When I began my agency career in 1998, marketing leaders (i.e. my clients) were singularly focused on brand building using creativity. Over time, their attention shifted away from this and rightfully towards data and technology. For many years, this became the singular focus and north-star objective.

Today, the pendulum has swung back to centre. Marketing leaders who are finding the greatest success are figuring out how to focus on both creativity and technology. And they need to because their bosses expect them to do. it. all.

Spearheading marketing and communications today—in any organization—is not easy. CMOs are under enormous pressure. They’re expected to deliver ever-improving results for marketing activities, manage the explosion of customer channels and own customer strategy. The CMO’s scope of responsibility continues to expand and grow, from customer experience to digital transformation to AI and beyond. In fact, it is so challenging that the average tenure of a CMO today is 40 months. And many marketing leaders continue to be relegated to senior tacticians.

Expectations are high. CEOs want their marketing leaders to be holistic, strategic and focused on measurable business results.

CEOs are counting on their marketing leaders to be customer champions, brand evangelists, growth drivers and upholders of organizational values. According to McKinsey & Company, a full 78 percent of global CEOs surveyed are banking on their marketing leaders to drive brand growth. In this world of perpetual digital transformation, organizations need—and expect—their marketing leaders to be true strategists who can bring a holistic and growth-focused perspective to the business. CEOs and other leaders in the C-suite are looking to their marketing leaders to provide data-driven insight, contribute to strategic business discussions and demonstrate how their activities drive growth.

Research also shows that when CMOs (in any sector) take on a more active role in growth initiatives, success follows in the form of higher long-term growth rates for the company.

The opportunity has never been greater for marketing leaders to be the holistic, strategic, data and results-focused marketers that CEOs need.

When talking about the modern CMO, Anne Lewnes, CMO and EVP at Adobe, aptly put it, “While there are many, many challenges facing marketing leaders, I believe the opportunity for marketing leaders far outweighs the challenges.”

I agree with Anne. It’s a great time to be in marketing. We are undergoing a renaissance and I am excited about what’s ahead for current and future leaders. There is potential for increased visibility, leadership and influence at the executive level AND, most importantly, the opportunity to have a significant positive impact on business.

It’s a great time to be a marketer. Clearly, both expectations of and opportunities for marketing leaders is shifting. And the practice of bringing together creativity and technology will be a key driver of this change.

Why is it mission critical to blend creativity and data? Because companies that do double their growth rates.

As part of an ongoing series of studies in conjunction with the Cannes Lions Festival and the Association of National Advertisers, McKinsey surveyed more than 200 CMOs and senior marketing executives (including interviews with 25+ of the CMOs) and tracked the performance of their companies. They found that marketers who are “integrators”—those who have united data and creativity—grow their revenues at twice the average rate of S&P 500 companies: at least 10 percent annually versus 5 percent.

How do you combine data and creativity as a strategic differentiator?

Firstly, data and creativity must be equal partners. Secondly, there must be a commitment to continuous learning and iteration. And finally, according to content marketing operations software leader Upland, transforming data into actionable, creative steps requires a holistic approach. This means bringing together a multidisciplinary team where every team member understands how their input supports brand messaging, how consistent messaging impacts the customer experience and how teams can collaborate to bring their specialties into one clear, brand-oriented execution. Industry focus on personalization as a core part of marketing outreach makes this step even more critical. Customers want one seamless experience and for their specific needs to be met in one clear, personalized buyer’s journey.

The biggest part of the challenge? Creating unique, engaging ways to combine what the data reveals, and integrating it with strategies to capitalize on it daily through micro-moments, education and purchases.

Who’s doing it right?

A recent strong example of the power of a symbiotic relationship between data and creativity is the work the Jan Kelley and Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada, Inc. teams completed for a small Reddit campaign to promote the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.

On the one hand, yes, we know that when ads feel native to a platform, they perform better. On the other hand, Mitsubishi has never made a meme before. Not even for organic social.

There was no benchmark, so we ran an A/B test: a safe ad and a meme ad.

When the data rolled in, we learned the meme ad not only won; it outperformed the Reddit ad CTR benchmark by 100%. Even better, now we have the data to prove that Mitsubishi can show up on Reddit and speak exactly like its audience does.

It’s a powerful example of creativity rooted in human insights AND technology that informs and then amplifies.

As a marketing leader, how do you bring creativity and technology together to drive better results and reclaim your seat at the C-suite table?

You won’t get there overnight, but take a systematic approach to building the Humanology mindset, skillset and toolset. This includes:

Building a data-centric culture where data is accessible to all
Building a customer-obsessed culture grounded in curiosity and constant learning, and focused on identifying and solving customer problems and pain points
Connecting quantitative and qualitative insights through storytelling
Creating strong, multidisciplinary teams who understand how and when to use data to inform, inspire and drive decisions
Building high-trust, high-collaboration teams who don’t shy away from wrestling through differing cross-discipline perspectives and don’t let themselves fall into GroupThink
Implementing design thinking and lean startup tools that help identify meaningful insights and fast-track learning
Focusing on progress over perfection: listen, learn, adapt and deliver what matters to customers
Implementing a Humanology Toolset: a disciplined approach and platform to support experimentation, learning and continuous optimization

I’m interested to hear what fellow marketing leaders are doing to unite data and creativity to develop breakthrough ideas and game-changing results. Let me know what’s working well for you and your team!

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