How Do You Map the Future Together, When You Have Yet to Define the Destination?

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination?

Find out why, despite their differences, the connection between CMOs and CFOs is crucial to unlock new value and growth.

July 2019 CMO-CFO Connection Survey Report Foreword

The digital world is creating opportunities for marketing that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Marketing technology (martech) and growing proficiency with data are helping chief marketing officers (CMOs) understand their customers, track engagement and drive growth. As they connect marketing with customer experience, they are creating more value than ever.

Table of Contents I. Foreword 01 II. About the research 02 III. Building a healthy marketing-finance dynamic is critical 04 IV. Approach, metrics and data privacy create the most tension 06 V. Everyone benefits when the CFO and CMO connect 14 To make the connection, CMOs than 300 marketing and finance around marketing’s approach to are using data to drive smarter leaders, 90% believe that marketing privacy regulation. Moreover, 59% of acquisitions, and to improve customer and finance need to work more finance respondents, compared to loyalty and retention. They are closely as their businesses pursue 49% of marketers, believe that their shifting from a campaign-focused to a digital transformation. It’s why 83% organization has a long way to go customer-focused style of marketing. assert that their company’s marketing before it can measure the lifetime They also are placing bigger strategic activity would be more effective if value of a customer. Evidently, there bets and investments, requiring them marketing and finance were more is a mismatch in what marketing to strengthen their relationship with closely aligned. and finance believe is possible with chief financial officers (CFOs). today’s tools and methodologies. Yet In this report, we discuss the they both have a vested interested in Why? CMOs need a significantly challenges that organizations must bridging that gap. larger budget to pay for an effective overcome for the connection to data-driven strategy and customer flourish. More than two in three The good news is that there is a clear experience, and they need to get respondents (67%) agree, for instance, willingness to make the relationship better at asking for it. They need to that the cultural differences between work. Ultimately, our research make stronger business cases and finance and marketing are becoming paints an optimistic picture – albeit forecast return on investment (ROI) in more, not less, pronounced over time. one in which there is clear room for a way that is satisfactory for the CFO. They point to tensions arising from the improvement on both sides. The onus two functions’ conflicting expectations is on marketing and finance leaders There are also mutual benefits in a around ROI and the use of qualitative to lead the way forward within their stronger CMO-CFO connection. and quantitative metrics. They teams and across the organization as As an organization’s ability to attract also suggest there is disagreement a whole. and retain customers supports business growth, a CFO can draw on the CMO’s knowledge and insight when communicating their growth Background reading: the evolution of marketing and finance and investment story to investors In recent years, CMOs and CFOs have been establishing the foundations and the board. In the past, when necessary for their relationship to succeed: a CMO’s focus was on campaigns rather than broader, holistic customer • EY 2015 report, Partnering for performance, found that more than half engagement, the CFO’s contribution of CFOs (54%) believed collaboration with CMOs had increased. Sixty- would have been more tactical than three percent reported increased involvement in marketing, but they also strategic. Today, it is a vital driver of indicated that their contribution remained largely around cost rather than enterprise value creation. new value creation.

As a result, the CMO-CFO connection • EY 2014 study on the changing role of the CMO found that digital should be regarded as a crucial – but technologies have revolutionized the CMO’s role as customer demands still largely untapped – opportunity to require new skills for marketers and data interpretation. unlock new value and growth. This is why, according to EY survey of more

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 1 About the research

This report is based on findings from a survey of 304 senior marketing and finance leaders, conducted with Longitude in early 2019. Responses were split almost evenly between marketing (150) and finance (154). CMOs and CFOs each represented 50% of respondents within their respective areas of the business; the two job titles are used within this report as shorthand for senior marketing and finance respondents more broadly. We also carried out in-depth discussions with several marketing and finance chiefs.

2 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? Respondent job title Business size Sector 25% 34% 33% Chief Financial Officer $100 million to $499 million Consumer goods and retail

25% 33% 14% Chief Marketing Officer $500 million to $999 million Financial services (include banking investment) 6% 18% 14% Head of Finance $1bn to $4.99bn IT, Telecoms and Media

2% 11% 14% Head of Treasury $5bn to $9.99bn Manufacturing

6% 2% 5% Head of Content/ $10bn to $19.99bn Professional services thought leadership (consultancy, strategy etc.) 9% 2% 5% Head of Digital Marketing $20bn+ Real Estate & Construction

3% 4% Head of Marketing Analytics Energy, Utilities and Natural Resources 4% 3% Director of Treasury Transport and Warehousing

3% Travel, Entertainments and Hospitality

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 3 Building a healthy marketing-finance dynamic is critical

I bring the CFO into marketing meetings, “saying to him: ‘Come on, you’ve got to learn about this and you’ve got to understand.’

