Transparency In Marketing: 3 Steps That CMOs Can Start Today

CMOs from the Fortune 500 and some of the largest private companies all seem to agree: Transparency, Talent, and Marketing Excellence need to be a major focus.

As an advocate for this over the last 10 years, I am excited about the visibility. So, I started to think about how my team and I can help. What can each of us do to help drive the changes needed?

Who is demanding transparency and marketing excellence?

CMOs demanding transparency include heavy weights like Marc Pritchard at P&G, Keith Weed at Unilever, Alison Lewis at Johnson & Johnson, and Kristin Lemkau at JPMorgan Chase.

Now, 30 CMOs have joined together on a new initiative to further the marketing industry as a whole, especially as it relates to talent (more from Nadine Dietz in her write up here).

3 Steps to better transparency and marketing excellence

After some serious consideration, we came up with 3 steps any enterprise can take in relatively short order. And, we have already given 79 companies a head start in achieving more transparency. We believe these simple steps will save professionals at big companies significant time, reduce headaches, improve the on-boarding experience, produce higher quality work, and much more.

What follows are 3 steps, they are not meant to be comprehensive, but I feel are the easiest steps any CMO can take to help their company achieve more in a relatively short amount of time.

Let us know if we might be on to something. I would personally love to hear from you.

Step 1: Know your roster of agencies. They are part of your extended talent pool.

It is no secret that most major brands rely on marketing agencies and design firms to make a lot of magic happen. But, most people do not have easy access to their roster of agency.

For 79 top companies, from Disney to Unilever, the Agency Spotter team has started this process for you with Brand Pages (go see if your company is included). Want something more comprehensive and sophisticated across your enterprise? Let's talk.

Step 2: Empower your people. Make it easy for your teams to identify which agency partners are the best at each competency across your business.

Make your talent happy with a much easier to navigate internal landscape. If I know there are 10 agencies who are the best at shopper marketing for The Coca-Cola Company, it makes my life easier and I don't have to go beg for time from the internal shopper marketing leadership just to understand the universe of talent.

Step 3: Bring your agencies and the work to life internally.

How do you even know what agencies have done for you this year, let alone look back at successes year over year? Imagine the time and energy we could be saving. How easy would on-boarding new talent be if they could look and see what campaigns and initiatives had been done by whom?

What if you could talk to the people who did the work either internally or at the agency?

What do you think? Is knowing your roster of agencies, bringing it to life, and making it easy to navigate an important part of the future of marketing excellence and transparency? Will it help with talent retention, acquisition, and on-boarding?

Interested? Want to make something happen? Let's talk.

Not sure? I invite you to learn more about the Brand Pages Agency Spotter launched, see all 79 of them, and let us know if we can help take things further inside your enterprise.