At this week’s CMO Momentum virtual conference, four marketing chiefs from areas as varied as the university sector, airlines and real estate shared their insights and experience on working in an agile way in the marketing remit.

Former Curtin University CMO and CMO50 top 10 honorary, Tyron Hayes, has debuted a new consulting offering aimed at helping marketing teams close the gap on culture, capability and innovation.

Experts warn that as pressure mounts to deliver more business growth and meet customer expectations against a backdrop of tighter budgets and economic conditions, the role of the CMO will need to rapidly evolve in 2018.

If this year’s CMO50 nominations are anything to go by, ‘agile’ has become the buzzword of 2017. Marketers striving to build more adaptability, resiliency and a culture of continuous improvement are all turning to the lessons of software’s Agile methodology as a way of reshaping their function for the future, albeit with varying degrees of success.

Getting specialist marketers to appreciate each other’s prowess is one thing; getting them to work truly collaboratively is another. Which is why Sportsbet’s CMO and now chief commercial officer, Barni Evans, decided to switch around his brand and creative head with his head of media and data-driven marketing.

In less than two years, Koala has soared up the ecommerce charts with its breakthrough in-a-box mattress featuring anti-disturbance technology, delivered to the consumer within four hours and supported by a 120-day trial.

There’s no one-size-fits all solution when it comes to implementing a customer-centric culture within organisations, according to industry pundits speaking at the Customer-Centric Innovation Lab 2017 in Sydney this week.

Getting ahead of the competition in the fresh food industry isn’t easy, but Aussie Farmers Direct's new digitally agile marketing strategy is set to boost customer engagement and retention.

Growth hacking - which uses rapid experimentation and new tools and techniques to engage and grow a business's customer base - is popular with not only the startup community, where it was born, but with big companies recognising its promise and appeal in building their overall customer base.

Renae Smith’s proudest moment in the last 12 months as a CMO was championing the cultural transformation within AIA Australia to become customer experience-led.

Government agencies are not renowned for their willingness to adopt avant-garde systems and processes. But for destination marketing agency, Tourism Victoria, a decision to adopt an agile development methodology for its refreshed website has delivered greater certainty and overall value for money.

There is a mantra in the technology startup community that says failure is actually a good thing. That people who try something and fail are actually better investments than those who try nothing, or who have never known failure. This same ethos is also starting to find favour within some marketing teams.

The rapid march of technology and changing consumer expectations are driving organisations to release new products and services at an ever increasing rate. In marketing, this translates to delivering campaigns and interactions at greater speed, with flexibility and customer responsiveness to match. But if handled poorly, such rapid product and process development can also translate to a drop in quality.

Agile development abandons traditional notions of lengthy planning and development cycles with testing at the end in favour of rapid prototyping, development and ongoing testing. That same thinking is starting to find its way into other business processes, and marketing is no exception.

In our latest Food for Thought series with leading marketers, we asked three brands: What does agile marketing and being responsive mean, and how do CMOs achieve it?

The Sixth Annual CMO Agenda report from US-based strategic consultants, CMG Partners, has set out to define the key principles marketers must embrace to become more responsive to market conditions.