CMO of a Fortune 500 insurance company

While these are the words of a CMO, Leader for Media & Entertainment between marketing and finance is they could just have easily been those and EY Americas Marketing Services currently less productive than any of a CFO eager to bring his or her Leader. “However, if they can forge other in their organization. CMO into the next finance planning a deeper strategic relationship, they As survey respondents suggest, meeting. Both functions express can learn from each other’s respective there’s some way to go before the a desire to get the other to better talents and strengths and drive growth relationship is sound. Diverging understand their point of view, and more effectively. Together, they can priorities and expectations between both have a compelling reason for open the door to new opportunities CMOs and CFOs are bringing strains doing so. around data-enabled marketing, between the two functions into sharp sophisticated views on ROI and better The marketing and finance dynamic is focus. Indeed, two in three agree value creation. Ultimately, value is critical to unlocking long-term value that the cultural differences between created through customers – and growth in the digital world. As finance and marketing are becoming CMOs and CFOs together can b data-driven customer engagement more pronounced. ecome the steward of the total produces more commercial customer experience.” Several factors may explain the origins opportunities and the mutual benefits of the complex dynamic between the of a closer working relationship According to our survey, 90% of two functions and their different ways between the functions become clear, marketing and finance leaders believe of operating: there is growing pressure on marketing that the two functions need to work and finance leaders to work in tandem. more closely as their businesses 1. Different priorities for pursue digital transformation. business growth “CFOs and CMOs collaborate Nonetheless, almost half of all CMOs and CFOs differ on what their frequently today due to necessity,” respondents say that the relationship business needs to succeed over says Janet Balis, EY Global Advisory the next few years. Finance leaders

4 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? focus on a set trajectory for business Figure 1: CMOs and CFOs name what they consider to be their businesses’ top growth, and marketers have their growth priorities eye on what they need to do to deepen customer acquisition CMOs CFOs and engagement. 1. Improving relationships with 1. Learning to drive stronger While the finance function doubles existing customers (45%) insight from data (43%) down on business intelligence and takes a company-wide view 2. Improving awareness of our 2. Improving relationships with brand (41%) existing customers (38%) of investments, marketing is paying closer attention to the 3. Learning to drive stronger 3. Improving awareness of our external customer landscape and insight from data (39%) brand (34%) how the brand is perceived, and 4. Ensuring we have the right 4. Ensuring we have the right driving business outcomes. Other skills/talent (35%) skills/talent (34%) differences are more unexpected, 5. Developing a more open and 5. Cutting costs/enhancing such as marketing’s strong ambitions inclusive culture (31%) efficiency (31%) around cultural inclusivity in its top five priorities, where CFOs favor cost-cutting and efficiency. These competing priorities suggest a difference in how the two functions think about the business overall (see figure 1).

