4th Annual State of Agile Marketing Report

This year's edition of the report, a collaboration between AgileSherpas and Forrester Research, captures the reality for Agile marketers navigating 2020 in data. Dig through to discover:

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Agile marketing has stepped out of buzzword territory and toward a best-in-class way of working
 

analysis The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption plans for 38% of respondents

venn-diagramAgile marketers continue to favor the use of hybrid frameworks

...and more pivotal stats from over 500 marketers.

With a Little Help From Our Friends

For the fourth consecutive year, AgileSherpas is proud to release the definitive annual report on marketing agility. For this year's edition, we surveyed nearly six hundred marketers (580, to be precise) to find out whether they're using Agile ways of working, what helped them in their adoption, and how they're putting Agile into practice. 

We're extremely proud to have partnered with Forrester Research on this year's study into the current state of marketing agility and its extremely bright future.

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51% of marketers report using Agile to manage their work

Agile marketing has stepped resolutely out of buzzword territory and toward a best-in-class way of working. Total adoption jumped 10 percentage points this year to land at 51%. What's more, this year marks the first time that over half of marketers labeled themselves as Agile. 

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77% of creative services, content creation, and ops teams use Agile

Though commonly thought of as a digital-first approach, Agile ways of working are showing up in all kinds of marketing functions. They're most prevalent in demand and ABM (76%); website (72%); creative services, content creation and operations (77%); social media (66%); and portfolio and product marketing (62%), but are found in every corner of the marketing department. 

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53% of Agile marketing teams use a hybrid framework

Marketers tend to prefer forging our own path rather than following the ones already laid down by software development. Over half -- 53% -- say they use hybrid frameworks, rather than "out-of-the-box" versions, such as Scrum or Kanban. 

Given the natural ambiguity inherent in marketing, I am not surprised to see businesses continue to recognise the importance of Agile marketing year over year.

Evan Leybourn

Co-Founder and CEO, Business Agility Institute

As we've scaled Agile across HSBC, we are seeing great success using many of the same supporting tactics this report covers. Ongoing training, leadership coaching, proper tools -- these are all crucial to making marketing agility happen.

Paul Szumilewicz

Global Head of Agile, HSBC

We're still early on our Agile journey, and it's so helpful to hear how other Agile marketers are sustaining their transformations. This report is one of my go-to resources for benchmarking our progress and uncovering best practices.

Darci Helbling

Senior Director, Marketing Operations, Charles River Labs

The Annual State of Agile Marketing report is an invaluable benchmark for global marketers to see how, where, and why their peers are adopting this new way of working.

Melissa M. Reeve

Vice President Marketing, Scaled Agile, Inc.

Download the 4th Annual State of Agile Marketing Report