Why a CMO Can No Longer Just Be A Marketer

Adapt or die. It is an oft-spoken term, including in the movie Moneyball by Billy Beane, AKA Brad Pitt. In that context the term referred to the way baseball general managers needed to change their entire method of evaluating players via the use of “sabermetrics.”

The above is the opening line to a piece I wrote for Forbes not long ago. The piece, titled, The Mentality Of A CMO Is Changing To This, and co-written by Michael Williams, CMO, The Grand Prix of America - spoke directly to the fact that to survive and thrive in today's world, a CMO can no longer be "just a marketer."

The fact of the matter is the role of the CMO is changing to one of Chief Engagement Officer. "What you need to do as a CMO is no longer just the marketing attributes of your job... you have to have solid relationships with all other departments because each one plays a pivotal role in providing the seamless, relevant experience consumers want and demand today."

The paraphrased quote above comes via Michael Williams, who along with yours truly and Jonathan Margulies, Managing Director of The Winterberry Group, were participants in The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms Webinar.

A very unique webinar, insomuch all participants were in the same room (as opposed to being in different locations) which afforded attendees a sort of "fireside chat" feel if you will, was held to discuss the findings of the aptly-named CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms, released earlier this year by Oracle Marketing Cloud in partnership with The CMO Club.

The guide, co-written by yours truly, contains results of a survey of over 100 marketing leaders (including Williams) plus the five key solutions identified to help CMOs and marketing leaders tackle the challenge of providing a seamless customer experience across all marketing channels via the use of technology.

During the webinar, each of the aforementioned five solutions were discussed in detail: (along with many other related topics)

1. Be the Customer Champion Every Step of the Way
2. Become BFFs with Your CIO
3. Co-design the Optimal Customer-Driven Technology Roadmap
4. Rethink Your Marketing Organization and Processes
5. Establish a System for Continuous Improvement

As I mentioned earlier this was a highly unique webinar for the simple fact that all participants were together in one location. Usually participants in a given webinar are in different locales and time zones, which can be somewhat problematic when it comes to the pacing of the webinar itself.

That is not the case here whatsoever.

Do yourself a favor and download The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms Webinar and see - or better still, hear for yourself.