The New Digital Marketing Playbook

As part of the Association of National Advertisers’ Global Day of Learning, marketers across the globe are taking a beat today to pause, reflect, and reboot for growth. We learned a lot about consumers, trending markets, and the imperative for accelerated change over the past 16 months. We know that modern business is digital business. That’s a reality that will outlive the pandemic now that consumers have adapted under extraordinary circumstances to expect digital, everywhere.

This is no longer just the problem of the CMO; in a world where marketing is the engine of growth, modern CEOs can use digital tools to succeed. Here are four trends in marketing every CEO needs to grapple with:

Connected Creativity Performs. Lowest common denominator storytelling is the unfortunate norm for most businesses today, a negative externality of the (rightful) swing into data-driven marketing. A classic example of science and art mixing poorly. At the same time, every business is vying for attention in an economy with barely any left to give, so getting the right experience to the right consumer at the right time is the key. It’s elevated creativity – in marketing, in products, in experiences – that moves the needle for the modern consumer. When you harmonize art and science across your business, finding the meeting point between “brand” and “performance,” you win. Put another way: creative ideas connected by data and technology drive more effective results for business.

Digital Transformation Can Turn Your Diaper Brand Into a Coke. Businesses must become digital-first to maximize growth potential, rethinking their products & services, reprioritizing their marketing touchpoints and communications, and remaking their organizations to connect the entire enterprise. In today’s world, you’re either a soda or a diaper brand – a product or service relevant to (and marketable to) everyone, or one with a niche audience. If you’re a soda brand, traditional creative and investment makes sense, but if you’re a diaper, you’ve got to make the most out of the new digital marketing playbook to drive results. Brands that have stepped up their e-commerce infrastructure to “connected commerce” illustrate well how digitally connected enterprises can impact results.

Let the Cookie Crumble – First Party’s the Dish to Covet. Sure, Google threw the world a bone when it postponed the death of the third-party cookie, but don’t become complacent because of the extended deadline. Track how the market fractures around rising identifiers as any good strategist should do, but start with one question: what is your organization’s strategy for acquiring and unifying first party consumer data? Some draw on massive universes of content, a la big publishers. Other retool their marketing touchpoints to capture fresh, consented data. Whatever the case – businesses need scalable data solutions that integrate easily, the fate of the third-party cookie be damned.

Siloed? Oh no. Just as digital collapses conventional marketing channels, it should collapse conventional lanes of expertise at the board table. Emerging technology shouldn’t just be the province of your CTO, as understanding how innovations like AR and VR will reshape consumer experiences can drive proactive investment. By the same token, customer-centricity isn’t just a playbook for the CMO; it’s the recipe for modern growth. And CIOs hold the keys to plugging data, performatively, through the entire stack. Fragmentation is the greatest inhibitor to growth. Connecting talent and collapsing silos fuels better innovation across the business.