Ok CMOs the Time Has Come To Do This, Finally

Know the old expression "resistance is futile?" I don't know exactly where it came from or who said it first but I do know that in the case of CMOs —and frankly ALL marketers, resistance to this is indeed, futile. 

The "this" I am referring to is... well read it for yourself via Simon Yates, Managing Vice President on the Gartner for Marketing Leaders team:

Enough of the digital marketing label — its just marketing now. It’s happened in other domains — business and IT, for example — and now it’s Marketing’s turn to drop the “digital” moniker. Marketers no longer make a clear distinction between offline and online marketing disciplines as 98% of marketers say the disciplines are merging. As customers opt for digitally-led experiences, digital marketing stops being a discrete discipline. OK, fine but that doesn’t mean they’ve merged completely or for everyone yet. Only about a third told us that digital marketing techniques are fully incorporated into the overall marketing operation. While it may be time to drop the moniker, marketing teams still have a long way to go.

The above is an excerpt of a blog post from Simon who was writing about the findings of the recent Gartner 2015-2016 CMO Spend Survey.

And I could not agree with Simon more. Enough with the whole "digital" thing. This is not 2005 or even 2010 anymore. The time has come to stop differentiating and labeling something as "digital marketing" and start referring to it, quite simply, as marketing. 

I would be curious, however, to speak with the 2% of marketers who say offline and online marketing disciplines are not merging. I would also love to chat with the two-thirds of marketers who don't have digital marketing techniques fully incorporated into the overall marketing operation.

I'd like to know what color of the sky is in their world for sure. 

It Starts at the Top

Chief Marketing Officers, it's your job and responsibility quite frankly, to stop once and for all the incessant and unnecessary labeling of something as "digital marketing" amongst your teams and direct reports. If they hear you use that term they will follow suit. 

As Simon writes "As customers opt for digitally-led experiences, digital marketing stops being a discrete discipline." Guess what? The whole world, or a good portion of it, is opting for digitally-led experiences! Digital is uniformly inherent. 

So right now, and going forward, please cease and desist from referring to anything as "digital marketing" - deal? 

Now, as a means to help CMOs weave their way through the maze of - no not digital, but marketing platforms, we created The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms. Download the guide and see the results of a survey of over 100 marketing leaders plus the five key solutions we identified to help CMOs and marketing leaders tackle the challenge of providing a seamless customer experience across all marketing channels via the use of technology.

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