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 5 2. A disconnect on data which oftentimes gives the CFO more mentioned above, the overwhelming Both functions agree that marketing leverage due to historical knowledge majority of respondents believe that is becoming more data-driven, with and relationships with the board,” their relationship is crucial for digital increasing focus on ROI and delivering explains Dan Carter, former CFO of transformation. As such, they are against business outcomes. As Alecha a $500 million-plus public company. eager to strengthen their working Stackle, Chief Marketing Officer, CMOs, he said, are often seen as “the relationship, to understand one Corporate Customer Segment at new kid trying to get greater funding – another better and support cross- Thomson Reuters, a leading provider that’s a hard thing for anyone to do.” functional business growth. of business information services, told As a result of these differences in us: “There’s more of a push than ever tenure, CFOs may have a longer before for marketing to be a strategic memory of the company’s marketing Figure 2: Respondents identify the areas driver of the business, using data to be where marketing and finance disagree activity and might need to get the more predictable and forecast what we most often new CMO up to speed on historical can deliver. This requires us to think of Marketing respondents marketing practices. ourselves as a business function, rather Finance respondents than a marketing function.” 4. Mismatched timescales Finance chiefs, reflecting one of their Target-setting for the marketing function There is a high level of investment core responsibilities, are inevitably required to push forward data-driven concerned with reporting the past, 34% 25% strategies and implications that whereas marketers characterize evolving privacy regulations have on Approach to regulation and compliance themselves as real-time thinkers. “The the use of data in marketing. Thus, challenge with marketing is that we’re it’s unsurprising that the majority of 35% 27% constantly in real time and see things respondents believe that effective we need to react to, whereas finance Effective use of data and analytics use of data and analytics is the No. 1 spends a lot of time looking at what area where opinions differ between happened last month,” says Paula 51% 56% marketing and finance (figure 2). Puleo Blomquist, Chief Marketing General adoption/implementation There is potential for greater and Merchandising Officer at retailer of digital technologies alignment here. “Both functions Eyemart Express. 37% 38% appreciate skills and experience in CFOs also acknowledge that the two data and analytics,” notes Myles functions are often working with Allocation of marketing expenses Corson, EY Americas Markets different timescales. As one CFO Leader, Financial Accounting put it: “One of the key differences 33% 34% Advisory Services. “Finance as between the CMO and the CFO – which always been a data-driven Investment in marketing technology has an impact on how they look at organization, but its people are investments – is that the financial obviously focused on financial metrics. 34% 34% team doesn’t have the luxury of Marketing now employs a strongly saying, ‘Don’t worry, in five years we’ll Accountability for investment decisions data-driven approach to drive and find out if it worked.’ Unfortunately, measure success.” finance is typically held to more 33% 33% 3. Varied tenures immediate results.” Use of external agencies and partners Executives we spoke with suggested Despite these differences, marketing that CMOs average a much shorter and finance recognize the benefits of 25% 25% tenure in the C-suite than CFOs. becoming more closely aligned. As “CFOs tend to last longer than CMOs,

6 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? In marketing, we have our finger on the customer “pulse. It’s really helpful to be able to talk to the finance team about where our customers are finding it hard to do business with us.

Paula Puleo Blomquist Chief Marketing and Merchandising Officer, Eyemart Express

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 7 Approach, metrics and data privacy create the most tension

There are three areas where we see the most amount of strain between CMOs and CFOs: 1. Diverse approaches to martech 2. Conflicting metrics for ROI and performance 3. Changes to data privacy and regulation

In EY view, these are the areas up new opportunities for customer A C-suite executive at a media and where the two functions should engagement, our research also entertainment Fortune 500 company prioritize their efforts to work highlights the need to find more believes that a “stair-step” approach together more effectively. common ground around marketing could help CMOs overcome such cost allocation and its impact on P&L. challenges. “Do one thing, get a win 1. Diverse approaches to martech In justifying martech spend, CMOs are and move to the next step. Don’t just More than half of respondents to the likely to highlight the potential for new light all your money on fire at once survey (57%) believe there is little growth and insight, while CFOs are and hope for the best,” he explains. agreement on what constitutes leading more apt to look for cost efficiencies “Priority one tends to be ‘How do we practice in the adoption of martech. and associated risks (see figure 3). transform while still servicing our This is troubling given that technology day-to-day activity, without wrecking spend accounts for 29% of a CMO’s For reasons like these, CMOs flag the things?’ Second, does it return on budget today – compared to just 24% challenge they face when seeking investment? Third, perception is as for labor – according to Gartner’s finance’s approval for investment, important as reality. Write the press 2018-2019 CMO Spend Survey. indicating that they may be headline before someone else highlighting the wrong areas when As martech continues to grow in creates the narrative around what you seeking CFO buy-in. sophistication, and as data opens are doing.”

8 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? There’s no shortage of marketing technology and it would be “impossible to incorporate everything. We’ve been focusing on the outcomes we want to achieve and getting the teams together, learning what we want to do, when everything is possible, asking what is really going to drive our business.

Gail Horwood | Chief Marketing Officer, Kellogg North America

Figure 3: The areas that marketing and finance teams consider to be most important when seeking technology investment In some organizations, however, the approval process may be complicated Marketing respondents Finance respondents further by varied tenure length Potential to drive growth/increase market share Extent of related staff costs (e.g., training, between marketing and finance chiefs. new hires) As Dan Carter explained: “My biggest 65% 53% 20% 23% challenge was trying to accept that marketing investments would pay off Opportunity to improve insight (through enhanced Level of disruption to business as usual data analytics) over the long term knowing that the current CMO might not be there long 55% 47% 28% 30% enough to see it come to life. At one of Opportunity to cut costs/enhance efficiency Potential to enable innovation my companies, we had four different CMOs in seven years.” 32% 45% 39% 41% We also see differences in the sources that marketing and finance turn to Level of associated risk (e.g., increased My personal conviction that it’s right for the business, exposure to cyber crime) based on gut instinct and professional experience when estimating the positive and negative impact that new technology 25% 31% 25% 23%

