CMOs Looking Beyond Traditional Ad Agencies to Conquer Digital Marketing Challenges

According to a CMO Council white paper titled, “The Path Forward: Marketing’s Outlook into the Digital Future,” today’s CMOs are looking beyond traditional resources to tackle a variety of digital challenges.

The data shows that about 83 percent of respondents are seeking specialized solutions that are not found in traditional ad agencies. They are doing so to overcome some of the top challenges they’re facing, including managing the explosion of customer data, analyzing data to personalize marketing communications, and exploiting new channel and device choices.

About 46 percent of respondents said their organizations are “fair” at addressing the data explosion. Eighteen percent said they are “poor” at handling it, and 26 percent claimed they are “poor” at analyzing data to create personalized experiences. About 64 percent said they are onboarding external help to manage the overflow of data, while 72 percent are doing so for data analysis.

Nick Manning, chief strategy officer at Ebiquity, said in the white paper, “Brand owners now need agency partners who can genuinely provide the content and channel resources they need across the full spectrum of traditional and new options, backed by heavy-duty technology and data capabilities.”

The Use of Data in Content Marketing

A study published by the Content Marketing Association in June 2015 showed that 91.4 percent of marketers are using customer data in their content marketing strategies.

About 77 percent of respondents said that data is “very important” to their content marketing strategy. Furthermore, 82 percent said they would be using more data in their content marketing campaign next year.