• by Joe Mandese , November 16, 2017

Forbes, the publishing company that gave us lists of the richest people, hot air balloons and more recently, a sophisticated native marketing platform, is once again diversifying — this time into a marketing accountability services practice.

Dubbed the Marketing Accountability Membership Service, the practice is a collaboration of Forbes and the Marketing Accountability Standards Board — an independent, cross-industry forum proffering measurement and accountability standards developed by a board of marketing and finance executives and consultants — created to “help CMOs communicate, measure and grow marketing’s contribution to growth, profits and share price.”

The organizers cite new research from Forbes’ CMO practice indicating that “marketing is a key driver of enterprise value and should be managed as a growth asset, rather than a cost center.”

More significantly, they said the research also found that “too few business leaders understand how to measure marketing’s impact on enterprise value, leaving their most valuable asset unmanaged and undermining efforts to grow firm value.”

The new service, they said, is designed to help CMOs work with peers, academics and a variety of experts to innovate marketing accountability, including the value of marketing assets, media and technology.