• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, April 9, 2014

As a marketer who works in the area of marketing technology, I demand transparency from my partners and I think you should too.

As more and more marketers seek to gain control over the technology at their disposal, there is a clear shift away from the black box solutions and one towards transparency in all areas. Viewability rules are quickly starting to govern over display advertising, DSP’s are being forced to provide transparency in their campaigns and DMP’s enable direct access to data providers and attributes available for targeting.  All of these changes signal a clear new direction where marketers are taking control of the tools and systems available to them in order to improve efficiency and performance and do so at scale.

There is a lot of additional proof for this trend throughout the business.  Just look at these three recent additional trends being written about:

• The increased role of procurement in securing marketing partners.
• The increased partnership between the CTO and CMO.
• The increased responsibility of the CMO at the executive board table.

Procurement is often considered the bane of most marketing relationships, and for very good reason, but whether you like it or not, it’s here to stay.  Wall Street applies pressure to companies and those companies look for efficiency in how they spend their money.  Procurement (for better or worse) ensures that efficiency of spend.  What it does prove is marketers are looking to understand how their money is being spent and they’re looking for accountability.  In a recent conversation with a Fortune 100 marketer I was asked: “how do we staff our team with the resources to prove ROI in our marketing”?  My response was there are many tools and systems available, but the skills are already there – you just need to know how to tap into them.  Procurement is being used by these marketing orgs to help identify the correct systems and maximize the expenditure against them, thereby maximizing the value of the teams they already have in place.

The relationship between CMO and CTO is one that everyone has written about for the last two years.  It has been one of mutual toleration but is shifting towards one of mutual benefit, and the rise of the enterprise marketing solution ensures that future is strong.  As these two groups continue to partner more and more, there will be requirements for transparency because there will be value to both groups and both groups will need to know how the other is using the assets that are available.   With two historically important groups wanting to be control, the ability to be open and share will be more important than ever before.

Which brings us to the last piece – that the CMO is gaining more power in the organization than ever before.  Marketing has always been viewed as a cost basis, but with the rise of technology, marketing is becoming an accountable growth driver as well.  It was always known that marketing helped sales, but now the impact can be quantified and the marketing systems can be leveraged to improve on that ROI.  There is proof of the value marketing brings to the table and how it drives sales.  As the proof becomes more available, the authoritative role of the marketer increases proportionally and supporting that value requires transparency.  The more transparent that value is, the more likely other areas of the organization will understand and support them in their seat at the board table.  As Spider-Man says, “With great power, comes great responsibility”.  A seat at the executive table requires responsibility.

So while most of the press today is focused on the consumer and how in control of their relationship they are with the brands they use, marketers are becoming more in control of their destiny within the organization.  Transparency in how marketing works ensures that will continue, for many reasons.  What are your thoughts?  Share them on the Spin board!