Beyond Advertising

Chapter 9Transcend Silos and Barriers

The more data we collect about consumers, the less we seem to understand what they really care about. This is partially due to the artificial silos we've created, dividing the client side from the agency side, dividing social from e-commerce from customer relations. Consumers don't think about those distinctions—they're artificial. Brands that want to be successful will not only need to deliver value through entertainment, information, tools, services, and conversations, but will need to deliver that value consistently regardless of the location, moment, or point of interaction.

— Frederic Bonn, Chief Creative Officer, North America, Mirum Agency (2012)

The unified and cohesive image that brands hope to leave in people's minds contrasts sharply with the corporate reality where traditional, owned, licensed, earned, shared, borrowed, and user-produced touchpoints are the domain of separate, siloed departments, often with competing interests. From the client/customer perspective, this results in strategies that are confusing, fragmented across touchpoints, and lacking in the synergies we recommend with the M.A.D.E.^s principles. Unfortunately, while many see this and want to change it, they are encumbered not only by outdated mental models but by outdated organizational silos and artificial barriers to collaboration.

The 2015 “CMO Impact Study,” undertaken by Kimberly A. Whitler, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Virginia's ...