Bigger, Broader, Deeper: The New Purview of the Masters of Marketing - Michael Kassan

Anybody who attended last week39s Association of National Advertisers39 Masters of Marketing conference in Orlandoamp8212and it seemed that everybody was there this yearamp8212got the message It was very loud and extremely clear The message was this It39s not about the message anymoreMore precisely Job One for brand stewards is no longer just about creating messages As I have noted frequently in this space the CMO is now also part CTO and part CIOamp8212and not small parts either The marketer39s scope has not simply grown it has widened dramatically both upstream and downstreamNew capabilities are required but even more importantly companies must suspend old notions of where job responsibilities begin and end And it was heartening in Orlando to see how thoroughly brand builders have embraced this new realityThis year39s sessions and case studies advanced our understanding of all the conflated subjects on today39s multidisciplinary marketer todo list and the necessity of integrating all of them into one powerful cohesive whole We dove deeply into the need for purposedriven corporate cultures the sine qua non of authenticity the business blitzkrieg that is social networks riding the bullet train that is Big Data content creation by everybody and for everybody and of course how to handle the tricky task of engaging MillennialsThe case studies this year were de facto blueprints for how to do all of it well We saw and heard how marketing is more and more about creating and changing product and most especially creating purpose Not what you would expect at the ANA at least until now One of the earliest heralds of this new marketing age former Procter ampamp Gamble global CMO Jim Stengel discussed how to change culture through new hires and adroit communication of your purposeMark Addicks SVP and CMO of General Mills revealed how his team reinvigorated Cheerios by positioning the iconic breakfast brand as the quotconnector for familiesquot Marty St George SVP of Commercial at JetBlue Airways spoke about how the iconoclastic flyer quotbrought humanity back to air travelquot and has been able to grow while remaining true to its customercentric culturePurpose we learned is a powerful tool for transformation And it allows for the best kind of storytelling American Standard Brands President and CEO Jay Gould the brand whisperer whose magic touch has uplifted such disparate products as Wheaties Minute Maid and Graco car seats shared his organization39s experience with quotFlush for Goodquot In that effort linked to a new ad campaign for the company39s Champion line of toilet seats American Brand researchers developed a plastic seal that fits over openpit latrines preventing the spread of disease The company donates one of those latrine pans for every one of its Champion toilets sold to local NGOs in BangladeshIf you can marry doing well with doing good in the toilet category you can probably do it everywhere As Gould noted quotvalues create valuequotThere were so many other examples of the newly enlarged marketer39s purview in action Target CEO Jeff Jones recounted how the massive security breach suffered by the giant retailer led to a sweeping reappraisal of its insular cultureamp8212and the dramatic changes in Target39s approach to consumers use of social media and within its own organization that resulted from that painfully honest but ultimately productive selfexaminationMicrosoft CMO Chris Capossela described a threeyear transformation plan for the tech leader that includes such objectives as quotfreemiumquot innovation and quotmodern storytellingquot and will unite the company39s disparate products under one brand umbrellaThere was so much more About owning CRM and data collection technology About inventive and evergrowing social media gambits like Dunkin39 Donuts39 groundbreaking sixsecond Vine commercial And even more insight into the illusive and ubiquitous Millennial consumerUniting all of it was the transformation of the marketer from communications creator to organizational polymath whose purview includes technology operations customer service and a host of other new duties in addition to the traditional core competencies of message ideation and activation A trend that if anything will intensify as we move ever deeper into the digital ageMichael E Kassan helps bridge the gaps between media marketers and technologists He founded MediaLink in 2003 to be a transformational partner to the world39s leading media marketing and technology companies Bringing these groups together while balancing strategic insight with pragmatic execution MediaLink guides its clients through an increasingly fragmented media landscape As Chairman and CEO Kassan has led the firm39s expansion from strategic advisory into multiple business lines including executive search financial due diligence agency benchmarkingreviews and trade marketing With a culture focused on both confidentiality and transparency MediaLink now sits at the epicenter of major crossindustry initiatives and legislation helping to build consensus between government marketers and publishers Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkcomamp160Read all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media LinkedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Bigger, Broader, Deeper: The New Purview of the Masters of Marketing - Michael Kassan

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