Marketing Governance

Marketing executives are planning to increase spending on all forms of marketing in the coming year, according to the CMO Survey. Marketing budgets are expected to increase 9.1 percent and companies plan a 7.2 percent increase in marketing hires over the next 12 months.

At the same time, optimism among marketing executives for the overall U.S. economy reached its lowest point in two years.  On a scale of 1 to 100, respondents rated their own optimism level 52.2 on average. The lowest time before this was in February 2009, when the average was 47.6. Read More

The business case for Operational Marketing Excellence can be rock solid, if you use the right arguments, metrics and calculation.

Using benchmark figures from the forthcoming publication from MRMLOGIQ, you can calculate that the result of your Operational Marketing Excellence program may represent a net present value of up to 29 % of your total marketing budget in the first year. Over three years it may even add up to an impressive 55 %, taking the discounted cashflow into account. Read More

Remember the post earlier this week about Games for Brands? Tim Jones, European Brand Director at Eisai Europe Ltd, delivers an insightful talk about how brands can appeal to the playful side of people. Rather than thinking about brands conducting a one-way stream of information, marketers should look at the possibilities for interaction with consumers:

What if we didnt build brands as message transmissive devices, but as a series of interactions?

Frequent flyer programmes, Nike+, FourSquare, all these marketing tools are essentially games that people want to keep playing, ensuring consumer loyalty and brand identification. Watch this video and find out more about games and brands!

MOCCA, the San Francisco-based association for Marketing Operations professionals, has spread its wings and extended its reach beyond the Bay Area. With a new website, they now focus their efforts on a global audience.  MOCCA serves a community of leaders in the Marketing Operations field and works to develop the rapidly growing profession.

MOCCA was created by a handful of early Marketing Operations professionals looking for resources or networking opportunities for people in the field.  It is now the largest group of Marketing Operations professionals in the US, with members from a variety of industries. Read More

ADAM Software have released a brand new whitepaper explaining how DAM will play an increasingly important role in Marketing Operations and how it can bring the CEO, CIO and CMO on the same level. From the report:

New technologies have created many new types of marketing and have increased the relative importance of marketing activities within (global) corporations. Marketing however has not been subject to the same levels of accountability found in other domains, such as Production. The easy ride for Marketing is now set to end Read More

For as long as I can remember marketing surveys have regularly arrived in my inbox asking for answers to questions designed to capture trends in marketing activities and spend. The format is pretty consistent; ‘over the coming year are you planning to spend more / same / less on the following.’ And the following might include a range of media – TV, Radio, Press – and of course over the years this has expanded to include categories such as direct marketing, promotions, PR, digital, website, social and so on.

This is all very well, but to my mind has failed to recognise that as well as production and media costs there is another category of spend that is relevant but missing. Increasingly with the shift from paid media and print to free or relatively low cost media such email, blogging, Twitter or your website, the reach of the content is driven not by how much money is spent on media but by spend on technology and strategy. Read More

On October 27th, Games for Brands will launch in London. Its an event on an emerging marketing discipline: gamification. Gamification is the art (or science?) of how brands can harness the power of games to better engage with their customers. You could use games to:

• Drive customer engagement
• Increase the viral appeal of your brand Read More

30% lower costs? 6% higher conversion rates? Xerox recognises the increasing importance of marketing and communication supply chain efficiency. John Cheal, responsible for CMS strategy and delivery, recently spoke of Xerox’s experience to underpin their Global Shared Services Delivery Centre (GDC) at the Aprimo/Teradata EMEA Marketing Summit 2011 in London, UK. Read More

www.300million.com!

While Sales is usually regarded as the department that provides revenue for the company, Marketing should not be underestimated when it comes to generating revenue. But to get the credit for adding value to the company, the Marketing department must argue their case to get the necessary investments.  Before demonstrating that contribution, they need to overcome their barriers to success. MarketingSherpa asked 1,700 B2B marketers what their top barriers to overcoming their challenges are. Lack of time, manpower and budget are the top reasons, but there are many others.  Read More