Technical jargon: What does "phasing" actually mean?
Benno Maggi explains marketing and communication terms in his «Technical jargon» column. This time it's about the word «phasing» and what campaigning has in common with a marathon.
At a time when projects are becoming increasingly complex, taking longer and longer, and uncertainties are growing everywhere, you have to pace yourself. Anyone who has ever run a marathon knows that, in addition to training (kilometers), materials (shoes) and nutrition (carbohydrates), one thing is important for such extreme loads: phasing.
Extreme load to exhaustion
In the past, projects were divided into phases; today, they are phased. Conceiving, creating and implementing campaigns on all the channels that need to be taken into account becomes a marathon for clients and agencies. Time and energy have to be well managed so that you don't run into the so-called wall: the moment when you can no longer move forward. So it's best to phase the distance or work.
In running, it goes like this: search for rhythm in the first 5 kilometers, find the flow from kilometer 16, suppress euphoria at half the distance, avoid the wall at kilometer 35, and then fall into ecstasy at kilometer 42. Campaigning is like that: instead of training, research is done, instead of the right material, the right channels are chosen, instead of carbohydrates, coal is burned, but everything nicely phased, please. At the end, you stagger to the finish line, still halfway aware of what the time you ran or the distance to the planned KPIs was - and swear never to do anything like that again. Until the next time.
* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He created the column "Vom Fach" in the NZZ Folio and was in charge of it for years. He presents and decodes words and terms that can be used either for small talk, being important, getting excited, playing Scrabble or simply for fun.
