I'm excited at the prospect of the publication of the eMarketer 2019 CMO survey which is just a few weeks away. It's always instructive to get first hand accounts of what the CMO community is saying about trends, threats and opportunities.
As a taste of what's to come, I was interested to read this interview with Alicia Tillman, SAP's CMO. Much of what she says resonates strongly and reinforces our belief in the importance of data and analytics in the creative process.
Having hired a Chief Strategy Officer in the past year, we've been on a journey to add yet more rigor into the planning process to ensure every campaign is underpinned with powerful insight. To do this, we've invested in a growing technology stack as well as people who 'get' the numbers.
As communications firm that puts delivering business impact at the centre of what we do, the marriage of data with great storytelling has become a powerful force for growth. Our clients want it and our people get far more from it. We're having very different conversations from even two years ago and we're operating at a different level in many organizations.
I appreciate we're not alone in embracing this trend and that's a good thing for the PR & Communications industry. As more agencies integrate data with storytelling so the impact our work can have will grow in importance. There are other ingredients in the recipe for success, but if you use these two at the core, then you'll not go far wrong.
..You need to have the ability to provide intelligence and data. Over the past decade, marketers have worked hard to get access to data ... and derive intelligence from the data....... I'm not saying everybody is going to be a data scientist, but ... there needs to be a function within any marketing organization where you have people who understand data enough to truly understand the intelligence that it's bringing to you. The second is you need to be able to shape that intelligence into a story. You need storytellers. You need not only people who are very business-savvy, but also have a beautiful way of being able to tell a story about your brand that speaks to the value connected to being able to deliver it in a way that is relevant, connected and emotional.
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