Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value

Chapter 5

Meet the Modern Marketing Department (Michelangelo Meets Einstein)

Marketers take heart. Despite all the changes happening throughout the industry, chief marketing officer (CMO) tenure is on the rise. Thank goodness! Back in 2006, CMOs had a super-short shelf-life, averaging only 23 months.¹ Granted, I helped fuel that trend in some of my past CMO gigs, as they seemed to run only 14–24 months, depending on my resolve—or the company's. But, that was then, and this is now, and yes, I'm pleased to report that CMOs are sticky, once again.

I've enjoyed my current CMO role for nearly four years, a record among my multiple tries in this executive position. In the past, I was a traditional brand CMO. I helped revamp brand positioning by establishing foundational growth strategies to stimulate revenue and market share leadership. But more often than not, I lacked the insights and data to be sufficiently data-driven. As a result, I failed to grow beyond the brand role to where my colleagues, managers, and clients could see me as a true revenue contributor for my companies. I struggled to effectively educate my colleagues about the new and broader mission that was emerging for marketing, and I had trouble earning the credibility to make that broader change a reality.

Fortunately, at Aprimo (the integrated marketing management software firm that became Teradata Applications after its acquisition in early 2011), I managed to flip my old paradigm on its head. When I joined the company ...