Executive Connections LLC

Connecting organizations with the future of marketing

Ask Our Coach

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Branding Yourself Online, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Personal Branding, Recommended Articles

Career Path Insights

Is Career Jumping Different Now From In The Past? Is It More Or Less Common?

Career jumping is definitely the “new normal” and it’s the result of several factors. First, the rapid global transition to a digital- and mobile-first economy has created enormous opportunities for technology-savvy and analytical/quantitative young professionals to join or start new businesses (i.e., Google, Facebook, Amazon) with rapid growth and significant wealth creation possibilities. Additionally, many legacy industry sectors (i.e., print, media, CPG, retail) are experiencing consolidations which eliminates traditional career path growth opportunities within the same company and forces career change.

How Can Someone Know They Are Truly Ready For A Career Change?

You know you are ready for a career change if any of the following conditions are present: (a) you no longer believe in the vision/mission of your company/organization; (b) you no longer respect your direct boss (and/or the company leader); (c) you are not growing/developing new skills in the role; (d) you are not feeling challenged by the path in front of you. We are seeing less loyalty today in both directions. Companies are less loyal to employees and routinely make cutbacks (in both good times and bad) as a result of increased efficiencies. Likewise, today’s employees are less loyal to their companies than previous generations, and it has become more readily acceptable that each individual will shift jobs/career several times over the course of their work life.

For the complete article by Melissa Batchelor Warnke…

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Connections E-Zine, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 79

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion: Life Expectancy of CMOs Is Increasing
  • Spotlight On: Lia Sagerman – 2015 EC Rising Star
  • Invitation:  Marketing EDGE 2015 “Rising Stars” Award Dinner
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Social Media Strategist – NEW
    • CMO, Customer & Digital Marketing – NEW
    • Digital Strategist – Senior Manager – NEW
    • Digital Strategist – Manager – NEW
    • Social Senior Manager and Account Lead
    • Manager, Social Media
    • Director, Insights and Strategy

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Life Expectancy of CMOs Is Increasing

Jane Odell at Chief Marketer magazine just reported “Good news for the CMO: life expectancy in your job continues to climb, according to new data from Spencer Stuart, who analyzed the tenure of CMOs for the top 100 US advertised brands.”

We recall as recently as 3-4 years ago CMO tenure was less than 2 years according to Spencer Stuart. Since that time, CMO tenure has doubled and a recent report from Forrester Research projects this year average CMO tenure would reach 60 months (that’s 5 years).

One key reason according to Odell is CEOs are relying more heavily on CMOs for critical advice in the fast changing world of marketing. We agree, and would add, there is a new crop of digitally-savvy, data-driven marketers who have become the “new breed” of CMOs. With marketing tipping toward a digital- and mobile-first axis, digitally-deficient CMOs need not apply.

If you are a CMO, what’s your current and expected tenure? If you are a CEO, how well advised do you feel by your CMO on the digital marketing transformation path? If you are on a career path trajectory to a CMO role, are you learning the new data, digital, mobile, and social media marketing skills to be relevant in the new digital marketing eco-system?

As always, we welcome your comments and input.

Jeff and Lola

 Spotlight On

Lia Sagerman – EC 2015 Rising Star

Lia headshotWe would like to introduce Lia Sagerman, EC’s 2015 Rising Star.  Lia is an exceptional candidate with strong leadership skills.  We first spotted Lia in 2013 when she led the Tufts Women’s Varsity Field Hockey team (as Captain) to the NCAA National Championship.  Next, while completing her Masters degree in Education over the next two years at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, Lia worked as a teacher in a highly regarded “Teach for America” program, creating innovative strategies to improve student success.

Lia is now interested to leverage her undergraduate degree (B.A., Psychology from Tufts) and begin her business career in NYC in a marketing or strategy role.

Lia has already been to NYC in March and interviewed with a number of EC clients.  Her next visit will be in May 2015…and she will be available for a full-time position in NYC on August 1, 2015.

We highly recommend you meet and speak with Lia on her next visit.  You will not be disappointed.

Please contact Jeff Gundersen directly, if you have any questions or would like to meet Lia Sagerman.

Invitation

Join Me At Marketing EDGE 2015 “Rising Stars” Dinner
in NYC on Tuesday, June 8, 2015RSA15-banner-linkedin

As many of you know, I am a Board Trustee of Marketing EDGE, a non-profit organization with the mission to Educate, Develop, Grow, and Employ the next generation of marketing leaders.