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 9 might have on the organization. For Figure 4: The different sources the two groups turn to when gathering technology insight example, CMOs are more likely to turn to external sources – such as Marketing respondents Finance respondents consultants, suppliers and partners External specialist/consultants Sentiment analysis of social media – than CFOs, who favor internal resources (see figure 4). 48% 36% 31% 36% Moreover, 61% of respondents agree Internal subject matter experts Trade associations (ACCA, American Marketing that their finance organization Association, etc.) is generally under-informed on marketing in the digital era. It could 41% 48% 35% 32% be argued that CMOs are bolder and more exploratory in their approach Special media and trade publications/forums Affinity groups to technology implementation, whereas finance takes a more exacting 41% 37% 26% 27% approach to justify the investment. Analysis of financial data, to calculate impact of Our ecosystem of business partners and suppliers In turn, CMOs’ willingness to explore similar technologies that we have already invested in unfamiliar, untried sources for 57% 52% 46% 46% technology insight may suggest

10 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? divergence in the two functions’ risk and not bogging down the enterprise 2. Conflicting metrics for ROI appetite. As Scott Hames, former over years of implementation,” and performance Chief Marketing & Analytics officer says Brian King, Cycle Gear Inc.’s In his 2008 book, Fusion for Profit: for a $12 billion international omni- SVP Marketing, How Marketing and Finance Can channel retailer, explained: “CFOs are Work Together to Create Value, “When it comes to having a more conservative in their approach Sharan Jagpal makes the following conversation with the CFO about to investing in technology. They will observation: “Marketing looks like the martech investment, CMOs should say, ‘Why don’t you test it first?’ But easiest and most logical [budget] to frame their business case as a ‘from some projects require considerable cut because [companies] don’t know this to that’ transition underpinned resources just to stand up a test. how to measure its productivity.” by ‘the why’ – rather than as a By the time you’ve built out the Unfortunately for marketers, these departmental need,” believes technology and infrastructure just to sentiments still are true more than a Erik Larson, EY Americas Digital do a test, you’ve already committed decade later. Technology Leader. “This dialogue to invest a large amount of resources, should be ongoing, not only occurring The research suggests that measuring time and funding.” at budget time. It could also include ROI to justify initial outlay is one of the The onus today is on CMOs to make the CIO as a crucial third partner to be biggest sources of tension in the martech implementation smooth and leveraged for technical knowledge and CMO-CFO relationship. As CMOs swift across the business. “CMOs investment support.” struggle to quantify tangible metrics should be finding lightweight solutions

We recently hired a chief digital officer “who resides within marketing. They are the bridge between traditional IT and traditional marketing, so we have a very close working relationship with IT. We realized that we couldn’t work in an agile method and deliver technology for our consumers if we had them embedded in IT. Lilian Tomovich Chief Experience & Marketing Officer, MGM Resorts International

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 11 and hard data that suit finance’s • Return on total marketing 65% of marketers and 66% of finance analytical needs, CFOs are challenged investment (including advertising, professionals remain concerned that to recognize value that extends technology and analytics costs) new technology will become outdated beyond the business’s bottom line. before ROI is realized. • Return on total customer One CMO described this challenge to investment (including advertising, 3. Changes to data privacy us in detail: “I couldn’t make large- technology, analytics and all and regulation scale investments unless finance other customer spend) From the passing of the California agreed, so it was my role to convince Consumer Privacy Act to the • Brand awareness (through sentiment the CFO that there was going to be introduction of the European Union’s analysis, focus groups, etc.) a positive ROI. But’s it’s very difficult General Data Protection Regulation to tell if a project is going to pay off. One difference is that marketers are (GDPR), privacy regulation is rising You’re embarking on an initiative more likely to consider qualitative data up the boardroom agenda. Given where you’re banking on your own when measuring performance – such their diverging approaches to martech intuition that it’ll pay off. CFOs have a as looking at sentiment analysis and and measuring ROI, this is also an tough time with that. They’re looking analysis of focus groups – whereas area where the CMO and the CFO fail for hard facts, and sometimes the finance is more drawn to quantitative to agree. hard facts just aren’t there.” data, weighing cost efficiencies Most notably, 8 in 10 respondents against growth potential. Finance chiefs, on the other hand, believe that marketing needs to are much more concerned with giving Alecha Stackle describes how this develop a stronger understanding CMOs ownership and accountability plays out at Thomson Reuters. “I think of the impacts of privacy regulation. in investment decisions to drive there’s always going to be a bit of The majority of respondents across ROI. A CFO explained it like this: healthy tension in which finance pushes both functions (69% of marketers and “The best way to control marketing us to be able to answer questions that, 67% of finance leaders) rate achieving spend is to involve the CMO in the honestly, the tools and data sets don’t compliance with evolving privacy decision-making process. They are quite get us to today,” she says. regulation as a concern that’s likely to incentivized to ensure it works and The challenge is in finding the right impact their business (see figure 5). can’t avoid being held accountable balance between the two approaches. With data privacy representing a for the end results. That said, it’s At present, both accept that there growing business risk, this issue is important for the CFO and IT folks to is more work to do. This gap could likely to become more pronounced act like guardrails to ensure that IT go a long way toward explaining why over time. technology investments don’t go off the side of the road.” Figure 5: Respondents point to the foremost technology-related challenges they face

