Over half of UK marketers switch to ‘Tiger Teams’

London, July 1, 2025 – Over half (53%) of UK marketers are now using Tiger Teams: small, cross-functional groups focused on solving critical challenges quickly and effectively. This illustrates a clear shift in how marketing departments are tackling today’s growing market complexity and evolving consumer expectations.

That’s according to the Optimize Everything report from Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform. Based on a study of 100 marketers, the report reveals the new strategies teams are using to simplify operations and boost performance.

The concept of Tiger Teams developed in NASA, with small, specialised groups of cross-functional experts assembled to tackle critical and complex problems quickly. This model has recently spread throughout businesses and is now becoming the structure of choice for today’s marketing teams. These teams bring together subject matter experts from different disciplines — breaking down silos to address a specific challenge or objective from all necessary angles.

The emergence of Tiger Teams comes as marketers are placed under growing pressure to deliver more with less. Four in five marketers (81%) feel their leadership teams now expect greater output from marketing, despite fewer resources. A quarter (25%) say marketing strategies are becoming harder to execute, and over half (53%) are actively seeking a more unified system to simplify workflows and improve performance.

As well as restructuring their teams, marketers are also restructuring their technologies. Over half (56%) say fully integrated systems are important to meet growing demands, while 32% say they are ‘essential’. Many are also relying on AI to help streamline, with 41% saying that better integration of AI is their best opportunity for optimisation this year.

"Marketers today are juggling huge expectations to deliver smarter, more personalised campaigns with fewer resources," said Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely. "That’s where Tiger Teams work their magic—they bring energy, focus, and speed to big, messy challenges. But to really thrive under pressure, teams need technology that moves just as fast. AI isn’t a nice-to-have add-on anymore; it needs to be baked into how we plan, create, and optimise. When you bring content, AI, and experimentation together in one seamless workflow, you cut through the chaos and create better, more meaningful experiences at every step of the customer journey."

The Optimize Everything report urges brands to rethink how they connect content, experimentation, AI and personalisation. As tech stacks become more integrated and teams work in a cross-functional system, marketers are better positioned to meet challenges head-on and create more effective digital experiences.

Optimizely’s platform combines AI, real-time experimentation, and personalisation. This provides marketers with the tools needed to simplify their tech stacks, speed up decision-making, and deliver optimised experiences across every touchpoint.

To learn more about the Optimizely One platform and its AI offerings, visit: https://www.optimizely.com/ai/