SALES OVER NIGHT, BRAND OVER TIME
CMO Confidential
The Marketing Podcast for those looking to navigate the ever-changing waters of marketing the C-Suite and the board room
CMO Confidential Newsletter: Week of Oct 14th
Top 5 Insights from Tom Goodwin on CMO Confidential
In this week’s episode of CMO Confidential, host Mike Linton sits down with Tom Goodwin, author, speaker, and former Head of Innovation at Publicis, Zenith, and Havas. Tom shares his thought-provoking views on digital advertising, AI, and marketing's future. Here are the top five insights:
1. The Line Between AI Hype and Reality: Proceed with Caution
Tom points out a potential over-hype regarding what AI can actually accomplish in business today, especially generative AI. His opinion is that the technology is both profound and deeply misunderstood and explains it this way: "Generative AI is amazingly good at things that people don’t think it’ll be good at, and amazingly bad at things people presume it would find easy."? Specifically, AI can automate mundane tasks like translating instruction manuals, which would be hard for many humans, but remains unreliable for critical decisions like ad production where basic human judgment is required.? His advice is that Marketers should experiment but be wary of using AI where business and consumer choices are less structured.
2. Digital Attribution: More of Your Budget is Wasted Than You Think
Tom is highly critical of the obsession with marketing attribution, especially as it pertains to performance marketing. He challenges the “precision playbook” which uses clicks, conversion, ROI, and ratios like customer acquisition cost as the standards for success.? These measures look hyper-efficient since they assume the “last ad” is the primary impetus for the actual purchase. Tom argues that as much as "80% of this money is wasted, because we’ve become obsessed with precision rather than brand-building" since most of these purchases are driven by other efforts which occurred well before the actual sale. He compares this to “advertising beer in a pub” and claiming that the “in-pub” advertising was the sole driver of the beers sold. Tom believes this narrow focus on short-term metrics diminishes the long-term sales drivers which in this case would include the reputation of the pub, advertising outside of the pub, and promotions.?
3. Why Brand Building Matters: New Tools Are Still Driven by Old Principles
The digital age has ushered in an almost unimaginable set of new ways to reach customers.? Tom argues that while this is true, the fundamental principles of marketing remain unchanged and may become even more important as AI usage increases. He states, "In order for AI to render your products as a solution, your brand still needs to be written about a lot, and for that, you still need media and brand awareness." True brand power, which is driven by share of mind (especially the AI mind), product differentiation, innovation, and value may be even more critical in an age where consumers can compare choices at the touch of a button.
4. The ROI Illusion: Just Because it Can’t be Measured, Doesn’t Mean it Doesn’t Work
Tom calls out the fact that the impact of many things that matter can’t be measured including fresh flowers at a 5-star hotel, the service at a great restaurant, and an elegant design. He believes that an overemphasis on ROI can lead marketers to minimize these unmeasurable elements while claiming success for things that would have happened regardless of their efforts. An example is a Restoration Hardware case study, where the top-performing keywords were brand name misspellings. "They were spending money on something that was going to happen anyway.” Tom argues that the harder-to-measure marketing elements that drive consumer emotional connections and build trust shouldn’t be sacrificed due to perceived low ROI.?
5. Why Marketers Should Also Be Good Writers
Tom believes that clear, concise writing is an undervalued business skill. "Writing is the art of thinking," he says.? While noting that the rise of generative AI has diminished the importance of well-crafted communication, he points out that good writing helps marketers sharpen their ideas and express them effectively to both consumers and stakeholders. He adds that many marketers have lost the ability to communicate directly and efficiently which has an impact on outcomes.? "The number of people that want to 'get a coffee to maximize synergies' is staggering. Just get to the point."
WHAT YOU SHOULD READ OVER THE WEEKEND:
The Future of Leadership: Humanistic and Data-Driven Harvard Business Review explores how the future of leadership is balancing data-driven decisions with empathy and human-centric approaches, essential in today’s hybrid and digital work environments.
Marketing budget growth stalls for first time in over three years
Leading with Purpose in Marketing and Sales This McKinsey article discusses how businesses can navigate crises with purpose-driven leadership, operational optimization, and resilience.
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Joyce Kim - CMO, Z Scaler
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Zonal Head (Sr AGM) - West at Sundaram Home Finance Limited
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