How many people do you need to create a winning campaign?

Almost a year ago I was at the Swedish equivalent of the Effie Awards. I amused myself by counting the people in the campaign teams. But there was no way I could keep up. There were just too many people. This made me curious to check the entries afterwards to see how many people were actually involved.

It turned out that the average number of people involved in the nominated campaigns was 25. This may seem like a lot, but often several additional agencies were involved in the campaign work without the number of people listed, so the average is actually even higher.

The beefiest campaign team managed to involve 117 named individuals. The team presentation alone required two densely written slides.

The average campaign team among the Swedish Effies entrants was 25 people plus a few additional agencies. The largest team consisted of 117 people.

The growth and complexity of campaign teams is due to the increased number of channels, specialist roles and agencies. But also because marketing departments have built a parallel pipeline of in-house expertise.

When the marketing department arrives at a briefing with an entourage of its creatives and Google experts, the only way out for agencies is to match or exceed the client’s skill set. Before long, the number of people involved in a typical campaign team has swelled to the size of an entire class at a prestigious marketing school. And in some cases, apparently closer to an entire year group.

Larger marketing departments often employ a smaller army of specialist agencies. The agency cake is then cut into such small slices that the agencies find it difficult to eat. Unsurprisingly, many agencies continue to expand their menu of specialist skills in an attempt to grab a bigger slice of the pie.

Unfortunately, the pie doesn’t get bigger because more specialists are involved. There is a limit to how much a campaign can cost. Many agencies have seen their profitability erode.

Regardless of the team structure, a campaign needs to be cohesive. If several agencies are working on the same account, who is the creative lead?

No one would be surprised if that role ends up with the agency that pays the bill, owns multiple channels and has its creatives. Suddenly a marketing department is in creative competition with the agencies it uses. The situation is not always easy.

So how do you achieve a leaner team structure? The key, as always, is to start with clear objectives, prioritise the marketing work and then let that guide activities and channel choices. Don’t get distracted by the jungle of options.

Tough prioritisation makes it much easier to sort out what needs to be done, how it should be done, and who needs to be involved.

Don’t be surprised if you end up with a handful of channels and a compact team, following Jeff Bezos’ famous 2-pizza rule: A campaign team shouldn’t be bigger than they can share two large overtime pizzas on the night the next winner is announced.

Voila! A sharp and manageable team with plenty of creative freedom. A team that can be profitable for the agency without costing the marketing director a fortune.

And maybe I’ll manage to read the names of your campaign team at next year’s awards ceremony.