Marketing EDGE provides many training and employment programs for college students including Collegiate ECHO Awards, Scholarships, Student Career Forums, One Week Immersion programs (I-MIX – Interactive Marketing Immersion Experience; I-MAX – Interactive Marketing Analytics Experience), Next Generation Leaders, Summer Internships, and Entry-level marketing positions.

Marketing EDGE also provides programs for educators in over 100+ colleges and universities nationwide including Professors’ Academy, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Research Summit, Professor’s Institute, and Collegiate ECHO Challenge.

Marketing EDGE sponsors and corporate partners include Brierley & Partners, Direct TV, Epsilon, Executive Connections LLC, Facebook, Google, Gerber Life, Guthy Renker, IBM, Javelin, KBM Group, Ogilvy & Mather, Merkle, Microsoft and Twitter, among others.

Please join 350-400 senior level digital and direct marketers for an exciting evening on June 8, 2015 when we will be honoring 6 of the best and brightest marketing “Rising Stars” under 40YO.

Link to MarketingEdge event…

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies including a Global HR Professional Services firm, a Global Financial Services firm and a Global Digital Consulting firm.  Please take a moment to click on a link and see the complete position description:

Learn more…

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing

What Does It Take To Be A Winning CMO?

It has been well-publicized that CMO tenure is one of the shortest life spans among C-level executives. With the rate of change accelerating, and many categories reaching a mature, slower growth stage, how do CMOs transition from “survive to thrive” mode. Here are some key insights to consider.

Listening to CMOs recently during Advertising Week NYC XI, it became clear the issues keeping CMOs up at night include (1) keeping up with the pace of (consumers) changing behaviors; (2) the rapid transition of marketing to digital and mobile channels; (3) required investments in new marketing technologies; (4) delivering exceptional customer experience in an omni-channel world; and (5) finding the new (organization) talent required…the needs are significant and expensive.

Dana Anderson, new CMO at Mondelez, stated these are the “new marketing basics”…requiring transparency, openness to collaboration internally, and listening to everyone’s POV to develop and deliver integrated solutions. Brian Jones, CMO at Dell, added “it’s about the right organization structure…and the skills required are changing…including consideration of “build vs. buy” options, and also a realignment of the right agencies/partners. Lisa Cochrane, SVP Marketing at Allstate, added “change is happening faster so it’s essential to be nimble to stay on top of priorities including improving customer experience, launching new products and acquiring new marketing technologies.”

Each CMO indicated their company presently spends between 25-30% of their marketing budgets in digital…and all expect this to grow to more than 50% within 5 years. Accenture Digital just published their 2014 global CMO survey of over 550 senior marketers in 11 countries and spanning 10 industries…and 37% of participants projected digital would represent 75%+ and mobile 50%+ of marketing budgets within 5 years. So this underscores the rapid pace of change and certainly confirms digital marketing will become the dominant channel shortly.

So how do you become a “winning CMO” in the face of these rapid digital changes?

Here are 5 key steps according to Accenture Digital:

  1. Lead and transform the marketing role as a digital perspective transforms the enterprise.
  2. Embrace the full omni-channel customer experience.
  3. Integrate channels with real-time analytics and then act on the insights.
  4. Invest in agile technologies and cloud-based services.
  5. Re-orient the marketing operating model and integrate new talent to harness digital innovation.

Each of these 5 steps are challenging and require significant changes both within the marketing organization as well as collaboration on an enterprise-wide level. We are certainly hearing this from our CMO clients as they reshape their organizations to a digital- and mobile-first mindset, increase investments in analytics, new technologies, and new people in order to provide leadership in transforming omni-channel customer experience. Digital domain expertise is essential, however, it is becoming the “price of entry.” In all our assignments, our clients are asking for digital strategy, customer experience, and marketing talent with the leadership skills to collaborate and drive change on an enterprise-wide level influencing LOB teams as well as corporate staff functional areas.

This reminds me of previous studies we have seen, and reported upon, where the differentiator between successful and unsuccessful leaders was the ability to implement change successfully across large, matrix organizations. Strategic skills are only the starting point…60-70% of the success (or failure) of marketing programs rests in the execution. That’s why we look for tangible examples of specific measurable results produced by executives in previous assignments.

Are you a winning CMO? What areas do you need to embrace more proactively in order to lead marketing transformation most powerfully?   