Because the CMO owns the final Marketing respondents Finance respondents decision, it becomes difficult to shift the blame on others if the tools don’t Unexpected operational costs Disruption to business as usual work. “While this may make marketing people uncomfortable, it’s a powerful 77% 71% 69% 67% way to establish control over marketing Lack of specialist skills (such as analytics) Ensuring compliance with evolving privacy regulation investments,” noted the CFO. (e.g., GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act, SHIELD) The good news is that CMOs and 70% 66% 69% 67% CFOs are aligned on many of the most effective ways to prove Increased exposure to cyber-crime (hackers stealing Technology becoming outdated before marketing effectiveness, including: data, introducing ransomware, etc.) ROI is realized 82% 79% 65% 66%

12 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? You can model out as many ROIs as you want – which we “did – but the reality is that it’s still a leap of faith. So, we’ve tried to do some quick use cases and quick wins along the way so we can show progress. If you walk up to a CFO and say, ‘I need $50 million for an XYZ platform and I’ll get you something in three to four years,’ that’s not going to fly.

Lilian Tomovich | Chief Experience & Marketing Officer, MGM Resorts International

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 13 Both functions are aligned on the While only one in three respondents It is significant, for example, that three main challenges in achieving believe that their organization three in four finance leaders believe compliance: is lacking the skills to achieve marketing urgently needs to raise compliance, a larger minority (44%) its game around data and analytics. 1. Keeping up with frequency of believe that minimizing the impact Changing regulation also raises changes and updates of compliance on existing sales and questions about the future use of 2. Fully understanding where all data marketing activity is critical. data-driven customer engagement. If is across the organization privacy regulation becomes stricter, As Alecha Stackle explained: “The it has a direct impact on what data 3. Fully understanding which data is importance that a marketing businesses can collect and share, as held across the organization leadership team now has to put on well as on their obligation to destroy continual upskilling because of the Delving deeper into the first of these records. This introduces additional changing landscape means it is such a challenges, it’s evident that the uncertainty into the business case dynamic time for marketing. It’s got to pace of regulatory change is having and the long-term ROI forecasts that be a culture of continual learning.” an impact on the wider function of marketing presents to the CFO. marketing teams and, to a lesser These issues point to a growing extent, on finance. gap between the two functions as The research suggests that this is compliance evolves at increasing speed putting additional pressure on CMOs. – and marketing struggles to keep pace.

14 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? In consumer goods and retail, CMOs who focus on efficiency investments are more likely to gain CFO support

Widespread adoption of digital Another finding specific to marketing exacerbated by the growing volume technologies is having a profound activity in consumer goods and retail of consumer data that they hold. impact on marketing within consumer is that its respondents appear more Asked what they consider to be the goods and retail. As consumers risk-averse than those from other greatest threat to compliance with engage with brands across multiple sectors. They are more likely to be changing privacy regulation, 49% channels – favoring a mix of online, concerned about the potential for point to the difficulty they face when mobile and in-store touchpoints – the new technology to disrupt business mapping the data they hold across the potential for advanced segmentation as usual or to expose the business to organization, compared to 42% of the and data-enabled marketing has cyber-crime, for example. This is only cross-sector average. grown dramatically.

According to the survey, one outcome Figure 6: Finance teams in consumer goods and retail are more likely to favor investments that of these changes – and the impact support efficiency rather than those that support growth they are having on technology-driven Consumer goods and retail Cross-sector (not including consumer goods and retail) marketing activity – has been a renewed focus on efficiency and cost- control across the sector.

