What’s a premortem and why does your campaign need it?

A “premortem” should be a non-negotiable step before any campaign.

Imagining your campaign went wrong and then figuring out why will force you to think about several crucial things. Here are a few:

- to know what’s “wrong” you must know what’s “right”. Do you have clearly defined metrics that are aligned to your business? Are they measurable?

- what am i not doing that I should be?

This can always be seen clearly in hindsight, so why not preempt it? Will a publication partner give this the boost it deserves? Should I change my media skew considering the production budgets here?

- what am i doing that I shouldn’t be?

Do I really need the influencer campaign around this? Is a teaser really going to add any value? Question all elements and remove the unnecessary ones, even if the team has already invested time and effort in it.

- People didn’t like it.

Just a little bit of testing, even if it’s informal (but OUTSIDE the marketing community) can tell you a lot. You would be surprised by how much a last minute edit can save a campaign.