Does technology breed tension? The requirements of digital-age marketing would seem to indicate so, according to a new study. Marketing departments are pushing for ever-faster turnaround times from information technology departments, while the IT service providers are not necessarily receiving clear guidance as to how high a priority each request represents.
“The issue of broader-scale digital initiatives has not been done at the CEO or board level,” says Brian Whipple, managing director at Accenture Interactive. “[They] need to be owned at the boardroom level. The idea of CMO versus CIO [chief intelligence officer], and each feeling that the other has dropped the ball, is going to change during the next 10 years.”
This stumbling block is at the heart of a new study from the CMO Council and Accenture Interactive. If the change Whipple anticipates is going to happen, both sides will need to move beyond the “marketers are right brain creative creatures, whereas IT operates in the pragmatic left brain” trap outlined in the study.
“The role of the CMO has evolved,” says Liz Miller, VP of global programs and operations for the CMO Council. “Marketers now own the development and execution and continuation of the customer experience from cradle to grave, from acquisition to retention. We are no longer simply shuttling creative from one outlet to another. With digital marketing we have engagement.”
Both CMOs and CIOs understand this. Nearly two-thirds of all CIOs agree that technology underpins and shapes the entire customer experience, as do half of the CMOs. Additionally, 53% of CIOs acknowledge that access to customer intelligence is critical for a competitive advantage, as do 55% of CMOs. And 40% of CIOs, along with 44% of CMOs, say that reaching and engaging the market has become more digitally driven.
But it’s in the areas where CMOs and CIOs disagree that tensions lie. Just over one third – 35% — of marketers surveyed say there are heavily committed and invested in interactive marketing strategies, while only 20% of IT managers feel that way. Priorities between these two groups differ as well: Marketers believe IT should first focus on linking marketing, sales and channel groups, and deploying marketing platforms, while IT professionals are more likely to focus on automating customer interactions, and using social media for online listening.
There is some cold comfort that C-level groups are discussing social media at all. “Five years ago social media was not on the CMO or CIO agenda, but now it is” Whipple says.
The most striking difference between how CMOs and CIOs view digital marketing strategies is in how they view project leadership. Unsurprisingly, 69% of marketers see the CMO as the primary leader, and only 19% consider the IT department important to defining digital strategies. IT executives are only slightly more modest: 58% see themselves as the champions of digital marketing, although 51% acknowledge that the CMO should have a role as well.
Strikingly, what neither group cites as being essential to project success is leadership from the CEO. “The CEO must be at the helm,” says Miller. “While there will always be tensions, [with the CEO leading the project] there will always be governance.” Having a CEO overseeing digital marketing efforts, she adds, will mean that the customer will be put at the center of technological and marketing considerations. If an organization’s goal is to deliver relevance to its customers, in terms of products and services, the turf squabbles will become less of a battle.
The Accenture/CMO Council report recommends three tactics for bridging the CIO/CMO gap. First, marketing and information technology departments should align on a shared vision of success, rather than stress differences in vocabulary. Not doing so gives rise to communication gaps, and more focus on assigning blame than resolving business needs.
Second, collaboration between IT and marketing should start at the moment of structuring a project, or an infrastructure’s design, not at a “moment of calamity.” Often, according to the report, IT is not called in to do technology analysis until a problem has arisen. This means IT needs to be brought up to speed regarding understanding the business needs and technology, rather than having been in a position to make strategic contributions all along.
Finally, the digital age enables – in fact, requires – shorter times between testing and rolling out online strategies. According to the Accenture/CMO Council report, “there will be scenarios where the old 6-month testing timeline will launch as an obsolete technology before a single customer engagement.” Involving IT earlier, the report further claims, will shift the timeline so it can provide the best business outcome, as opposed to the best testing timetable.
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