Company CMOs are embracing the post-optimisation era with brands investing heavily in digital, a recent survey shows.
Isobar’s recent “Creative Experience: The evolution of CX” survey showed about 79 per cent of CMOs believe they must transform, not just optimise, their businesses through digital technologies.
Brands have invested heavily in digital, according to the survey, but it’s clear that it is yet to deliver fully on its promise.
About 80 per cent of CMOs say they will need to take more responsibility for product and service innovation over the next two to three years.
The survey shows, however, that there is still some way to go before CMOs are leading more radical change across the organisation as leading disruptive innovation and delivering business transformation are ranked lowest by CMOs among the roles for marketing for a second year running.
“There is a gulf between what is believed to be important and current capability,” the survey indicated. “Eighty-five per cent identify big, creative ideas that build brand and emotional connections as critical to future success.”
Only 54 per cent believe they are delivering these capabilities well today.
According to Isobar’s survey, a number of factors explain why brands have yet to make digital transformation real, it includes accountability metrics, the demise of strategy, under-investment, overlooking the human factor and focusing on short-term ROI.
CMOs need to operate across multiple timelines to position brands for long-term, sustainable growth and survey shows the number one barrier to transformation is a lack of long-term investment.
Study shows CMOs need to ensure their organisations are effective in the use of data both to extract insight today and predict consumer behaviour tomorrow but only around half, 54 per cent, of CMOs believe more consumer data is available, but it’s become harder to extract insight.
A similar proportion say they don’t have the capabilities (e.g. people, technology) to maximise data’s value. About three-quarters of CMOs believe that associating their brand with a social purpose will be important to engaging consumers in the future.
Nearly half of CMOs believe that in the next two to three years, consumer expectations will reach a point where they struggle to deliver on them.
“Consumers have more information, more choice and more power to define a brand than ever before,” the survey showed. “Social media has brought scrutiny at scale, while consumer expectations rise and loyalty becomes a quaint concept.”
Isobar stated pivoting to the future means combining the best of all the tools at our disposal.
Jean Lin, Isobar Global CEO, said the study, which surveyed 1000 CMOs across 10 markets Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, defines creative experience — how the intersection of data, creativity and technology — will lead the future transformation of businesses and brands through experience.
