Omniture Summit 2010 - Part 2
So it turns out that I lied somewhat about maintaining a semi-live blog during the Omniture Summit 2010. It proved too difficult with everything going on and because the battery life of my laptop didn't really allow for it. If anyone was jonesing for information during the Summit, you could have followed my assault on Twitter. I think I had in the neighborhood of 125 tweets in a span of 2 days. Insane.
So now I am back in Raleigh and beginning to transcribe my handwritten notes (the ones that I can actually read) into digestible pieces for the Capstrat blog.
I was really interested to see how the Summit was going to change after the Adobe acquisition. Once the doors opened for the general session, I could see it was the same look and feel as previous events. I've always likened it to a web analytics rock concert, complete with huge monitors and loud music, and this one didn't disappoint.
Opening session saw Josh James (head of Adobe's Omniture business unit) welcome everyone to the summit. In his opening monologue, he mentioned that we are in the midst of the Industrial Revolution of Data and that this was the decade of the CMO. Successful CMO's are going to need to:
- Create engaging experiences
- Unify and personalize consumer interactions across channels
- Make the leap from marketing metrics to business metrics
- Inform other business functions and invert accountability
Obviously, all four of these traits are somewhat self-serving based on Omniture's products, but I truly believe he's right about this. Using technologies like Omniture and others can help change marketing into a data-driven culture. The CMO's and decision makers that get this are going to be the ones that gain a competitive advantage.
While all of the points are valid, I am particularly intrigued with bullets 3 and 4. Making the leap from marketing metrics to business metrics is hugely important. Traditionally, marketing got by with a lot of fluffy metrics about how they were performing. That isn't going to fly anymore, not in the digital age. It's all about outcomes and what your marketing spend generated for the bottom line. Metrics like impressions and mentions will go by the wayside as outcomes such as revenue, sentiment, brand lift and influence take over.
I firmly believe this economy has finally forced marketing organizations to become accountable for how it spends money and prove value. This scares the hell out of a lot of the old guard, but its a fact that has to be faced. If you can't show the value of marketing, it is very likely marketing budgets will get cut until you can show what it did in terms that matter, such as profit and revenue.
His last point on informing other business function and invert accountability is where we are heading. If marketing is doing its job in monitoring, measuring, and analyzing all the interactions they are having with customers and non-customers, that information collected can be used to help other organizations within the company. That valuable customer information and insight can be used to drive changes in Sales, Products, Support, and HR since marketing is serving as a listening post.
Being well versed in driving actions with data is becoming increasingly important. Smart companies that want to find that competitive advantage are leveraging their data to help them find opportunities and generate better experiences for their customers. Is your company one of them?
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