The Evolution of the CMO Role: Embracing Operational Excellence
The modern CMO must become more Architect than Icon.
CMOs have always been the closest thing we have to ‘celebrity’ in the marketing world. Heralded as brand and cultural visionaries, harbingers of taste & trend, and leaders we look to for inspiration. While they will continue to be that, the focus of the role has to evolve.
In the last 5 years, marketing changed. Blame technology, culture, covid, social media, the kids these days… it doesn't matter. It's been coming for years, and that change has now occurred. Doing the occasional 360° campaign, and splashing every channel for a few weeks is no longer enough to gain the consumer’s attention. Even a highly successful Super Bowl campaign is forgotten a week later… culture is just moving too quickly. And if your marketing plan, organization, and partners are not built to operate within that culture, the brand will be left behind.
88% of CMOs agree that their purview has become more complex in the past two years. -PWC Pulse Survey
The role of the modern CMO is now more of an architect, designing the brand’s marketing blueprint to accommodate content running day and night, in content thirsty channels, targeting a multitude of audiences and sub-audiences, with instantaneous analytics to optimize spend for success. CMOs must look at the entire playing field, and construct a strategy that meticulously distributes content across all channels in unison, to create an ecosystem of narratives. All channels, firing both independently and as part of a greater whole, in an every day 365 cadence that leads consumers to a tipping point of action, in the channel of their choosing.
This approach is what Consiglieri refers to as ‘The 365 Marketing Offense’.
Embracing a Modern 365 Marketing Offense
The CMO has to take the lead and ownership over a few fundamental organizational shifts that may make people uncomfortable, but are essential for the success of this new approach to marketing.
Reinventing Marketing Operations.
There needs to be a new level of fidelity and importance placed on the process by which work originates, is greenlit, produced and approved through to completion. The modernization of marketing and creative operations has to be the top priority for every marketing leader, full stop. There is too much content, with too many impressions, that it not only squanders the opportunities, but it puts the brand at risk when there’s unrefined messaging, bad work, or worse, work that creates damaging PR moments. The way to get in front of modern content velocity is through a true reinventing of marketing operations. It’s the CMO’s secret weapon for truly understanding all the work that is flowing through the shop, and having a single source of truth at any given moment.
Proactive Strategic Planning.
Doing the difficult work upfront to truly embrace a multi-channel approach, led with social as the backbone, is the key to unlocking the 365 Offense. This is ‘planning’ with a level of fidelity that accounts for every product launch, sales initiative, cultural moment, event and PR, distilling the purpose, message, key consumer takeaway and KPI for each activity. Taking the time to truly articulate message cadence, frequency and velocity is the differentiator that makes space for the consistent drumbeat of content, even in the quiet moments between tent poles, that sets modern brands apart.
Visualization of the Plan.
A graphic visualization of this plan is of the utmost importance. Just like architectural blueprints turned into a 3D rendering, a visualization will clearly show the entirety of the plan, giving CMOs and their directors an understanding of campaign velocity and messaging volume throughout the year. It will bring clarity to the balance between brand and product messaging, and highlight opportunities for more tactical direct response messages, as well as opportunities for cultural relevance or innovation messaging. An annualized visualization that is kept up to date will provide everyone in the organization enough foresight to plan ahead, alleviating some of the pressures of the day to day.
Owning Content Creation and Storytelling.
The modern CMO creates their own “holding company” of agencies and production shops, and manages them with an internal team of strategic planners and do-ers. Together, that partnership can efficiently produce the variety of narratives needed, at scale to keep up with a 365 offense.
Externally, that means evaluating the brand’s agency partnerships to determine who is best suited to produce content with an ongoing 365 mindset. Today, some of the best content is coming from small niche shops, production houses, and media publishers who understand what consumers are looking for in social channels. They have the connections to makers and to culture that are prerequisite, and can make content at the pace required. The ideal is creating a tighter roster of handpicked partners, each with clear swimlanes in their areas of expertise and specialization, and directed towards a unified 365 strategy.
Internally, the team’s roles and responsibilities also have to evolve. While execution is always important, operations and strategic planning become the primary job of the internal marketing team. The marketing/brand managers become active players/coaches of the roster the CMO has assembled – they need to craft their plans, briefs, and processes towards the bigger brand and sales goals, and accept accountability for that work.
Unlocking the Modern 365 Offense
This Modern 365 Offense approach is a strategic imperative. It’s a transformational shift towards centralized operations for marketing & creative, running a scripted offense of coordinated creative, working effectively together as part of a greater brand narrative. All channels and all executions, meticulously programmed to create synchronized consumer engagements
Simply put, it takes leaders who see the art in choreographing a continuous symphony of content, who thrive in a world of constant cultural change and real time optimization, and who will completely nerd out on digging into the numbers to find the hidden insights. It’s true “digital transformation,” and it starts at the top, with CMOs who prioritize planning, coordination and effectiveness.
If you find yourself grappling with similar questions and welcome some honest counsel, let’s talk. Visit us at www.consiglieri.co, where we specialize in helping marketing leaders navigate the evolving marketing landscape.