Filed Under: Announcements, Ask Our Coach, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, LinkedIn, Personal Branding, Recommended Articles

Can Business Learn From Sports?

When the aging San Antonio Spurs basketball team recently defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat (reigning NBA champions), Greg Popovich (Spurs Coach) and R.C. Buford (Spurs GM) were lauded for their innovative practices in recruiting “role players” and building a “team first”, “non-star” philosophy, which enables them to conserve the energy of their aging veteran players and thoroughly outplay the Miami Heat in a one-sided NBA Finals.

Well, the Spurs have not been resting on their laurels since winning the NBA championship. In another innovative recruiting move, they recently signed Becky Hammon, a soon-to-be retiring WNBA star, as an assistant coach.

What a great example of gender diversity in the selection of Hammon to her new post.

Please read the attached CNN article which includes comments from Popovich, Buford, Hammon, and some of the players. It’s clear the Spurs considered Hammon’s basketball skills, work ethic, and interpersonal skills…and did not let gender influence their decision. It also fits the Spurs’ philosophy that Hammon was un-drafted by the WNBA in ’99 and went on to become one of the top 15 all-time players. Hammon has a history of over-delivering and exceeding the expectations of others.

This is a great step for the San Antonio Spurs, an innovation the NBA can build upon, and it sets a great example for businesses in every sector.

Read complete article…San Antonio Spurs hire Becky Hammon as assistant coach

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Digital Proficiency, Executive Talent, Personal Branding, Spotlight On

Meet The 2014 Marketing EDGE Rising Stars

As an executive search and consulting firm positioned at the cutting-edge of marketing transformation and development, we continuously stay connected to the “next generation” marketing leaders who are changing the landscape of “best practices” in customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and loyalty/advocacy. One of our favorite events to find this talent is at the annual Marketing EDGE “Rising Stars Awards Dinner” which happened  Tuesday night  June 3rd in NYC.

Not surprisingly, this year’s best and brightest under 40YO come from backgrounds focused on new technologies, international/global markets, content strategies, social networks/business, and data analytics. We are pleased to offer a summary of the 2014 award recipients:

  • Yvette Lui is Director, Global Data & Audience Partnerships at Facebook; prior to her current role, Yvette led N.A. mid-market Sales at Facebook, and earlier she spent six years at Google leading agency development and strategic partnerships for social media advertising sales. Yvette continues to mentor students at U. California Berkley where she earned her undergraduate degree.
  • Dimitri Maex is President, OgilvyOne – New York; a forward-thinking innovator, he joined Ogilvy leading the global data & analytics practice. With data being so important, it’s not surprising to see a former head of analytics rise to President – NY; Dimitri’s recent book, Sexy Little Numbers, has received widespread coverage in business and trade publications. Dimitri has a global, Eastern European cultural background, which is important given the growing emphasis of global clients on Growth Markets. Dimitri also leads several of Ogilvy’s mentoring and leadership development programs.
  • Guillermo Novillo is Head of Global Acquisition Marketing for Bing Ads at Microsoft; he has launched successful acquisition programs in over 30 global markets. Previously, Guillermo worked in marketing at Apple and earlier he founded a direct marketing agency and grew it to over 250 people. Guillermo has been a part-time marketing lecturer and teaching assistant at Espiritu Santo U. in Ecuador and U. Washington where he earned his MBA degree.
  • Carrie Parker is VP, Content Innovation at American Express Open Forum, an award-winning social business website dedicated to small business success. Carrie has excelled in several digital marketing roles and was a finalist for Amex’s Chairman’s Award. Previously, Carrie led consulting engagements for Yankelovich (Futures Company) on consumer trends and database insights; there she led “YourBuzz” a social media mentoring tool. Carrie is a frequent guest speaker at Columbia Business School, her alma mater.
  • Emily Riley is COO at Ghostery, driving the company’s marketing and database operations. Previously, she was VP, Product Marketing at Audience Science an industry-leading data management and media buying platform; earlier Emily was the most acclaimed Digital Analyst and VP, Research Director at Forrester. Emily earned her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins and she has been active in Marketing EDGE since her days at Forrester.
  • Alex Wasserman of CEO & Co-founder of TapFwd, where he is leading the development of the next generation of mobile ad technology. Alex is bringing big data to small phones enabling next generation targeting and real-time campaign optimization for mobile marketers. Previously, Alex was VP, Product & Marketing at Rapleaf (acquired by TowerData). Alex volunteers his time at several non-profits aimed at fostering entrepreneurship. Alex has also been an active mentor at Emory U. and Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern.

