One of the leading publishers of research worldwide, Springer Nature has 3,000 academic journals and 14,000 books published yearly in every niche, discipline, and field. Like many other large organizations, they are no stranger to reorganizations. Just four years ago, they unified 11 separate marketing entities under one roof. This brought together a team of over 300 employees across 21 locations, in 15 countries worldwide.
As we combined new diverse teams and redefined our workflows, we needed a solution that supported transparency and speed.
Helen Burbank, Director, Marketing Effectiveness & Strategic Projects at Springer Nature
The Need for Clarity in a Complex Marketing Ecosystem
It’s safe to say that Springer Nature requires a bird’s eye view of their marketing activity. The need for transparency and operational effectiveness was, and still is, key. This is where Marmind entered. Having a heterogeneous process management landscape that spanned from spreadsheets to emails, messaging apps and custom solutions meant that Springer Nature had tools, both simple and complex, that didn’t integrate and meld together. The effort required to access information for the necessary business decisions was considerable.
Before using Marmind, the biggest pain point was that we had too many disconnected tools. We used emails for communication and coordination, spreadsheets for planning, even customized tools for briefing and content creation. Budget and cost management was completely isolated. Nothing was really connected.
Björn Tümmler, Senior Manager Applications and Processes at Springer Nature
Introducing Marmind: A Partner, Not Just a Tool
Marmind offered the growth and change that was needed, that adapted and changed as the company has. With a combination of functionality and pricing, which was a determining factor, Marmind smoothly stepped into the role of a partner who works with them.
From the start, we had a good feeling about the partnership with Marmind. During the decision-making sessions, they consistently asked the right questions, which gave us confidence that they truly understood our goals and what needed to be done.
Björn Tümmler, Senior Manager Applications and Processes at Springer Nature
The adoption of Marmind also fostered a cultural shift within Springer Nature’s marketing teams. By centralizing data and workflows, it eliminated the confusion caused by disparate tools and inconsistent processes. This standardization made it easier for teams across multiple regions to collaborate, share insights, and accelerate campaign delivery. As a result, planning cycles became more efficient and less error-prone, allowing the marketing department to focus more on creativity and impact rather than administrative overhead.
Why MRM Was the Right Choice Over Traditional Project Management Tools
During the marketing restructure, Springer Nature thought they needed a project management tool, but as time went on, they realized that a simple work management solution wouldn’t be enough. Campaigns needed to be planned, budget and spend tracked, and linked back to the campaigns. Thus entered the idea of an MRM system and after careful and thorough research, choosing Marmind. They needed planning, coordination, content creation, channel execution and of course reporting and budget and cost management - in a nutshell, MRM.
A timeline of four months was established to set up the system, which was highly ambitious. Despite the challenge, Springer Nature remained committed, and the deadline was successfully met with the rollout beginning in 2023.
Unlocking Visibility and Control at Scale
Marmind has helped streamline how they capture and manage their marketing activity at scale, giving clearer insights into organizational needs and better control over costs. A key part of this success has been codifying their taxonomy within Marmind, enabling them to connect distributed activities and costs across multiple systems with significantly reduced human error.
Moreover, Marmind’s comprehensive visibility into budget and spend forecasts has been a game-changer. Marketers now have clear, real-time insights into how resources are allocated across campaigns and products, improving decision-making and stakeholder communication. This transparency helps demonstrate marketing’s value to the wider business and supports better alignment with organizational goals, making it easier to justify investments and optimize marketing ROI.
Marketing and reporting are crucial at management level, and Marmind has helped us gain visibility across our thousands of marketing activities, 24/7, at the push of a button.
Uwe Nosbisch, VP Marketing Operations at Springer Nature
Streamlined Campaign Execution: A Day in the Life with Marmind
An average usage of Marmind in Springer Nature looks like the following. When a new campaign idea emerges, the first step is to check Marmind for existing assets to use as a starting point. From there, the briefing process begins. Colleagues across teams working on a campaign are looped in and can track the development across the platform. Designers and the operations team are brought in, and all relevant images or references are uploaded. Marmind streamlines the collaboration by enabling direct comments on assets, notifying colleagues of updates, and keeping the status of each campaign transparent and up to date. With clear deadlines, a documented feedback history, and easy access to the latest proofs, Marmind serves as a single source of truth for everyone involved in the campaign, yet this highlights only a tiny section of the platforms capabilities.
For example, when ads run over a certain period, Marmind can automatically link the actual costs from the invoices to the correct campaign through the campaign name or ID from the invoice. This is, naturally, a huge time saver for planners managing campaigns.
After we launch a campaign, costs are imported automatically and assigned to the right campaign, which is very useful for me as a planner because it gives me full visibility into how much is being spent on the different channels.
Lukas Kassel, Marketing Manager at Springer Nature
Standardizing Processes with Marmind
New members of the team avoid working in isolation as Marmind makes the planning processes transparent and more collaborative, something any new starter is keen for. The use of the platform leads to department-wide conversations about how they plan and manage campaigns, leading to shared learning and alignment. Existing campaigns are referenced, and these new starters are able to understand how others approach budgeting and setup, therefore leading to an improvement in their own planning by building on their best practices.
When you create a new campaign in Marmind, you start with the strategy, goal, audience, channel mix, things like that. Then you move on to content creation. The brief is created directly in the system. Once it is published, another team takes over. Feedback and approval happen directly in Marmind. Everything is in one place. It's clear. It's structured. And it's always the same process.
Iris Nostitz, Process Analyst at Springer Nature
Conclusion
Springer Nature’s journey with Marmind has been one of transformation and of iteration. Not just in tools and processes, but in mindset and collaboration. By moving from fragmented systems to a unified platform, they’ve created a more standardized, less confusing, and more efficient way of managing their marketing activities. This shift has significantly increased transparency in budget spend forecasts, improved understanding of campaigns support, and made communication with stakeholders clearer and more effective.
Marmind helps us to professionalize our marketing organization. It brings together our campaigns, the activities that underlie them, and the costs that are incurred. In many ways, it's like the secret sauce that underlies all of our marketing.
Helen Burbank, Director, Marketing Effectiveness & Strategic Projects at Springer Nature
As Springer Nature's marketing teams continue to evolve, Marmind remains a trusted partner enabling agile planning, real-time visibility, and smarter decision-making across their global teams. The platform helps share the value of marketing throughout the organization by serving as a single source of truth, empowering everyone involved to work more collaboratively and confidently toward their goals.