For several years, the CMO was recognized via ranks of a particular brand. The figure attained acquaintance with the story of the organization in the process of nurturing relationships with media partners, groups and agencies to expand and implement a triumphant strategy. Now its time to forget those good old days since the average tenure is continuously shrinking and now its only 42 months. Now the CMO does not have the freedom to make decisions according to the ‘feel alone’ factor. Marketing technology has been evolving through these years and now it has reached immense heights. The potential of advertising technology has altered the industry to allow buying and selling of media in fractions of a second. During the process a vigilant analysis of numerous data points are performed that are basically credited straight away to business results.

With the advancement of technology, artificial intelligence is an effective ingredient in media planning process. CMOs can now easily connect the points between promotion, sales and profits. This capability has transformed the responsibilities of the principal marketer and changed the job qualifications forever.

Now you cannot consider the CMO as the executive with a grand idea to create ostentatious ad crusades. He/she will emerge a leader familiar with big data, technology and creativity. Now they must be a master in quantitative analysis apart from being a creative thinker. Before the advent of active marketing technology the CMOs role was chiefly building trusts with media partners and agencies but now the dynamics have changed.

There is more automation in media purchase execution and mainly isolated from the supervisor services module, rendering transparency. Now there is an apparent view of each dollar being spent and it’s easy to assess the performance of every partner. The clarity helps the CMO to review the ROI accurately of each media planning partner. The CMO do have significant interest in all of the insights and marketing technology power. The CMO is finally responsible for creating a successful brand, none other.

Now what happens if a CMO notices any agency or partner not performing up to the mark? Marketing technology has now made it easy to discontinue the relationship without forfeiting data consistency and media implementation. The CMO can also decide success and defend all of the decisions to the executive team with help of data. Hard numbers are used to do this which was not possible a few years ago. According to a survey, about 60% of the marketing professionals will now lay attention on cross-device credit in 2017. It is immense knowledge to understand how advertising dollars promote sales result. Now there is clarity that people never experienced before.

But the fact is that storytelling and branding matter a lot and CMO need not hold data science degrees. But they must be aware of the latest marketing technology and how it gives way to new marketing requirements. There are a lot of things like considering signals of audience, event-based performance and to keep a balance within the company. A CMO who still holds conventional thoughts must hire data scientists for analytical thinking which most CMO’s lack.

Sometimes organizations do not have in-house experts for adequate planning; in that case CMOs must get partners who can offer those services. This is a must while working on latest technology, delivery channels and data sources. Now instead of hiring a conventional media house, CMOs can utilize campaign goals analysis, past performance and ROI to select agency or might choose to directly work with mar-tech vendors.
This empowerment through data and technology can be awe-inspiring and the CMO domain will witness a positive change. Few years ago the brands did not possess deep understanding about the media partners, affiliates and agencies, what they work on behalf of brands. Direct access to knowledge and transparency was much needed to attain clarity in results. The CMOs do not execute the entire campaign component themselves but they know everything about the budget.

In years to come there will be more CMOs coming form the management advisory backgrounds. Brands are looking for leadership that unites quantitative analysis and strategy. These candidates are far more experienced there fore there would be more expectations from CMOs and the whole marketing team. Brand leaders must quickly get ready to accept the revolution.