This is an exceptionally talented group of “Rising Stars” and you can see the impacts of Facebook and Google, leading data analytics and digital consultancies, technology, and emerging mobile marketing companies as key aspects of the professional backgrounds of next generation leaders.

We offer each of them our congratulations on their well-earned recognition as Rising Stars and can’t wait to see where their next career choices lead them.

Ask yourself, what parts of these profiles have I incorporated into my personal brand and which aspects are learning agendas for me?

 

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, New Executive Search, Recommended Articles

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 69

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion:  The Age of the Customer – Where Are Digital and Data Heading?
  • Blog Roundup:
    • Blog:  Who’s Hot In Digital?
  • Career Opportunities:
    • President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands
    •  Head of Global Corporate Communications
    • Global Marketing Technology Strategist
    • Global Head of Digital Marketing
    • Global Head of Branding & Communications
  • Event Highlight:
    • 2014 Rising Star Awards Dinner
  • Article:
    • “AARP’s Life Reimagined and Kaplan Launch LearningAdvisor to Help Millions of Americans Explore Learning Opportunities to Launch Encore Careers”

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

The Age of the Customer – Where Are Digital and Data Heading?

Where are Digital And Data Heading?
On the heels of the MMA conference last week in NYC, and Integrated Marketing Week coming up next week, we felt we should weigh in on this timely topic.

Since these are broad topics…this month we will focus on “Where is Digital Heading?” and next month we will devote a column to “Where is (Big) Data Heading?”

Digital advertising and media (including mobile) is the fastest growing segment and will surpass broadcast spending by 2018, according to a recent Price Waterhouse Coopers study. It’s clear Digital is heading to the top of the class…and the top of the advertising food chain; and accordingly, 25% of the top 100 global advertisers will have a Chief Digital Officer by 2014, as indicated by Forrester.

Who is hiring CDOs?
According to Forrester, “we have entered the ‘age of the customer’ in which the most successful enterprises will reinvent themselves to systematically understand and serve increasingly powerful customers.” This impacts B2B as well as B2C businesses.  The top three categories hiring CDOs are advertising agencies, publishers, and broadcasters, with the biggest growth seen in non-profits and state/local governments, according to the Chief Digital Officers Club.

Where should CDOs report?
Many of our clients are asking us where CDOs should report? The answer is…it depends. If their company is growing and expanding the brand which is transforming because of digital into new areas…then the CDO typically reports to the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). This is the case in 60% of CDO hires, and is trending this way as digital marketing spending is forecasted to exceed 50% by 2016. If you play this out even further over the long run, the CMO and CDO positions in these firms will be consolidated. In a second scenario, if companies are seeing technology changing their operational structure, then the CDO typically reports to the CIO, COO or another C-level executive. From our experience to-date, healthcare, insurance and CPG tend to have CDOs reporting into the CMO (examples Abbott, Wellpoint, AIG, Travelers, Nestle, Mercer/MMC). In retail, telco, banking, travel/hospitality, CDOs report to a very senior C-level exec…CIO/COO (examples AT&T, Citibank, Ralph Lauren, Time Inc.).

Where to find the Best CDOs?
We also constantly get the question “where are the best CDOs found?” Top CDOs are coming from consulting firms, digital agencies, broadcast, and digital start-ups. For example: JPM Chase (Accenture), Time Inc. (IAB), Starbucks (Corbis/Play Network), Ralph Lauren (Ticketmaster/IAC) and Weather Channel (Search3.com).

The CDO profile is a strategic, big picture thinker; committed, results-driven; entrepreneurial, innovative; and relationship builder (inside & out). Critical skills include the ability to drive culture change across the enterprise; evangelizing, helping people see the big opportunity; effective change leader who is disruptive without destroying the base values.

We recently completed a Global Head of Social Media search for one of our clients and we are about to close a search by placing a CDO at another global client.  Please connect with us if you want to become part of the growing list of top advertisers who are gearing up to modernize marketing where CDOs are a vital component.

We want to know
As always, we value and appreciate you input.  Connect with us — we want to hear your experiences and opinions.

Lola and Jeff

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent posts on our blog?

Who’s Hot In Digital?

