Where’s the Beef, Chief? CMO Panel

From the challenge of managing hundreds of web sites to interactive budgets of greater modesty, the ”CMO Panel: Delivering Digitally” session offered excellent insight into how top marketing professionals manage online/offline budgets, agencies and initiatives. Overall, all panelists were fairly satisfied with their performance, with opportunities for improvement focusing on either paid search or organic and keen interest in opportunities with blogs.

Panelists included:

• Catherine Muriel, CMO of E-LOAN
• Mike Moore, Director, Purina Interactive Group
• Steve Pinetti, SVP Marketing, Kimpton Hotel
• Benjamin Hill, Senior Director, Global Marketing; Motorola
  

Moderator Susan Bratton asked the panelists to grade their efforts at leveraging the internet for marketing. Panelists graded themselves in the “B” range, but for a variety of reasons, ranging from an over-emphasis on PPC to the vice versa.

One of the challenges faced by each marketer was managing large numbers of web sites - ranging from 100 with Purina to over 500 with Motorola.

Using outside agencies was critical for each company. Due to the range in size and types of companies represented on the panel, the number of interactive agencies used ranged from a handful to more than 30. Each company used agencies according to its unique needs. ELoans operates with a “skeleton” marketing staff, so they need to outsource the majority of their interactive work. Kimpton Hotels includes a mix of in house staff, outside agencies and consultants.

The emerging tactic or “shiny new object” as Susan Bratton called it, often included blogs, as well as opportunities with wireless. “Losers” included chat and message boards.

Most of the panelists were reluctant to reveal actual budget amounts with ELoans citing $20MM-plus to Purina at about 5-7% of the overall controllable media budget for interactive.

In interactive, some areas are very measurable, some areas still beg the question: what’s the return? The panel agreed that more discussions can happen about implementing “cooler” stuff, but not until there’s better measurement.

Succint units of measurement included:

• Cost per funded loan
• B2C registrations, B2B leads
• Engagement - depth of involvement with website
• Calls from web site 800 numbers, metrics for specific tactics
  

The session rounded up with questions from the audience. One question centered on the notion that the percent of spend online is small due to measurement and accountability issues. The panel responses strike true with a lot of my own experiences, especially in cases where any increase in online spending means taking away from offline budgets. In the end, the spend must be proportionate to the return.

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From the challenge of managing hundreds of web sites to interactive budgets of greater modesty, the ”CMO Panel: Delivering Digitally” session offered excellent insight into how top marketing professionals manage online/offline budgets, agencies and initiatives. Overall, all panelists were fairly satisfied with their performance, with opportunities for improvement focusing on either paid search or organic and keen interest in opportunities with blogs. http://www.adtechblog.com/2506/