Who Really Drives Growth, The CMO or the CGO?

My journey into marketing started in operations, and then into general management, back in the day I moved up the corporate ladder because I was seen as someone who 'made things happen'. 

I was one of those irritating guys who didn't just see a brick wall and stare at it, I looked at all the possibilities available for me and my team to go around it, and along the way we helped to 'transform' the companies we worked with, and for.

Without getting to deep into what growth marketing is all about the above really summarises how we do what what we do, and why we do it. 

We are people who like to see the bigger picture, we've had exposure, and gained experience across all aspects of an enterprise, and different sectors, and we all have an endless enquiring mind. 

We simply want to get our message across ahead of any competitor, we are the people whose role it is to 'motivate' not just our internal teams, but to motivate our existing, and potential customers into looking at us before they look elsewhere.

We are the people who look to see how others can disrupt what we do, way ahead of that disruption taking place, and seek to align the business in that thinking. The business world is made of some really bright, innovative 'Change Makers', we all know who they are, I've worked with some really great ones. 

And then there's a lot of other people we look at and say to ourselves 'how the f*@# did you get that job', if we're honest we've all come across those kind of people from time to time, and quite frankly they've probably cost you, me, and the company an awful lot of opportunities?

When it comes to 'social media' I constantly have a similar impression when I talk to C-Suite Executives, who for some odd reason have disconnected themselves from what should be a board level strategy to something that's nothing other than a bunch of unrelated tactics managed by the bright young millennial in marketing, or handed to the agency. 

If your the Logistics and Operations Director for example, you don't simply say to the operations team we need to shift 'x' number of boxes this week, or if your the Customer Services Director, your brief to the team isn't we need to answer 'y' number of calls this week, if your the CTO you don't say to the development team 'I know, lets come up with something to develop each week', or do you?

You all have an aligned strategic framework that's supposed to ensure the business doesn't become just functionally efficient, as members of the C-Suite it needs to move as one in order to achieve the enterprises commercial objectives - I would hope?

So why, do we see time after time social media being a place where random acts of 'post', adverts, and promotions take place, why is no one looking at engagement, why is no -one asking whats the ROI for all this stuff we seem to be doing?

In my experience its because its all tactically driven, its just tactics over strategy, and secretly you, your CMO, and your agency really don't know how to measure it, so your there because of FOMO.

I would call out any business today to articulate what their 'social media' strategy is, are they hitting their KPI's, how is it being reported into the business, how often, and if its outsourced to an agency, why?

Guys, this is business 101 and you're missing it big time. We are genuinely struggling to evidence that you even have a customer persona in play, so how is that agency, or millennial going to know if they're doing the right job or not?.

The reality is very few businesses can't answer those questions because they still think its about transferring the 'advertise and promote' mentality into what is a 'social' channel'.

Effective utilisation of a Social Media strategy is one of the biggest 'Superpowers' you can bestow on your company and employees, its effectiveness is delivered by trained internal experts empowered with the key skill sets, it can provide true transformation, reduce marketing and customer recruitment cost, it can afford you with insights from your consumers in a way unheard of before - You just need to turn on that 'Superpower' and start to listen.

The role of the CMO is forever in a state of flux, to adapt we must be open to the forces that are shaping the digital world we and our customers operate in today.

The changing metrics required to support omni-channel organisations has meant that the traditional Marketing Director role is now outdated, some might say redundant.

The need to become deeply embedded in the entire business enterprise operating more as a ‘Chief Change Maker’ has created the requirement for a number of unique skills to sit alongside all business touch-points.

According to a recent report by Forrester, 88% of organizations agree that the role of the CMO has changed in the last couple of years, and will continue to change over the next two years. Today the pressure on the traditional CMO is changing due to the rapid developments, and adoption by the consumer, not of devices or other forms of technology, but social interactions. 

For the many CMO laggards who continue to use social media as a place to continue with the 'intrusive advertise and promote' thinking that's served them in fraudulent ad tech land are rapidly finding themselves, and their organisations being turned off by the digitally savvy, socially connected consumer.

Social media platform use has now reached a global audience of 3.5 Billion as at July 2019, and with ad fraud taking between 50% - 70% of the marketing budget, Ad blocking providing a brick wall for those intrusive ads, and GDPR creating a data maze for organisations to navigate, just how do they stay in the role, and relevant to the company?

The innovative and growth mindset CMO must be open to understand how to best use Social Media and unleash all its 'Superpowers' to assist in business transformation, and achieve those ambitious growth targets.

Is today's CMO seen as a 'safe' pair of hands to move the brand message along, but not to be diverted with disrupting what the brand has already done, what it stands for, or is it something else?

To achieve business success, CMOs must adjust their mindset and working practices to achieve a more collaborative role. The priority of the CMO going forward must be to enable all departments in the organization to work together and with external partners to build a customer-centric culture. Only by doing this can they meet both the marketing needs of the business and the needs of the customer, and stay relevant in today’s marketing landscape. 'Michael Brenner'

Is the new role of a CGO (Chief Growth Officer) being designed to move innovation and internal disruption along whilst the CMO simply keeps the marketing lights on?