REQUIRED READING POST

From AI-driven conversational chatbots to the multidimensional metaverse, MarTech has dominated the marketing sphere for the past decade and is still leading current marketing strategy, given the massive focus on the personalisation of AI tools to come.

Having the right MarTech stack in place ensures marketers can keep right on track with data collection and analysis, campaign measurement, customer communication, and so on. and prepare for the next big tech to impact the market.

CMO Council has driven much of the high-caliber conversation around MarTech, providing the industry with a rich repository of marketing intelligence around the subject, polling Chief Marketing Officers regularly on digital innovation across the various regions. Key research, webinars and reports have focused on the challenges, opportunities and growth with MarTech migration – both internally within organisations, and externally, with their customers and consumers.

In a series of reports and industry roundtables across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, CMO Council led the conversation around the intentions and projects of marketing leaders, with its report, ‘Sparking MarTech Migration + Digital Innovation’.

New Digital Marketing Mandates

As companies look to transform and embrace this digital-first reality after the challenges of the past few years, they cannot lose what makes their brand resonate with their audience: human connection. The ability to balance digital advancements with authenticity is the holy grail for marketers today. 

In a study sponsored by HCL Software, perspectives from a global CMO Council member survey about their experiences during the pandemic and projections post-pandemic, were highighted. Those survey results were shared in aggregate along with regional perspectives gleaned from interviews with CMO Council Advisory Board members across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Read the report here.

A Sparking MarTech Migration + Digital Innovation progress report followed roundtable sessions held in Dubai, London and Johannesburg on: ‘Learnings and Insights from EMEA Marketing Leader Invention’ sessions. The discussions were focused on the Sparking MarTech Migration + Digital Innovation mandate and struggles to centralize, protect, share, and better use customer data, brand assets, market intelligence and best practice knowledge across CMO global organizations. In the key takeaways from the gatherings, regional forces and factors shaping new digital marketing mandates across the regions, were unpacked here.

Making High-Tech MarTech Pay Off

Two surveys that dealt with Making High-Tech MarTech Pay Off, looked at the future of MarTech and how much of it depends on CMO-CIO relationships. As high-tech companies emerged from the pandemic, it was clear that marketing and MarTech lay at the heart of recovery. To optimize MarTech investments, marketing needs to have a very effective relationship with IT that spans strategy, selection and management. Such a working relationship drives MarTech innovation, capability maturity and higher performance. Yet fewer than one out of five high-tech marketing organizations has a very effective relationship with IT.

In a study, codeveloped with KPMG, CMO Council covered critical aspects of the marketing-IT relationship inside high-tech companies; how they’re structured and governed; what types of MarTech capabilities and outcomes they effectuate; and how marketers can take this relationship to the next level.

Our findings were based on a survey of over 100 high-tech marketing leaders across companies in IT services, data management and processing, hardware, software, semi-conductors, cloud and security services. Additionally, a survey of over 200 companies across 12 industries, such as financial services, telecom, consumer products, media/ entertainment and retail, was conducted for comparison purposes. Download the report.

As the market migrated to MarTech, our webinars on demand proved to be an exceptional resource for senior marketers grappling with integrating their MarTech journey, Exploring Marketing Leader Strategies, Intentions and Innovations:

• Latin America: The regional forces (competitive, geo-political, economic, environmental, etc.) shaping and influencing strategies, spend and market receptivity; and the degree to which marketers in Latin America are embracing automation and effectively managing the MarTech stack. Watch now
• Europe: Are you prioritizing and spending wisely on MarTech? With tighter resources working against sky-high expectations, CMOs need to make smart bets. Watch On-Demand
• Africa/Middle East: Our study shows seven out of 10 marketers plan to increase spend on MarTech this year. Watch On-Demand

Even though CMO Council no longer publishes its premier publication, PeerSphere, the valuable virtual issues are available for download to go back to where it all started, with The State of MarTech: Transformation in the Age of Complexity. The fascinating feature from the last decade, looks at how marketers grapple with being equal parts storyteller, growth strategist and engagement orchestrator when it comes to implementing MarTech throughout the organisation.

*To browse the prized PeerSphere past publication issues, click here.