Last month, I attended the Marketing Operations Executive Summit — an intimate gathering of around 100 marketing operations executives — to give a talk on agile marketing. What I left with, however, was a profound appreciation for the ascendency of the marketing operations role. In the words of Craig Moore, a director at Sirius Decisions and the opening speaker, until recently, marketing operations was the island of misfit toys. It was definitely not the sexy …

In the land of marketing, operations may become king Continue Reading »

Any doubt that marketing is becoming a technology-powered discipline? The ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) shared results from their latest survey on marketing technology at a briefing outside of Boston earlier this week. The slide above shows the big picture result: today, 21% of B2B marketers believe that marketing technology is critical to deliver on marketing’s business objectives. But in 2 years, 60% expect marketing technology will be critical to that mission. This survey …

64% of B2B marketers feel underinvested in technology Continue Reading »

Earlier this month, I read Oracle/Eloqua’s new report on Defining the Modern Marketer: From Ideal to Real. One of the more fascinating aspects of the report, based on a survey of 556 B2B marketers, was the shifting balance between the “art” of marketing and the “science” of marketing. Which lead me to write: what do you mean by marketing as a science? To better answer that question, I was able to have the following Q&A …

Marketers must be equal parts creative, tech, and finance Continue Reading »

The CMO asks for a drink. The bartender says, “Hmm, no, sorry, from the look of you, I don’t think you know how to hold your liquor.” The CIO asks for a drink. The bartender replies, “I know you know how to drink, but sorry, you haven’t paid off your tab from all those drinks you bought over the past 10 years.” The chief digital officer approaches the bar, but before he can ask, the …

A CMO, a CIO, and a chief digital officer walk into a bar… Continue Reading »

On the heels of Gartner’s recent confirmation that marketing technologists are proliferating within marketing departments, I came across this great example in an article in Insurance & Technology — Nationwide CMO: ‘I Have Double-Digit Million Dollars in IT Projects’. In an interview with associate editor Nathan Golia, Nationwide’s EVP and CMO Matt Jauchius acknowledged that marketing is now investing a tremendous amount of money into technology — the double-digit millions of dollars mentioned in the …

Nationwide CMO credits marketing technologist Continue Reading »

Last year, Gartner found a surprising result — should I have been surprised? — from their high-tech marketing budget survey: 72% of their respondents indicated that there was a “chief marketing technologist” type role in their organization. While I’ve been predicting the rise of the marketing technologist for several years, that struck me as a spectacularly rapid adoption rate. Had we reached a tipping point? Now, last week, they released key findings from their U.S. …

Gartner confirms 70% have chief marketing technologist Continue Reading »