One of the hottest, fastest-growing areas of Digital Marketing is Social Media…and the top 10 global advertisers are all investing in SM brand-building and business-building initiatives. There is a growing demand for leaders in Social Media which is morphing into a bigger platform…Social Business. Finding stellar talent in this area is challenging since Social Media is only 5-6 years old and there are not many senior-level marketers with experience driving significant change in this new field.

Robert HarlesOne of the hottest, most successful Social Media/Social Business leaders is Robert (“Rob”) Harles, the new Global Head of Social Media at AccentureDigital. Prior to joining Accenture, Rob was Global Head of Social Media at Bloomberg LP, where he influenced Bloomberg’s global viewpoint and strategy related to this new emerging marketing and media channel. For a company as conservative and private as Bloomberg to embrace Social Media/Social Business, and open up to its use and possibilities, speaks volumes for Rob’s vision and leadership abilities.        Read more…

Career Opportunities

President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands
Head of Global Corporate Communications
Global Marketing Technology Strategist
Global Head of Digital Marketing
Global Head of Branding & Communications

Learn more…

Event Highlight

Bring a Mentee…They Could be the Next Generation of Rising Stars

Please join us at this year’s 2014 Rising Stars Awards Dinner sponsored by MarketingEDGE to be held on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 583 Park Avenue, New York City.  As a Board Trustee member of MarketingEDGE, Jeff Gundersen will be attending this event.

Article

Emilio Pardo, Chief Branding Officer, has helped AARP reimagine its brand, so its fitting he was selected as President, Life Reimagined to empower AARP’s members in their career transitions at 50+. Rock on, Emilio!”

 “AARP’s Life Reimagined and Kaplan Launch LearningAdvisor to Help Millions of Americans Explore Learning Opportunities to Launch Encore Careers”

Kaplan named founding learning partner of AARP’s Life Reimagined

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AARP’s Life Reimagined has teamed up with Kaplan to create an important new online resource to help Americans find learning opportunities to enhance their current skills, realize their career aspirations, support life changes such as encore or second careers and build a better, more meaningful life.

Today, as part of the partnership, the two organizations unveiled LearningAdvisor, a suite of online resources and learning opportunities designed to help users address continuous learning issues that many Americans are facing as they explore and discover encore careers. The announcement was made at AARP’s Life@50+ National Event & Expo in Boston.

“Americans are living longer and juggling more competing responsibilities than ever before. That reality is especially true for trailing-edge Baby Boomers and members of Generation X approaching 50 who are often caring for their own parents as well as their own children while trying to manage, plan for and enjoy their careers and lives on their own terms,” said Emilio Pardo, AARP Executive Vice President and President of Life Reimagined. “At the same time, they’re also excited by ‘what’s next’ and see lifelong learning and ongoing education as being incredibly important and powerful as they reimagine their lives.”

Read more…

Filed Under: Announcements, Ask Our Coach, Branding Yourself Online, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, LinkedIn, New Executive Search, Personal Branding, Uncategorized, Webinars

DMEF Rebrands to Create a Marketing EDGE

Marketing EDGE is launched…to Educate, Develop, Grow & Employ the next generation of marketing leaders!

At the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) annual “Rising Stars” Awards Dinner Tuesday night in NYC, Terri Bartlett – DMEF President  – announced the rebranding of the organization introducing a new name – Marketing EDGE (www.MktgEDGE.org), aligned with the organization’s mission to Educate, Develop, Grow & Employ the next generation of marketing leaders. This rebranding clarifies the organization’s mission and vision to all constituencies including students, corporations/employers, academics/educators and individuals.

“Rising Stars” Recognized & Celebrated

The evening was a major fundraising success with record-breaking attendance… in excess of 400 people created a “sold-out” event at Three-Sixty in a trendy downtown NYC venue. The evening celebrated 6 of the marketing industry’s “Rising Stars” (40YO and under) including JP Lind – Co-Founder SpotRight, Matt McGowan – MD, Americas – Incisive Media, Kim Postulart – Marketing Director – Democratic National Committee, Brion Roberto – Global Head – Digital Marketing & Social Media – Diageo, Slavi Samardzija – EVP, Market Intelligence – Wunderman/KBM, and John Wernz – EVP & CMO – Wealth Enhancement Group.

These next generation marketing leaders are steeped in digital marketing, marketing technology, analytics, social media, and mobile marketing skills. This underscores the importance of current and future education, training/development, internships/placements, student and educator forums being led by Marketing EDGE.

