Technology is key to marketing, says Oracle report

'The CMO of Tomorrow' report released by Oracle Marketing Cloud in collaboration with the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising looked at how organisations are meeting the challenges and impediments faced in today's digital market

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | November 17, 2016

Oracle Marketing Cloud has released a report – 'The CMO of Tomorrow' -- in collaboration with the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA). The report highlighted that digital channels, smart mobility, new marketing and advertising technologies are fundamentally redefining what is expected of marketing leaders.

The report was based on research conducted across the Asia-Pacific regions (India, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore). Over 450 senior marketing executives participated in the survey, which looked at how organisations are meeting the challenges and impediments faced in today's digital market, and how their investments are likely to change in the year ahead.

According to the report, marketers will need to be as familiar with a balance sheet as they are with an advertising campaign. They have to be comfortable around technology and have strong analytics skills around data. They must be able to engage with management peers at the top tier of the company to secure budget and get buy-in for significant cultural change.

“Senior executives want their marketing teams focused on business goals, revenue growth and ROI. However, many marketers are still too focused on traditional campaign metrics as a measure of success. The research has highlighted the disconnect between what senior management define as success, which is revenue, vis-à-vis the campaign-specific metrics that many marketers still measure themselves on,” said Mohan Joshi, Senior Director, Oracle Marketing Cloud.

Some of the other key findings of the report said that social media, campaign management and web analytics were all placed highly on the priorities for the next 12 months. India was also found to be the only geography where mobility was rated highly as a strength and not major weakness. There was also more confidence from Indian executives about their companies' proficiency across a range of disciplines, particularly mobile.

The report found that for Indian executives, 67.5 per cent said revenue was a clear Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Almost 80 per cent of Indian respondents said that they were excited or enjoyed working in analytics and 40 per cent of respondents said that predictive analytics was on their to-do list in the next 12 months.

While IT, financial services and media were the three biggest verticals, retail, professional services and travel were also featured heavily.

The report stated that ad tech and marketing technology were more likely to be integrated in Indian companies, although there was less middle ground. Just under half (43 per cent) said there was little or no integration. Despite the higher levels of integration, the majority of respondents said ad tech's place in the bigger picture remained confused.

The report found that Indian companies were much more likely to manage their digital advertising internally. Indeed, more organisations reported managing it internally than those using a hybrid or fully outsourced model combined.

A lack of budget, capability and education of the existing staff and return on investment were identified as the three main impediments for the entire APAC region marketers felt were preventing them from doing their jobs.

“The CMO of Tomorrow understands that great customer experiences translate directly to bottom line results. They build teams that can deliver ROI and create KPIs that put the customer at the very centre of organisational thinking. However, marketers can't deliver customer experience alone. Other departments, including IT, Finance and Technology play a critical role in delivering the outcomes. Marketers will need to collaborate and mediate at the executive leadership level to ensure the brand stays focused, and the executive team buys into an ethos of genuinely putting the customer first. Not every CMO is there today. The research shows significant differences between markets in relation to CMO skills and focus. In many markets, there are major shortcomings that need to be overcome to ensure CMOs are prepared for the future,” said Jodie Sangster, CEO, ADMA.

The CMO of Tomorrow Report

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