15 CMO's say what's on their mind for digital marketing in 2013

 

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half,” said department store magnet, John Wanamaker, in 1902.
The statement is as relevant today as over 100 years ago only to more media channels. Because, according to 2012 State of Marketing report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 27% said TV was the most impactful medium where 44% said search was the superior vehicle.
The report also said executives were particularly enthused by search and social media but not satisfied with their current digital marketing performance. Roughly 50% said digital strategy was one of the most important challenges for the the New Year.
What else do they say? Is it the same as John? Here what 15 CMO’s say is on their mind for digital marketing in 2013.

1. Cloud computing will merge with big data and dashboard tools into something that truly offers marketers a more holistic view of all their consumer touch points. – Lisa Archambault, Manager, Display Marketing, Zappos Development, Inc.
2. More companies will start to address the challenge of integrating digital platforms into their overall customer experience. – Mike Ashton, Managing Director ABCG
3. B2B commerce is going to be a trend in 2013 because direct-to-business sellers are realizing that there’s a huge opportunity to meet the business buyer’s consumer sensibilities and are leveraging some of the best practices acquired from the B2C world. – Sean Cook, CEO, Shop Visible
4. Few businesses have yet to embrace the power of video. Video offers greater retention and up to five times greater recall than print, according to TubeMogul. – Stacey Coopes, CEO, Ford Direct
5. I think we’ll see a tighter link between sales and marketing systems, which will lead to a bigger focus on personalized experiences for both inbound and outbound marketing. – Eduardo Conrado, Chief Marketing Officer, Motorala
6. Thanks to digital marketing, marketers are flooded with highly accountable data of online behavior. Conversion data is all tracked accurately, just waiting for ROI calculations. – Gabe Delporta, CMO, Lending Tree
7. I fully expect the joint industry effort Making Measurement Make Sense to establish the digital Gross Ratings Point (GRP) as the prevailing metric for premium digital media transactions. – Patrick Dolan, EVP and COO, IAB
8. It’s less about technology and more about content, messaging and integration into a marketing-communications campaign. – Susan Helstab, VP-Marketing, Four Season
9. CIOs and CMOs need to work together on major initiatives like a master data management strategy, social media, and building these systems of engagement so we can reach customers through the channel or device of their choice. CIOs and CMOs will be the co-designers of their company’s total customer experience. – Jon Iwate, SVP, Marketing and Communication – IBM
10. Relevance of message is clearly better achieved through digital and social, as well as the ability to have a conversation. … [You] can have folks give you immediate feedback”. – Alfredo Martell, Senior VP, Marketing and Product Management, Caribou Coffee
11. CMO’s are charging into Big Data. Data and web analytics are going to be big hiring priorities for marketing departments,”  “It’s a directive from the top. The CEO is saying to the CMO, ‘Listen, customer preference is controlling the switch, so come to me with accurate measurement, give me visibility into the marketing spend.” – Liz Miller, VP of the CMO Council
12. In the coming year, successful CMOs will figure out how to reintegrate great brand storytelling (a priority of old) with innovative analytical marketing to provide an emotional connection that resonates with consumers who are becoming increasingly immune to sharper-edged analytical marketing tactics, like retargeting and couponing. – Deborah Op den Kamp, Executive Director, CMO, and Digital Consumer Practices, Russell Reynolds Associates
13. This concept of social, local, mobile — SoLoMo, as we like to say — I think becomes a tool not only for us to get our point across from a marketing standpoint but for a lot of our vendors who are our best partners to get their point across.” – Stephen Quinn, CMO, Walmart
14. Dollars follow eyeballs online. IAB reported a 23% year-over-year increase in online spending for the first quarter. We are experiencing the continuing trend of consumers wanting to live online, not just transact online. – Josh Shatkin-Margolis, CEO, Magnet
15. We don’t believe in digital marketing. We believe in marketing in a digital world, and there’s a huge difference.” – Clive Sirkin, Senior Vice President, Kimberly-Clark

Like these CMO’s, if digital marketing is one of your most important challenges in 2013, you might want to consider Biznology Jumpstart Workshops. If you’re like 44% of CMO’s who believe search marketing is a superior vehicle, there’s On-Site Search Marketing Training available now to jumpstart your business early rather than later in the coming year.
Are the challenges these CMO’s are facing similar to those at your company? What would be John Wanamaker’s biggest challenge if he was still with us, today?