Epsilon receives Corporate Commitment Award

The evening also celebrated Epsilon as the recipient of the 2013 Corporate Commitment Award. Epsilon has been a consistent and long-term sponsor and champion of the Marketing EDGE programs.

Now Is An Ideal Time To Join MarketingEDGE.

We encourage all companies to check out the programs offered by MarketingEDGE including The Next Generation Leaders Forum, I-MIX, I-MAX, Student Career Forums, Scholarships, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

If your company or organization has a talent management strategy to identify and acquire the next generation marketing leaders, you need to consider joining Marketing EDGE (www.MktgEDGE.org) and speaking with Terri Bartlett about getting involved in one of the organizations programs as a volunteer, speaker, sponsor or Board Trustee.

As a Marketing Edge Executive Board member, please feel free to contact me  to discuss sponsorship opportunities or answer any questions you may have about the mission and scope of Marketing EDGE and how you and your company can get involved.

@JeffGundersen

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Personal Branding

CONNECTIONS EZINE: Issue No. 60

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion:  Are You Addressing the Mobile Marketing Talent Gap?
  • Blog Roundup:
    •  Mobile Marketing 2013 Forum Recap – What You Need to Know!
  • Career Announcements: Digital Consulting, HR Consulting, Investment Banking & Financial Services

In Our Opinion

Are You Addressing the Mobile Marketing Talent Gap?
by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

OVERVIEW – Mobile Adoption is Scaling Rapidly
Organizations know consumers’ attention is increasingly being drawn to their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), but most marketers are still in the early stages of mobile marketing strategy development — and they face an uphill climb to evolve beyond basic mobile marketing strategies to building the dedicated mobile marketing organizations and recruiting/developing/training the talent required for sustained future mobile marketing growth and success.
Marketers need to assess the current and future mobile talent needs (and gaps) and develop “best practices” related to education, hiring, training, and development of the future mobile marketing talent needed for sustained success in this new connected mobile marketing age.

CENTRAL ISSUES – Mobile Talent Gap
Consumer mobile adoption is outpacing mobile marketing talent investment. The central issue facing marketers is the rapid pace of consumer mobile adoption outpacing mobile marketing talent investment as marketers are still at an early stage in proving ROI of mobile marketing investments. Only 16% of marketers out of 250 global marketers surveyed have developed a mobile strategy, according to an October 2012 report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council and 46% of marketers surveyed in this study said they are evaluating the role of mobile in their organizations. One major factor slowing marketers response is proving the ROI case for increasing mobile marketing investments.

Consumer adoption of mobile technology is increasing extremely rapidly. Marketers understand that mobile has opened up a new touch point through which they can engage their customers, but while mobile budgets and programs are on the upswing, they don’t yet come close to matching consumer enthusiasm. By the end of 2012, more than one-half of US online adults owned smartphones — and 45% of US online adults fall into a category Forrester calls “SuperConnecteds”- people who use the mobile Internet at least weekly and who download and use applications and consume news and information on their smartphones.

Marketers are behind in developing mobile organizational strategies.  Most large marketers are spending $1 million to $5 million on mobile marketing today, and 60% of them expect their budgets to increase significantly in 2013. However, the CMO Council’s study findings point to marketers treating mobile as a standalone channel instead of being incorporated into an overall strategy. Additionally, 47% of CMOs said they are not satisfied because of a lack of talent or resources to roll out mobile engagements.

Additional Findings CMO Council Study
“Mobile spend should be an integral part and extension of all marketing and customer relationship investments including customer help, service and support, advertising and custom content delivery, website interactions, word of mouth and search optimization, loyalty and rewards program management, feedback and insight gathering, point-of-sale merchandising and shopper marketing as well as campaign performance measurement,” said Donovan Neale-May, Founder & Executive Director or The CMO Council.

Mobile strategies are still young. More than one-third of marketers say their company has had a mobile strategy for just two years, and another one-third have even less experience with the mobile channel. It’s still early days for most companies with this emerging channel. They’re still figuring out what mobile means to their businesses — which tactics to use, how to use them, and how to staff to support the programs.

Companies are using a variety of talent and staffing approaches to support mobile programs. This increased investment in mobile requires an increase in talent and staffing support — but there’s no one way that companies are staffing fast enough to meet the growing talent needs. Internally, only a small percentage of marketers have hired full-time mobile-dedicated employees, others are having full-time digital marketing teams supporting mobile part-time, and others use contract or freelance employees. One-third of marketers plan to hire more full-time mobile employees, and one-quarter plan to hire more contract mobile employees in the next six months…but marketers still rely primarily on agencies and part-timers.

