Marketing Governance

study by the MediaSchool Group.

A survey amongst 2000 students in the age of 20 to 25 years by the MediaSchool Group revealed that 70 percent of the students think that marketing will be a whole different kind of job than today. They think that marketing will be “dominated” by content marketing and “PR thinking.” An advertisers job will be mostly to “entertain” rather than “sell,” according to 7 in 10. Recent survey results indicate that American consumers already believe that should be the case.

The European students almost universally see the importance of social media as an integrated marketing channel: 90 percent feel that it’s a channel that should be used by all practitioners, rather than a stand-alone discipline. As a result, 85 percent believe that in the next 10 years, social media and digital agencies will be integrated with other marketing communications agencies or be full-service agencies themselves.

In an industry where entertaining is more important than selling, 81 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that content marketing – where brands become publishers and creators of their own content – would be an essential part of their job 10 years from now. Meanwhile, “PR Thinking,” where word-of-mouth creation and trust in brands are paramount, will be similarly important, according to the students, with 70 percent believing that will be the primary way in which agencies respond to briefs.

And in a nod to TV, an excellent medium for story-telling, 70 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed that TV advertising would be irrelevant in 10 years.

Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Survey. The survey was published April 26th. Some 53 percent of the digital marketers surveyed from around the world say they devote less than 5 percent of their budget to optimization activities. Last year 48 percent of the marketers said this. Only 6 percent of respondents are allocating more than one-quarter of their budgets to these activities, relatively unchanged from last year’s 7 percent. And that is strange, because through optimization companies can reduce the costs of their marketing operations. By calculating the ROI for the optimization projects it can become apparent that the reason not to, is actually the reason to do it; saving budget.

Eye-openers

Adobe conducted this survey amongst 1800 marketers from around the World. “Some of the findings are eye-opening”, says John Cristofano, PR-Manager at  Adobe, “like data showing a majority of the companies surveyed spend 5 percent or less of their marketing budget on optimization activities. Five percent or less, even though it’s also clear from the data that companies investing more get more in return. For example, companies allocating more than 25 percent of marketing budgets to optimization are twice as likely to see high conversion rates.”

With these kinds of results, it’s only logical to ask why there are not more companies are investing in optimization. According to the survey there are two major challenges. Budget and resources are the two most important things, that hold marketers back says almost half of the respondents.

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Though frequently at odds, marketing and IT executives agree that harnessing Big Data is imperative to building a customer-centric corporate culture, SAS.

They also agree that a lack of CMO/CIO alignment, rigid silos, unclear responsibilities, and a lack of leadership impede an organization from using Big Data to its full potential, the survey of CMOs and CIOs found.

Big Data is important to achieving a customer-centric culture, according to the study:

• 40% of marketers and 51% of IT executives said its critical for improved decision making.
• 36% of marketers and 23% of IT execs said data drives the ability to personalize customer experiences.

Below, additional findings from the CMO Council study, titled Big Data’s Biggest Role, Aligning the CMO & CIO.

Access to in-depth data, and the ability to translate it into insights, is a competitive advantage according to 70% of marketers: 30% say it is critical, and 40% say it is part of the overall picture.

However, most respondents view the flood of incoming data as part obstacle and part opportunity: 61% of CMOs and 60% of CIOs say so, admitting they have a long way to go still in using Big Data properly.

The main challenge, according to 52% of marketers (and 45% of IT professionals), is that functional silos block aggregation of data from across the organization, making it difficult to truly achieve customer-centricity:

Moreover, 39% of CMOs say the corporate culture is not aligned around the needs of customers.

A likely explanation for the lack of total customer focus is that no clear ownership of the customer exists. Among marketing executives, 18% say that ownership rests with the CEO, 17% say the CMO, and 19% say sales. IT professionals assign ownership to the CEO (20%), CMO (19%), and sales (17%).

Organizations that report they have achieved total partnership between CMO and CIO also have clearer ownership of the customer.

In such organizations, marketers (24%) and IT professionals (30%) say the CEO owns the customer. Furthermore, marketers and IT executives in total partnership organizations are highly satisfied with their companys ability to engage the customer (42% of marketers, 31% of IT execs).

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You know you need to market your practice, but how effective are your current methods? Marketing metrics give us the best information about whats working and what is not and will help you make better investment decisions. Learn how to measure the impact of your efforts and refine your approach in this webinar, Marketing Metrics Getting the Most from Your Marketing Dollars with Cheryl Whitman, CEO of Beautiful Forever Consulting.

Cheryl Whitman is an internationally-recognized pioneer in medical spa and aesthetic medical business consulting. She is a published author, speaker, and cosmetic marketing specialist, and spearheads a successful team of aesthetic business consultants and business professionals as founder and CEO of Beautiful Forever. Dont miss the opportunity to learn how you can get more out of your marketing dollars!

Dr. Robert Shaw is a renowned businesswriter on marketing. He also is a consultant on the field of marketing, particularly Marketing performance measurement and management and Database marketing.

In his work two key elements come forward.

1. Marketing automation: the idea that the marketing function should embrace IT to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Shaw has tracked the uses and abuses of IT in marketing for over 20 years and defined best practice in this field.
2. Marketing performance measurement and management. Shaw identified the need for marketing to become more measurable and accountable and his researches continue to define best practice in this field.

In this ten minute interview, conducted by Mayer Becker, Shaw sheds his light on Leaner, faster and better marketing.

Efficient marketing supply chain management will deliver significant financial results, as well improving collaboration amongst the marketing department, its internal customers and the suppliers of marketing services.

If you want to know more, watch this video.

An all too common misperception is that marketing asset management (MAM) and distributed marketing management (DMM) platform technology is only for the “big guys,” the large companies with huge budgets, but it’s not. It’s a statement Saepio makes in their white paper ‘Only for the big guys?’.

Understandably, solution providers (Saepio included) often emphasis their power brand clients in webinars, case studies and sales presentations.  But if your company doesn’t fit the “big guys” definition, don’t overlook the benefits DMM can deliver for you.  In fact, if Small and Medium Business (SMB) describes you, you may derive more value from a DMM solution than the big guys do. Read More

Adobes is tackling often-heard prejudices about marketings accountability, in a new campaign called ‘Metrics not myths’.

Quoting a recent study by The Fournaise Marketing Group, Adobe said 80% of CEOs don’t trust marketers and 70% believe marketers are too disconnected from business results. The technology company thinks these are outdated preconceptions and aims to bust several marketing myths. Adobe aims to bust it by highlighting the analytics available as part of its Marketing Cloud technology.

Ann Lewes, Adobe CMO, said in her column introducing the campaign:

Our approach is to identify top myths about digital marketing that plague brands, agencies, chief marketing officers and CEOs and turn them on their head — with irony, humor, a provocative point of view and proof. We want this campaign to be honest in capturing both the passion and genuine frustration marketers feel when their contributions are undervalued and they’re told the impact of their work isn’t measureable. Read More