It's Time to Look Ahead
Given the painfully premature end to this Yankee season, we stalwarts have no choice but to look ahead to next year. Fortunately for you, we decided to shift the focus from baseball by asking a diverse team of marketers what would be in their 2012 playbooks. Here are five hits if not home runs you might want to consider:
Look for More Data-Driven CMO's in 2012
Moneyball is not just a shoe-in for an Academy Award nomination but it is a new mantra for marketers awakening to the power of having better and more accessible data. Explains Hope Frank, CMO of Webtrends, “the shift of analytics from the IT department to the CMO will continue.” Adds Frank, “clean, simple dashboards allow ‘head of the curve’ marketers to develop, manage and measure digital campaigns.”
It's Time to Add a 5th P to the 4P's of Marketing
Frankly, the only P that’s on our minds is P for Pitching but luckily, celebrated CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett is thinking bigger. Hayzlett says “the traditional 4Ps of marketing have been joined by a powerful 5th P—for people.” “Never, ever discount the Power of One,” explains Hayzlett, since every critic or fan will share his or her feelings. Hayzlett calls this “the ROI of social media—Return on Ignoring.”
2012 is Not the Year to Hunker Down
Not one of the marketers we talked to expressed any doubts about the year ahead for their companies. Both Frank and Jay Samit, CEO of Social Vibe talked about expanding globally while Brian Kardon, CMO of Eloqua, cautions business leaders who plan to “hunker down.” “When your competitors are zigging, that’s the time to zag,” encourages Kardon.
Go Mobile or Go Home (We Mean it This Time)
While the aging Yanks are hardly a sure thing next year, mobile has finally come of age. Notes Discovery’s Gayle Weiswasser, “mobile is incredibly important to our business” so they are focused on building mobile-friendly sites and apps that “make [their] brands more accessible and fun.” Adds Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery, “businesses need to engage with customers where their customers are—mobile, social, local, etc.”
Make it Personal
Marketers who deliver meaningful levels of personalization in 2012 will be in a league of their own. Mashery’s Michels sees this happening with personalized apps, emphasizing that, “a great app grants a wish for a particular group of people at a particular time and place.” Concludes Eloqua’s Kardon, “the dream of personalized digital experiences is finally here: Drew likes the Yankees so he gets invited to Terry Francona’s Farewell Party.”
Speaking of personal, the complete interviews with all of these marketing “players” can be found on TheDrewBlog.com and you can see all but Kardon live at the Pivot Conference next Monday/Tuesday in NYC.