• by Tanya Gazdik , October 28, 2018

photo courtesy of ANA

ORLANDO, Fla. — Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard said although traditional marketing is being disrupted, CMOs must take back control and drive growth.

Pritchard, who is also chairman of the Association of National Advertisers board of directors, led a panel discussion on Friday at the group’s annual Masters of Marketing conference which included the top marketers of Deloitte Digital, Walt Disney and American Express.

Pritchard said the Cannes Lions’ CMO Council has identified five areas that CMOs need to focus on: data and technology, talent and capability, customer-centricity, brand experience and innovation, and society and sustainability, 

He and the other panelists outlined ways marketers can take the industry by the horns. “This isn’t a panel for entertainment, it’s a panel for action,” Pritchard told the more than 3,000 marketers at the conference. 

Alicia Hatch, Deloitte Digital CMO, talked about the need to “humanize” data.

“We’ve gone through a lot of change in the last year with data and technology, and are really trying to rethink how we can make it work for us,” Hatch said.  “We had to look at how much it was really helping us to be better marketers. We had a lot of data, but it wasn’t that helpful.”

Marketers need to look at “emotional data sets to fully understand the power of our creative, to really understand how we can actually build relationships with our customers.”

She talked about the need to “democratize” data and change the way companies function by “breaking down silos.”

Hatch also announced the creation of the ANA Marketing University, part of the CMO Growth Council’s initiative to reeducate marketers on the changing landscape,

“It will help re-skill our entire industry,” she says. “CMOs will not only have an academy of their own, but we have also signed up 200 CMOs to be adjunct professors in the university.”

Hatch said there's still a long way to go to get the best use from data.

"The best of the best is not there because we haven’t connected data and technology with the way we market,” she said. “We talked to so many of our peers and they said they were expending an enormous amount of time on data and technology. It’s the area that scares CMOs the most.”

American Express CMO Elizabeth Rutledge talked about how the financial services company is focusing on four key areas to make sure it is attracting the best talent: employee experience, transparency (making sure you are giving employees access to resources to do their job well), skill development and agility.

“I feel very passionate about creating an agile environment,” she said, adding that she also feels passionate about how to create the next generation of leaders. 

Jill Estorino, senior vice president of marketing strategy for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said that although a lot is changing in the world of marketing, customers' "expectations are even higher. Our customers more and more want to be the creators of content, not just engage in the content," she said.

“We are allowing guests to customize their experience on their app,” she added. “They can plan and customize day by day which shows and parks they want to see and get fast passes. [They] can order food on an app once in the park. We are turning waiting in line into play time.”

Guest satisfaction scores at Disney are rising as a result, Estorino noted.

“As brands we have a choice: We can either embrace all of this evolving customer dynamic, or we can fight against it,” she said. “The brands that stand out in the future are going to be the brands that respond to it and pivot.”