Five Things Your Marketing Team Can Learn From The Avengers

The blockbuster film “The Avengers,” produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, has been shattering box office records around the globe. If you haven’t seen it, you almost certainly have heard of it. Boiled down to the simplest form, the Avengers are a group of super-talented, highly specialized individuals, who come together to defeat an enemy that none could handle on their own. A team. Together, they become something stronger than what they could be individually.

Just like the Avengers, the whole of your marketing and communications team should be stronger than its individual parts. Ideally, each person has a specialized function, different tools and a different perspective. Someone handles creative, someone handles PR, someone handles planning, etc. By taking some basic items into consideration, you can start to transform your marketing team into a super-marketing team. Many times, this is exactly where an agency can fulfill these needs.

Here are five tips your marketing team can learn from the Avengers:

• Understand that each member has specialized skills, and let them use their expertise. Let your PR person handle PR. Let your media planner plan. Let your social media member connect the social dots. Let your designers be creative. You’ve brought your team together for a reason. Let them do what they do best.

• Contribute. While you do have to listen to the rest of the team, you are a valuable component and your thoughts should be heard. Speak up and share your ideas, as you may offer a different perspective on things that can help drive new ideas. An overabundance of ideas is often better than a lack of them.

• Have the right tools and know how to use them. Captain America has his shield, Iron Man his suit, Thor his hammer, Hawkeye his bow. Each is a master of their respective weapons. Making sure you have the right tools for the job allows you to plan, prepare and execute properly.

• Bring in new talent when needed. In the film, S.H.I.E.L.D. needed the Avengers, and each member needed each other. They understood this and recruited new members to the team when needed, with each new member bringing a new specialty and/or resource.

• Have a plan (aka strategy). It should go without saying, but you should always have a plan. The Avengers were brought together through a plan, and always had a plan when they faced an opponent. Know what your working toward, make sure each member knows the goal and their individual responsibilities, and know how you’re going to eventually reach that shared goal.