Marketing Management

As marketers adopt more and more marketing technology in their work, particularly cloud-based applications, with many choices and many different opinions about what software is best for a particular purpose, the question arises: To what degree should marketing applications be centralized or standardized within an organization? This question usually arises from the bastions of the […]

Some people believe that all technology should be centralized in the IT department. They reject the idea that marketing should control its own software — even though modern marketing is now deeply entwined with the technologies it uses. The premise of these naysayers is that only IT can responsibly manage technology, cloud computing or not.

Change is scary. Big, organization-altering, career-shifting change is downright terrifying. While it can be fun to blog about disruptive innovation and creative destruction — commenting as an observer to the end of the world as we know it — actually being caught in the middle of such change is another sensation entirely. Believe me, I

I believe marketing must lead its own technology. As detailed in my presentation Rise of the Marketing Technologist, I think marketing departments need marketing technologists on staff, led by a marketing CTO who reports to the CMO. It’s the only prayer marketing has in a world where technology is infused into every medium and message,

What’s the best way to scale marketing? When marketing grows beyond one person, how do you divide up the work? This is one of the key strategic decisions the CMO makes, as the architecture of the marketing organization shapes its strengths and weaknesses. As my operations professor at MIT often said, “structure dictates behavior.” The

The winds of change are blowing through IT, and it’s not a gentle summer breeze. Earlier this month, Hewlett-Packard announced they were cutting 9,000 IT jobs. They’re consolidating their data centers and making them far more automated, as more advanced software and hardware eliminates the need for so many hands-on system and network administrators. This

Forgive me for this rant, but I hope this will be helpful as an example of how short-sighted, overly aggressive marketing optimization techniques can backfire with long-term brand damage. I’ve been a register.com customer for about 10 years now. I know, some of you will instantly point out that they’re one of the most expensive

I continue to receive terrific feedback about my presentation and essay on the rise of the marketing technologist — thank you to everyone who has contributed comments, anecdotes, and ideas. The pent up desire for marketing to take control of its technological destiny is clearly bursting at the seams. You’ve inspired me to take that

Last week, I gave my talk at Search Insider Summit on the Rise of the Marketing Technologist. Based on the positive feedback I received from brands, agencies, and technology vendors alike, it apparently resonated deeply. So, first, I’d like to share the slide presentation with you: Rise of the Marketing Technologist from Scott Brinker However,

Avi Dan has a great article that was published yesterday in Advertising Age, Why Brands Should Embrace Technological Change. It’s an excellent piece talking about the rapid shifts in marketing technology and encouraging CMOs to embrace the phenomenon with all their heart (and all their organizational structure). I was pleased to see him advocate for