In Aditi Technologies, a leading provider of software product and application development services, announced that it has partnered with New Madison Avenue, a marketing technology services firm, to launch a new marketing initiative HawkEyeQ which is aimed at CMOs, who are looking at a bridge to the CIOs agenda.
CMOs have it tough. Under pressure from the CEO to make things happen fast and from the CFO to prove credibility and measure and report ROI, CMOs are increasingly turning to a team that didnt exist in their realm until recently: The CIOs office. But now is the time to mend fences and learn to speak the same language. In todays world, where over 60% of the marketing spend is powered by digital technology, the CMO and CIO have to work together as a team.
The HawkEyeQ is having the proposition to build bridges between CMO and CIO and improve marketing effectiveness by doing two simple things marketing IT program management with the CIO team and digital marketing insight development through integrating marketing data in collaboration with the agencies with whom the CMO works. Set up by ex-CMOs and advisors to CIOs, the team is led by Ed Cannon; Partner at New Madison Ave and popularly known as the CMOs CIO, and Vineet Arora, Managing Director at Aditi Technologies; a boutique web, mobile and BI application development company.
Vineet says, The CMOs office sees the most churn in C-suite. In part, it is because it is one of the last functions to link budget to ROI. Once you prove accountability, the rest of the conversation with the C-suite becomes far simpler. He also suggests starting with something simple, like a simple scorecard that covers gathering, analyzing and distributing media and customer data and insights. "Start to improve and bring together what you have. Most often it's not the tool that's the problem, its how they are not implemented as a simple connected platform," he said.
Ed, also a veteran at marketing teams at MTV and Sony, says one of the toughest bridges to cross is the speed at which marketing programs get implemented by IT. Both teams are under pressure to keep pace with technology and channel innovations in digital media. Since Marketing IT was never planned as a connected platform, incremental improvements often require system overhaul. Supposedly, for a CMO who own three brands, market in four segments and a big launch comes along - how does he build these microsites and landing pages, develop a mobile app and connect it with the Facebook application that he is building, all within 3 days? Who takes care of the integration, the infrastructure, the UX? Its a tough transition, especially if he doesnt have the CIO by his side.
Technology is becoming critical to marketing. In fact, most of marketing IS technology. The next generation of CMO is more likely to spend more time with the IT team than the creative agency. And there will be cross pollination. IT folks will set the agenda for better customer engagement, more effective marketing execution and smarter decision making. signs off Rob Kingston, a marketer-turned-geek and Senior VP at New Madison Ave.
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