Advent of the Intelligence-Powered Marketing Era

Global marketing organizations are under pressure to become intensely technology, mobility, and connectivity driven. And, more importantly, security sensitive when it comes to protecting customer privacy, data, brand assets and marketing supply chains. This is placing a real burden on chief marketers to stay abreast of the latest marketing technology innovations and become more adept at evaluating, sourcing and implementing new applications that are relevant, usable and valued.

Deploying new platforms and solutions that massively scale and personalize the customer interface and bring new efficiency and effectiveness to multi-channel campaigns, CMOs are drawing on analytics and insights to make faster, better and more impactful decisions. CMOs are fast-becoming devotees and disciples of Big Data. Particularly, in the interactions with C-level peers.

Top-line revenue growth -- the CMO’s number one deliverable -- is increasingly tied to essential IT-powered processes and capabilities. These include customer data integration and analytics, prospect profiling and intelligence gathering, online market engagement and relationship management, sourcing and qualification of leads, conditioning and conversion of opportunities, and ongoing handling and retention of valued accounts.

Better use of real-time transactional and behavioral data is allowing CMOs to be more clinical and effective in their approach to segmenting, targeting and accessing critical audiences. Database infrastructures are increasingly being tapped for valuable personalization and one-to-one marketing campaigns, as well as customer revenue optimization programs. The advent of ubiquitous, interactive digital connectivity and AI-lubricated Chat Commerce channels is opening up new worlds of customer monetization, always-on assistance, and individualized engagement.

Today’s Strategic Imperative

Generative AI represents a new era in computing that promises to transform not only marketing as a discipline, but also the role of the CMO itself. In this Intelligence-Powered Era of Marketing, the Modern CMO must lead a profound shift—driving profitable growth through advanced AI and data-driven strategies. However, many CMOs are finding it difficult to meet these rising expectations.

The emerging Intelligence-Powered Marketing Era is changing how organizations view the role of the “chief market officer” and growth leader. CMOs now find themselves at a crossroads, where success is measured less by brand stewardship—and more by their ability to drive profitable growth. According to research by the CMO Council, over half of marketing leaders (54%) are now expected to deliver on revenue growth, with a similar percentage (51%) being held accountable for operational efficiencies.