MediaPost
Blake Cahill, global head of digital and social marketing at Philips, manages more than 70 marketing technologies.
He is one of a growing number of marketing heads becoming inundated with technology as media silos crumble and data integrates to support cross-channel and cross-device marketing and advertising.
“Just in the customer relationship management sector, we have three or four major pieces of technology, and then underneath another three or four to manage the customer data,” Cahill said. “In the social space, we have about seven or eight pieces of technology to help with social listening, publishing, and analytics.”
Cahill is looking at technology investments to better automate media decisions and ecommerce, because as the company builds more Internet-connected products, consumers will purchase service contracts from the brand, rather than third parties like Amazon. He is also looking at adding technology around affiliate and media marketing as it relates to the triangle between search engine optimization, social optimization, and ad-serving.
For years, Gartner has been touting the majority shift in spend on technology from CIOs to CMOs. Cahill references the research firm’s forecast, which suggests that within the next few years, marketing will see CMOs spend more on new digital technology than CIOs. Not at Philips, he said, admitting that it depends on the company.
“It may be true if you’re a start-up like Uber and the model is built around marketing and customer engagement, but if you’re a larger company with an established infrastructure, the statement isn’t necessarily true,” Cahill said. “Marketing departments are making massive investments in technology to drive customer relationships and media.”
Gartner estimates that the average B2C relies on more than 50 applications and technologies to support marketing. By 2018, CIOs who build strong relationships with CMOs will drive a 25% improvement in return on marketing technology investment.
