Nine-in-ten CMOs disappointed by increasingly tech-centric role
Chief marketing officers have been left unfulfilled by their roles, as the endless churn of technological change transforms their work into a technology career. A new poll from Intermedia Global suggests more than nine-in-ten would have chosen a different path if they had known how technology centric their role would be.
The dominant values of the economy are seldom concerned with art, or creativity. So, if a designer, editor, director, or other aspiring creative has trouble finding one of the few well-paid niches in their chosen field, they might think that marketing is one field where it still pays to be inventive.
According to a new survey from Intermedia Global (IMG), however, that seldom proves to be the case. Canvassing more than 250 chief marketing officers (the c-suite professionals with responsibility for marketing and marketing technology) at firms with annual revenues between £100 million and £500 million, the researchers found many seemed to regret where they had ended up.
Around 92% of the polled CMOs said that they would have chosen another career, if they knew how tech-heavy the job would be. At the same time, this rose to 100% among CMOs who had been in their role between three and six years – suggesting the industry is at risk of losing its most experienced leaders to operational burnout.
How might organisations avoid that? The study also highlighted that on average, 45% of the marketing team now has a largely or completely tech-facing role dealing with the organisation’s martech stack. And according to Karla Wentworth, CSO of IMG, that can be a truly hellish proposition for those unprepared.
Burning out
She explained, “With more than 15,000 different tools now available to marketers, including the addition of AI platforms in recent years, technology has become so confusing and complex that it’s no wonder it’s taking up all the marketing team’s time. Does tool A talk to tool B? Can a creaking legacy tech stack handle sophisticated AI functionality? Whose job is it to fix it when something goes wrong? Does each country or region within the business have its own martech stack?... It’s no wonder that CMOs burn out and keep moving roles. They’re crying out for help in dealing with their tech so they can actually do marketing again.”
The CMO is the most likely role to have responsibility for the martech stack, even over the CFO or the CIO/CTO. In fact, almost twice as likely – in 35% of organisations it’s down to the head of marketing, ahead of 19% where the stack ‘belongs’ to the head of finance. In only 18% is it the head of IT’s job.
But while martech might be important for the wider business, because it’s the technology that customers see in action, placing it under the CMO’s purview can be self-defeating in the long run. While some CMOs might be tech experts, many aren’t – and according to Wentworth, “even those who are experts need free time to focus on marketing strategy.”
She concluded, “No-one got into marketing because they wanted to work in tech support. And yet, that’s where we are now. The martech stack is king, and creativity and corporate strategy are in second place at best… Thanks to the profusion of martech, marketing departments now often have more tech experts than actual marketers. That’s not exactly conducive to great creative campaigns that seize the imaginations and emotions of audiences.”
