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It’s been a crazy, crowded summer travel season so far. Thank goodness for some of the (mostly) resilient booking platforms, chat commerce solutions, and innovative mobile CX apps out there.

The question is does tech innovation take the strain out of travel frustration?

It appears significant digital migration in the travel industry is alleviating some of the stress harried Covid-era travelers are facing. Whether it’s re-booking canceled flights, finding and changing accommodations, or dealing with destination and hospitality service issues.

The travel and leisure industry has certainly been challenged to step up a notch to handle the market rebound and resultant traveler congestion and issue resolution demands. Combine this with the need to massively scale transactions and flight operations and you clearly see the value of investments in infrastructure technology, digital cloud transformation and e-commerce operations.

Related: Check out our new report Smart Spending At Speed

But there are probably all manner of discontented travelers and visitors out there. This was no more apparent than during my visit to London last week where the million Pride parade marchers, F1 motor racing enthusiasts and Wimbledon tennis fans inundated the city.

While I was quite impressed that my boutique hotel on the Thames riverbank had a mobile app for just about every need or comfort, their supply chain had a hiccup or two. My server had no compunction informing me that the restaurant had run out of bottled water, and I would need to be satisfied with what comes out of the tap.

When I pointed out there was a grocery store down the street, the server was quick to inform me that the common OTC variety did not feature custom bottles and labels. At least there was good brand compliance and enforcement at the field level in this hotel operation!  

Nonetheless, we had a very good CMO Council roundtable dialogue sponsored by HCL Software on MarTech migration and digital innovation in London this past week. More to follow in Dubai (July 6), Johannesburg (July 12) and Sao Paulo (August 11). Excellent conversation around the vital role of the modern CMO and the massive proliferation of applications and rich data sources for marketing automation. You can learn more and register here to participate:  https://lnkd.in/gXtqYy8j

Forrester predicts worldwide spending on marketing will reach $4.7 trillion by 2025. This is an increase of $1.1 trillion from 2021 to 2025, a CAGR of 7%. IT software and services are projected to account for 14% of the dollar growth between 2021 to 2025, the most of any industry sector.

The MarTech Report 2021/2022 notes that $340 billion is earmarked for marketing technology acquisition and deployment globally. Some 23% of marketing budgets are now allocated for MarTech build-outs. Industry analysts estimate there are nearly 10,000 point solutions in the marketing ecosystem with hundreds integrated and managed by some multi-brand companies in complex marketing technology stacks.

In discussions with attendees in London, we gathered valuable insights into best approaches and practices. They included the challenges and complexities facing chief marketers when it comes to:

• Making a business case and showing the value of marketing technology spend
• Leading digital transformation and cultural alignment in resistant and often siloed organizations 
• Mapping marketing technology strategies and migration programs to achieve sustainable growth
• Activating internal stakeholders, assets and resources to improve go-to-market outcomes and performance

Almost 80% of marketers believe customer experience (CX) is a big driver of growth and a key competitive differentiator. In many cases, I believe competitive disruption and the rapid growth of new web-native category contenders in emerging markets is largely being driven by modern digital marketing practices and the advent of frictionless digital commerce platforms.

We asked roundtable participants to answer these four questions coming into our engagement program.

1. What is driving the need to automate marketing processes and practices in your business or industry sector?
2. What are the biggest of complexities and challenges to transforming the marketing function digitally in your organization?
3. How are you evidencing the value and ROI of marketing technology commitments and investments to internal stakeholders?
4. How is marketing automation benefitting your customers/brand and generating sustainable growth for your company?

You might want to ask yourselves the same questions. Then, let us know the answers. It’s all about thought leadership and global knowledge transfer with the CMO Council and its underwriting partner HCL Software. Check out our content here: https://cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership

Related: Get ahead of the disruption! Become a CMO Council Member today!