How the CMO can tackle technology and win
The CMO of the future must embrace AI, take more risks on creativity and be prepared to learn skills outside of their job description and comfort zone, argues the Deloitte Digital team.
As the CMO’s role grows increasingly unwieldy, it’s almost impossible not to notice the increasing abundance of shiny new C-suite level roles that have popped up around the marketing function.
Where there once was a CMO, there is now a CXO, a CTO, a CCO, and possibly a CDO and even a CSO. “That’s happening because the role is simply too complicated for one person right now,” says Deloitte Digital partner David Phillips.
Technology is driving that complexity, which is seen nowhere more clearly than in the industry’s struggles with attribution and digital metrics. “Attribution is the single biggest issue we have in the market,” Phillips argues. “Digital metrics were heralded to be our saviour in this industry, but instead, they’ve actually made things a whole lot more confusing for organisations to understand. We were all hoping that the digital world was going to change this for us, but in actual fact, it’s made it a lot more difficult.”
But that doesn’t mean technology itself is to blame. The most concerning situations occur when the right tech is being used in the wrong way, or worse, ignored completely. “If I was a CMO, the number one thing I’d be worried about would be the investment I’ve made in a technology stack that I’m not utilising.”
And even if some of the marketing team is utilizing a tech stack, it means nothing unless it’s integrated across an entire marketing function and beyond. “The desire to get digital and be digital and become digital has seen organizations very quickly separate and carve off and invest in digital teams, and not actually work them into the marketing function itself.”
Instead of working in siloed digital teams, the whole marketing operation needs to change to enable the technology they’ve invested in, from people to process to technology.
Employee churn, especially at the CMO level, is a massive hindrance to both marketing teams and the technology they use. “I’ve had clients that have been changing CMOs every eight months, and it’s really destructive,” says Phillips. “When the new CMOs come in they bring their teams, they all have different strategies, they invest in a different technology that they understand. It creates a level of friction and inertia.”
Instead of overhauling the entire tech stack at once, transforming sections piece by piece can often be a better option. Open source is often the best way to do this, since the systems are naturally adaptable by design. Plus, the availability of open-source options means that marketers don’t necessarily have to sink their entire budget into new systems. In fact, where a license-free solution exists, there’s generally no real reason to use proprietary systems. Either way, “investing in tech alone hasn’t gotten us very far, and it’s not going to take us much further,” adds Phillips.
So how do businesses make tech investments work, open source or not? A Deloitte study from the US suggested that 82% of early adopters of AI are already seeing immediate ROI. It found successful organizations didn’t just buy the technology, but changed their entire operating model along with it. “They put technology at the heart of the marketing organization and then planned the rest around it… It’s only going to increase here in Australia too.”
That doesn’t mean the human isn’t important, argues Deloitte Digital’s creative, brand and media partner Adrian Mills. “It actually makes them really important – the robots still need someone to boss them around. So don’t be afraid of the robots, just make friends with them, because they will be your best friend.”
In order to help humans and robots work in harmony, marketing teams need separate roles for people who can speak to each side. First, there’s the person who performs the strategic role, who is a highly empathetic, insight-driven individual. Then there’s the person who runs the engine, who talks tech stacks, data and efficiencies.
“They’re different skill sets, and they’re not very often the same person,” says Phillips. “We need to recognize that marketing has gone down these two different paths, celebrate and employ these different people that work in these fields, but of course plumb them perfectly together.”
“There is a massive skill shortage in Australia. I spoke about those two different capabilities – strategy, the engine – unfortunately they’re really, really hard people to find in Australia.”
In the US, 35% of marketers say having the right talent is the biggest concern. “That’s the thing that keeps them up at night,” he adds. “That’s a huge issue globally around finding the right talent to perform this role, and there is a serious shortage of good talent in Australia.”
Part of the issue is a huge reduction in internal talent investment programs. Instead, young marketers – often straight out of university – are brought into marketing teams, told to write briefs and expected to know what they’re doing right off the bat. Low-quality degrees are another key factor, with some students able to make their entire way through a commerce degree without hearing the words ‘customer’ or ‘marketing’ once.
“The artificial split we’ve seen between digital and traditional marketing is really not helped this as well,” says Phillips. “It’s been a real culprit for marketers not being skilled properly when they should be. If I hear that term pure marketer, again, I’m going to scream.”
So what should companies be looking for in their CMOs? Firstly, even though there is a separation between strategy and engine, marketing teams need people who understand both sets of skills. They should be curious, ask questions, and have high levels of empathy. Most of all, the CMO of the future is one who can simultaneously “embrace and drive change.”