Hi everyone! I’m Brian, a Global Campaigns marketer at Asana.
I’ve spent my career in demand gen and integrated marketing across companies like Pendo, VMware, and Ingram Micro. I’ve launched a lot of campaigns, and I’ve used a lot of work management tools to manage them. Honestly…. probably too many to count.
And for most of my marketing career, my campaigns ran on two things:
Coffee (I’m a big coffee nerd and need 4 cups to function)
Controlled chaos (As a former breakdancer, I thrive on intensity)
I constantly felt busy, and although I had a good grasp of planning, building, & delivering high-impact campaigns, I rarely ever felt truly in control.
That changed after joining Asana, and even more after earning my Campaign Management Skill badge. Not because of the tool itself (that was a bonus), but because it enabled me to rethink how campaigns actually move from planning & execution to reporting & optimization.
Before I get into what shifted for me, I want to hear from you.
What coffee hot take matches your campaign style?
- More caffeine = more productivity (really)
- Being locked in beats the third cup
- Coffee only helps me manage campaigns in the morning
- Tea drinkers run the calmest campaigns
What’s the hardest part of coordinating integrated campaigns?
- Managing incoming requests outside of what you planned
- Aligning timelines & dependencies
- Visibility into what’s actually happening
- All of the above (send help)
If you picked “all of the above” you’re not alone. That used to be me. Here’s what shifted.
Lesson #1: Planning campaigns starts with strategy, not just caffeine
For a long time, my “planning” looked like saying yes to everything and hoping caffeine would carry me through the quarter. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
What changed was thinking about planning as more than just timelines and tasks. It’s about strategy, alignment, and structure before execution even starts. Here’s how I approach it now:
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Start with goals and capacity. Not all work is created equal. I categorize requests into the below categories which helps ease decision-making in what to say yes to, what to defer, or what doesn’t fit this quarter.
- External requests from across the business
- Standalone marketing requests (quick-turn things like an email or slide deck)
- Integrated campaigns that need coordination across teams
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Document everything with a campaign brief: Before any work gets built, we create a campaign brief that includes goals, target audience, proposed channels, tactics, and roles/responsibilities. At Asana, this doc lives in the project overview tab, so anyone can reference it at any time.
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Align with key stakeholders: We make sure everyone, from leadership to cross-functional teams, is bought in and clear on priorities before execution begins.
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Use templates and classification. Asana project templates make launching campaigns predictable, consistent, and way less work. We have custom fields to tag campaigns by type and tier, which helps set expectations and makes filtering and reporting a breeze.
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Learn from the past: Before committing to a campaign plan, I use Asana AI to compile past campaigns and look at what’s worked, what didn’t, and where the gaps were. This step is quick, but it prevents repeating mistakes.
Once planning is done this way, execution stops feeling reactive. And as a bonus, I noticed I wasn’t reaching for coffee first thing in the morning anymore.
Lesson #2: 
Executing campaigns is about rhythm, not chaos
As a former breakdancer, I’d like to think I know the difference between chaos and rhythm. One looks exciting, and the other actually works. Campaign execution is the same (without the headspins).
Once a campaign is planned, the real challenge becomes coordinating timelines and dependencies across teams like creative, regional, web, lifecycle, ops, sales. Without a shared source of truth, things slip. Or worse, they block each other.
With Asana, execution clicked for me when I started:
- Mapping end-to-end timelines, so everyone knows what comes next.
- Using dependencies, so there’s no more “who’s waiting on what?” confusion.
- Structuring work into phases, so instead of one massive to-do list, each phase has clear milestones.
- Multi-homing tasks, so it can live in multiple projects, meaning no duplicate work and no conflicting updates.
The result? Execution stopped feeling like I’m just rolling on the floor hoping for the best and started feeling more choreographed and structured.
Lesson #3: 
Reporting & tracking turns activity into insight
The biggest shift for me was seeing reporting as visibility, not busywork. Visibility for leadership, for stakeholders, and for the teams actually doing the work.
When campaign work lives in Asana, reporting is automatic. Dashboards, custom fields, and reporting tools give me all the details I need without chasing updates. I can:
- Give leadership a clear view of campaign progress without one-off decks
- Help teams see how their work connects to the bigger picture
- Track what’s on track, what’s at risk, and where to focus next
Instead of asking “Are we done yet?” we ask, “How is this performing, and what should we optimize?” That’s when tracking stops being reactive and starts driving smarter decisions.
What clicked for me
This is what being “in control” of campaigns actually feels like:
- Starting the day knowing exactly where things stand
- Spending less time coordinating and more time thinking strategically
- Making decisions based on visibility, not guesswork
That’s what the Campaign Management Skill badge unlocked for me. It helped me plan campaigns with intention, execute them with rhythm, and track them with clarity. Not living in 80+ slack or email threads.
And yes… I’m a calmer, clearer, better marketer because of it.
(P.S: I still love coffee, I just don’t need it to manage my campaigns anymore.)
). Your shift from reactive firefighting to strategic campaign management really resonates, especially in teams where demand outpaces process.
Great topic - thanks for sharing!