In today’s difficult macroeconomic climate, marketing budgets are under big pressure to perform. But how can marketers make the most of the slimmed-down spend they have to play with?

According to Matt Jennings, CMO at Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), marketers should be looking towards taking measured risks to keep the spirit of experimentation alive.

“Even if we fail, there’s value in failure,” he said during Marketing Week’s Currency of Effectiveness event held earlier this year by the Festival of Marketing.

He was speaking alongside Diageo’s chief digital officer Susan Jones, Mary Anne Russell, managing director of marketing and sales development at talent solutions firm AMS, and Salesforce’s product marketing director Jonathan Beeston.

Diageo’s Jones said marketers should “find a way to be comfortable with discomfort and to make your team comfortable with discomfort”, while Russell discussed how she encourages her team to be curious, particularly when it comes to data and AI.

“What we’re talking to a lot of customers about now is how do you take that data… and connect it, harmonise it, and put it together so you have that single view of what the customer has done and is doing,” added Beeston.

Elsewhere in the session, Jones revealed the analytics tools Diageo uses to be most effective, and offered advice to SMEs who don’t have large effectiveness budgets. In addition, Jennings discussed the role agency and media partnerships play in ensuring effectiveness.