the marketing department can cope with absences. Hesitation when answering usually indicates a gap.

Where agreements reach their limits

Marketing teams generally manage responsibilities and deputisation very well – at the latest, after the first missed advertising deadline. When it comes to accessing marketing materials, budgets and key performance indicators, however, the situation is often quite different. This is particularly true when day-to-day work relies on numerous sources and spreadsheets. Stand-ins can find themselves in a bit of a sweat when the retailer in Munich needs marketing material at short notice, or the retailer in Düsseldorf wants to know how much budget she has left to promote the new model.

Does this sound familiar? Then take our holiday checklist.

The result of your holiday checklist

Once you have answered the 15 questions, you will receive an assessment of your score and a specific suggestion for the next step.

Go to the holiday checklist.