The UK-based Marketing Society was founded in 1959, and has grown since then to become a global community stretching from Singapore and Hong Kong via the United Arab Emirates, England and Scotland to New York. It now has more than 2,500 members. However, what makes it stand out from the crowd of marketing organisations? Read on to find out.
Building a global community
The Marketing Society’s mission is to be the leading global community in marketing—but it does not just want quantity. Instead, it aims to attract the world’s smartest marketers. Its purpose is to raise the quality and importance of marketing as a profession, and therefore increase its impact on business, the economy and society more generally.
Marketing in a broader context
The key to the work of the Marketing Society—and particularly, to delivering on its mission—seems to be that it sets marketing within a broader context. It sees marketing and marketers as key contributors to businesses, and therefore to the economy and society. It wants to inspire current and future marketing leaders, and help them to move forwards in their career as a way of contributing to their organisations and beyond.
Accelerated learning programmes
The Marketing Society offers three separate accelerated learning programmes for its members, all focused on transformational leadership:
The Marketing Leaders Programme was developed in partnership with Accenture Song, and is designed to support high potential marketers who are preparing for senior leadership roles in their organisations. It is run as a face-to-face residential programme, to provide better networking and interactivity. The sessions are run by both practising marketers and industry legends.
Onestowatch is a two-day workshop designed for future leaders. It is available to two ‘rising stars’ per corporate member organisation, ensuring that attendees will leave with a ready-made peer network from across a range of organisations. Over 300 people have attended workshops to date.
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is an online course to which attendees are given access for 100 days. It consists of 12 modules of short lectures, videos, questions and reading. The course also provides access to a network of peers doing the course at the same time, via the masterclass platform.
Under its Accelerate banner, the Marketing Society also provides regular workshops
These workshops, known as ‘Learning Labs’ last half a day, and are available exclusively to members. The sessions are interactive, and there is a changing series of topics. Recent subjects have included Building Your Personal Brand and a session on ‘Been There, Done That’. This is a session of real-world scenarios and issues designed to help delegates to think through problems in new and creative ways. The interactivity also provides plenty of networking opportunities.
Professional development support
Alongside the dedicated leadership courses and workshops, the Marketing Society also provides other support for professional development. For example, it will help its corporate members to find inspiring speakers to come into their business and talk to staff. It can also find people to run training courses to fill skills gaps. It has commissioned a range of full- and half-day courses from providers that are available for up to 30 people at a time from a single organisation. Other support includes mentoring, and discounts on courses run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Content developed in partnership with Accenture Song
The Marketing Society also publishes a range of content developed through its partnership with Accenture Song. This includes both written and video content. The written content ranges from blogs, think pieces and case studies to interviews with leading marketers, authors or thought leaders. The videos include highlights of recent conferences and events such as the Marketing Society’s Amplify Marketing Festival.
Empower digital publication for members
In June 2019, the Marketing Society launched Empower, a bi-monthly digital publication that is available exclusively to members when it is first published. Non-members can read archive material. Each issue takes a theme, and provides content and perspectives designed to help readers to develop their skills and views. For example, one issue, from September 2021, focused on storytelling, and why it is crucial to both marketing and leadership.