In turn, we see finance leaders in consumer goods and retail focusing more on efficiency and less on marketing-led growth than their peers 41% | 57% 34% | 43% 51% | 42% in other industries (figure 6). They Potential to drive Potential to Opportunity to cut indicate that they are more likely growth/increase market share enable innovation costs/enhance efficiency to they are more likely to approve investments in new technology if they support such goals. Figure 7: Consumer goods and retail respondents are more likely to be concerned about technology-related challenges, when deciding which investments to back Brian King, SVP Marketing of Cycle Gear Inc., describes how he has led Consumer goods and retail Cross-sector (not including consumer goods and retail) marketing in his organization while maintaining a positive relationship with the CFO. “Over the years, I’ve managed to take waste out of marketing processes, diversify the marketing spend across media and invest more money in digital, while 73% | 66% 84% | 78% not asking for more resources,” he said. “This puts the CFO in a good Disruption to business as usual Increased exposure to cyber-crime place because I’m helping him get where he needs to be.”

How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? | 15 Everyone benefits when the CFO and CMO connect

At Kellogg, we’ve created a unified brand-building scorecard. The “C-suite are all aligned to the metrics and we focus on what we’re doing about them, as opposed to worrying about which report says what. It’s a significant change for the better. Brand building is a really important piece of our overall growth strategy.

Gail Horwood Chief Marketing Officer, Kellogg North America

16 | How do you map the future together, when you have yet to define the destination? CMOs and CFOs acknowledge that Key takeaways for the CMO Key takeaways for the CFO the marketing-finance dynamic is • Have better – earlier – conversations • Work with marketing to amplify changing fast, and our research with the CFO. Adopting the right the organization’s growth story. suggests that other members of the style, cadence and focus for The finance-marketing relationship C-suite are increasingly aware of interactions with the CFO is vital. If should be a key component of this. Notably, several respondents CMOs can fully understand CFOs’ long-term planning. At many mentioned the role CEOs are playing motivations, while anticipating organizations, the CMO-CFO in helping to advance cooperation and their concerns and preferences connection remains an untapped strengthen the connection. “The CEO around KPIs and scorecards – such resource to amplify the message has to support both the CMO and the as by giving more weight to cost about new investment and future CFO, and use his/her judgment about efficiencies, as well as growth – they growth, especially with respect to what makes the better decision,” says create the opportunity for more customer engagement and value. former Chief Marketing & Analytics productive, mutually beneficial • Bring together the chief information officer Scott Hames. conversations. In terms of regularity officer (CIO) and CMO for of meetings and requests, they Despite tensions over marketing successful transformation. Digital may benefit from seeking regular budget allocation, P&L and rationale transformation remains top-of- incremental investment rather than for martech investment, the budget mind for the board but is largely multi-million-dollar commitments. is an increasingly common ground championed by the CEO or CIO. for both parties. The evolution of the • Embrace outside-in thinking. CMOs play an integral part in digital marketing function drives the need CMOs should urge their external innovation and should “own” it for greater CMO-CFO alignment, suppliers to demonstrate how their alongside the CIO. By supporting a particularly because making the right solution provides a use case that will strong CMO-CIO partnership, CFOs investments can create strong short- ultimately enhance the customer can help CMOs prioritize customer and long-term value. experience. Vendors’ sales pitches experience in any transformation should focus less on the technology initiative. Looking ahead, CMOs and CFOs itself and more on the outcomes to should find common ground in the • Align for a future-oriented mindset. be achieved. Specifically, vendors analytical approaches that drive Through data-driven marketing, should clarify how the solution both functions and the opportunity the business can realize numerous aligns to shifts in the marketplace to understand the levers of value benefits, from stronger customer and how it will help the business creation together. At the same time, acquisition and retention rates attract and retain customers. CFOs should tap into marketing’s to enhanced product and service storytelling capabilities and deep • Partner with the CIO on innovation. Accordingly, CFOs customer knowledge and experience transformation. If the CMO and CIO should empower their CMOs to to more effectively communicate and work closely together on digital invest in the success of these amplify the business case for change. transformation, they are more likely approaches to drive stronger to be successful. As part of this, business outcomes. More specifically, we offer the CMOs should seek the experience following takeaways for both parties: Organizations that achieve an and sponsorship of the CIO to effective CMO-CFO connection will support investment requests. At drive digital transformation and realize the same time, as the CMO and CIO the benefits of data-driven marketing. increasingly have agendas that are For the CMO and the CFO, the reward intertwined, the CFO can act as an will be in achieving more, together. arbiter between the two functions.

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