GuideHow marketing gets bought
Ownership vs. advice
Definition
The difference between the person whose name sits next to the number at quarter end and the person who recommended how to reach it. Ownership carries a target and the authority to spend against it; advice carries an opinion.
How you recognize it
Two checks settle it. Ask whether the person can be held to a target: when the quarter misses, ownership is the seat where that lands. Then ask whether they can spend without asking: an owner moves budget between channels inside an agreed frame; an adviser requests. The mislabel runs in both directions. A person whose recommendations are never refused is owning the function under another name, with none of the accountability priced in. A person titled owner who must seek approval for every krone is advising at an owner’s rate.
What to watch for
Open the board pack and find the marketing number; if no person’s name is attached to it, you have advice everywhere and ownership nowhere. Check the last three months of recommendations from your agency or consultant: if every one was approved unchanged, they hold the pen on decisions while the accountability sits with you. Check the spending trail in the other direction: a titled owner who asks permission for each campaign is operating as an adviser, whatever the contract says. Fix the frame before the person; agree a target and a budget envelope, and both tests pass or fail on their own.
The question you ask
“Whose name sits next to this number at the end of the quarter?”