Interviews

“Marketing infrastructure.” Not too many years ago, that might have been nominated as an oxymoron, right up there with a deafening silence, sweet sorrow, and jumbo shrimp. But now, that’s where some of the most interesting developments in marketing are happening. Marketing operations is on the rise. Process is “the new black” in data-driven marketing. Even social media marketing, when it’s tackled at scale, is in many ways an infrastructure challenge. It’s one thing when …

Conquering the challenges of social media at scale Continue Reading »

There are generally two audiences for my blog: (1) CMOs and marketing executives, who want to understand how technology fits into the bigger marketing picture; and (2) marketing technologists, who know the technology and appreciate a site dedicated to their art. Every now and again, however, I connect with someone who is both a CMO and a marketing technologist. Such is the case with David Newberry, the Group Marketing Officer of Pitney Bowes Software. My …

When a marketing technologist is also the CMO Continue Reading »

In the upper right of Gartner’s latest magic quadrant analysis of web content management (WCM) providers — in the top of the “leaders” quadrant — there are three companies: Adobe, SDL, and Sitecore. If you’re an enterprise marketing department looking for a web platform, odds are you’re talking with one or all of these vendors. What’s interesting, however, is that if you’re thinking about a broader marketing technology backbone for your company — something that …

Beyond the technology, the art of customer experience Continue Reading »

I first met Brian Kardon a couple of years ago, when he was the CMO of Eloqua. He was one of the early advocates for this blog, and he provided a lot of encouragement on the emergence of this new breed of “marketing technologists” that they were seeing appear among many of their customers. When we first met for coffee, I remember him asking me what my hobbies were. I replied that this blog was …

Haves vs. have-nots in marketing/sales alignment Continue Reading »

Marketing technology management can look straightforward on paper, when analysts and pundit-bloggers such as myself draw simplified diagrams of new organizational structures with a few quick brushstrokes. But the real work of implementing these organizational changes for “the new marketing” — and the cultural shifts entangled in that mission — especially at a major Fortune 500 company is considerably more complicated. I have tremendous respect for the people tackling that. Therefore, it was my pleasure …

Balancing marketing technology and IT at a Fortune 500 firm Continue Reading »

There are few companies that are witness to The Great Digital Transformation of the world at the scale of IBM. And as that transformation overtakes the marketing department — an epic collision of cultures like no other in the history of business — I envy the court-side seats they have seeing this play out across many different organizations, in many different industries, all around the globe. So I was excited by the opportunity to interview …

CMOs must become systems thinkers and culture champions Continue Reading »