In the second of our CMO insights series on digital strategy, we ask former CommBank CMO Andy Lark on whether he supports a CDO role
In the second of CMO’s new series looking into what three marketing and digital chiefs think about a key topic or trend influencing their business performance, we ask the former CMO of Commonwealth Bank and highly experienced marketer, Andy Lark to answer the following question:
Should CMOs own digital strategy and delivery?
Digital as a business is not a marketing function - although based on the background of the CMO, it might make sense to have them run it. Digital marketing, however, both for digital and physical products or channels, is a marketing function. Today, the rise of importance of digital channels - and the emergence of digital as the business - requires most organisations build a digital capability, unified, under a chief digital officer (CDO).
Digital platforms and technology should be delivered through the IT capability, but the overall digital business and products shouldn't be. Remember: The CDO role is only part technology; it is also supply chain, pricing, service delivery, product, merchandising and more. Digital requires focus, and committed leadership will drive its success. Non committed or dispersed leadership will result in digital islands of efficiency.
Ultimately, CEOs have the responsibility for digital delivery and always have. The challenge today is a large number of marketers don’t report to CEOs, nor do CDOs. As a result, neither are a priority. They are run and optimised as part of something else, such as operations or business channel management for instance.
So long as they continue to be optimised as part of something else, you will have sub-optimal solutions that don't recognise digital as how the customer engages. There is nothing more important than meeting and serving the customer digitally.
CMOs talk digital delivery part 1: The Co-op's Greg Smith
Most CMOs have a great understanding of the role of digital in customer relationships and marketing communications and are working bloody hard to raise awareness of the importance of digital.
CMOs must be the change agent they want to exist in their business. In short, be digital. Show people the power of digital; arm your teams with leading-edge devices and technology. Then invest at the edge, and invest in niche ideas with potential to scale. Encourage your digital natives to experiment and ideate.
More on Andy Lark
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia
In 1982, an AT&T employee by the name of Plotzke predicted the rise of voice: “In fact, it has been predicted that, by 1990, well over half the communications dollars spent by businesses will be for products and services that include voice technologies.
The speed and pace of change will never be slower than we’re experiencing today. So in this era of unprecedented change, how can brands meet soaring consumer expectations, stay relevant and deliver differentiated and connected experiences?
There is a very simple and fascinating experiment you can conduct in your own organisation: Ask 10 of your colleagues to define ‘marketing’. I can guarantee 10 widely varying definitions.
In this bonus last episode of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with former ANZ group general manager of marketing, Louise Eyres, talks about the importance of thinking like a customer and using intuition to solve customer painpoints.
I have been suffering from (HERPES) disease for the last two years and had constant pain, especially in my knees. During the first year, ...
Steven Kizzy
KPMG Australia appoints ex-Publicis leader as head of brand strategy
When they say they had to much focus on traditional media, this is code for very bad creative, and very bad category strategy, Clearly th...
Rob
iSelect outlines new approach to arrest ineffective marketing as its reports full-year results
play barbie games https://www.barbi-igre.net/
Karlo Bozak
Rethinking gamification in marketing
There are lots of software tools available online that can do what you are asking about and also trace the location of a cell phone and e...
Curtis Bacchus
CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 August 2018
Love the counter intuitive StubHub example!
Rishi Rawat
Yale University says you’re missing this marketing advantage