Many firms are turning to their agencies to help them navigate this opportunity. Currently, marketers work with an average of three external agencies for mobile marketing. One-quarter of them use anywhere from four to 15 or more. And these agencies are only working on execution — the majority of companies are working with their traditional brand agency, or digital and mobile agencies, to help them incorporate mobile into their overall plans.

Some marketers are making acquisitions to quickly scale the mobile talent gaps.  One of the most important strategic staffing decisions CIOs and CMOs will make this year is deciding how to meet their mobile development needs. Most companies have leaned on specialist firms and don’t have first-rate mobile development skills in-house. Now they must decide if that approach will cut it as smartphone and tablet platforms become as indispensable as the Web in engaging customers. The Financial Times decided that relying on a contractor wasn’t good enough and they acquired Web app developer Assanka.Walmart also acquired the 13-person mobile development firm Smart Society in 2012, as well as other mobile and social acquisitions including Kosmix and Grabble. These strategic mobile acquisitions by large marketers underscores the challenge large companies face in scaling mobile talent acquisition once the ROI case for mobile has been proven.

Where Does Your Company Stand?
Where is your company in terms of developing a mobile marketing strategy, and hiring/developing the talent required for sustained success? While this may feel like the early days of online marketing, the difference is the rate of acceleration in mobile advertising and m-commerce will be faster than any previous new media channel we have experienced. If you are behind the curve, as many companies are, it’s time to act now.

Blog Roundup: Did you catch these recent posts on our blog?

BLOG:  Mobile Marketing 2013 Forum Recap – What You Need to Know!

The MMA-NY 2013 Forum filled the Marriott Marquis Hotel in NYC for 3 days, the eye-opening information, the program/content was excellent, and both the attendees and presenters confirmed MOBILE is rapidly becoming the next NEW media channel. These are exciting times for both the advertiser and consumer alike. …Read more

Career Announcements

Chief Marketing Officer
Managing Director, Alliance Sales Lead
Managing Director, Social Media Offering Lead
Managing Director, Investment Banking
Senior Executive – Financial Services

Learn more.

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Board of Directors, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Personal Branding, Recommended Articles, Recommended Books, Webinars

Become a Champion of Innovation

Spring has brought forth a spirit of new beginnings, and as we look at what’s new and what skills we can add leverage or  focus on in the next quarter, we believe the emphasis should be on how to champion innovation within your business.

In the past, innovation was considered “hot,” now it is often a matter of business life and death.

We are seeing this in the media sector with newspapers shuttering and other print media consolidating as consumers move from ink on paper to on-demand digital media and entertainment. There is a growing body of thought and research suggesting the ability to systematically innovate may be the only truly sustainable competitive advantage in this new globalized digital and social economy. [Read more…] about Become a Champion of Innovation

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Branding Yourself Online, Executive Coaching, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Personal Branding

The Results of Our Online ID Survey

In our recent Online Identity Survey, we gained further insights into the role your online identity plays in your ability to land the right career opportunity and your challenges in building out an online presence that is a match for your personal brand.

Thanks so much to those of you who participated and to the many who remarked that our questions were “eye-opening” and “thought-provoking.”

We will spotlight the prize winning recipient of our Online Identity Package Makeover (valued at $1,500) conducted by our personal branding experts, Lola White and Kirsten Vernon, along with the results of our collaboration in an upcoming issue.

Highlighted survey results:

  • 100% cite LinkedIn as the social network they use most often for professional purposes
  • 93% believe their online identity plays a role in securing or finding new roles and/or clients
  • 93% are not using video to communicate their brand message
  • 89% are mindful of the personal brand impact of every post
  • 86% feel they need to invest more time managing their online reputation
  • 85% have not registered their name as a domain name
  • 68% would like to raise their visibility and credibility as a subject matter expert or thought leader, but are not certain of how to publish and promote their content so their target audience will actually find it
  • 65% regularly monitor their online ID in some way
  • 44% feel they are not taking the opportunity to fully maximize their brand building activities (speaking, article writing, etc.) using social media
  • 41% invest 30 minutes per week in managing their online brand
  • 37% agree they are using the full potential of LinkedIn

Stay tuned…the top challenge in building your online brand is not knowing the best tools to utilize. We’ll have our personal branding experts address this in an upcoming blog post.