The role of the CMO has become more complex — here’s how we can help

Opinion

Isba and MediaSense can’t make this complexity disappear, but we have collaborated to publish a short paper setting 10 key considerations to help guide marketers through this landscape.

Sir Martin Sorrell recently claimed the role of the chief marketing officer (CMO) has become simpler.

Respectfully, we at Isba and MediaSense will beg to differ. In our view, the demands and expectations of CMOs and marketing procurement, and the resulting increase in the volume and nature of suppliers they must manage, mean their roles are more complex than ever.

Isba and MediaSense can’t make this complexity disappear, but we have collaborated to publish a short paper setting 10 key considerations to help guide marketers and their procurement colleagues through the maze of managing supplier complexity.

There is, of course, no “one size fits all” solution to supplier complexity. But a strong understanding of your organisational objectives and design, coupled with these 10 key considerations, should help you find the right approach for your business.

We won’t reiterate all 10 key considerations here, but will note that procurement needs to truly understand how they can help the CMO and chief financial officer by generating profitable returns, not just “savings”.

Integration is a priority for marketers, but one agency holding group will not in itself solve the challenges of breaking down internal and external silos.

And pitching itself can often be part of the problem. Most pitches set out seeking from their suppliers a stronger team that will deliver work faster and cheaper and of higher-quality. But just pause and ask: does all that really sound plausible?

Guiding principles

The 10 key considerations contain these three guiding principles.

First, for procurement to be actively considering not just supplier selection, but supplier management and ultimately supplier enablement.

Typically, a media agency pitch concludes with major savings and benefits being reported internally by a procurement team exhausted at the end of a gruelling process — with everyone overlooking the truth that no benefits have been realised yet!

Someone needs to take ownership of supplier management and ensure the delivery of all pitch promises — including savings, services, tools, tech, ideas, innovation etc.

Second, suppliers, processes, technologies, contracts, ways of working, use of tech and data etc should all be as consistent as possible across teams and markets, without becoming a cumbersome straitjacket.

A strong central team, combining global and regional and local expertise, is well-placed to assess and approve appropriate deviations from central mandates.

Third, if a supplier brings a genuinely critical USP, they deserve a place on your roster; if not, then find a way to remove them and reduce your supplier volumes.

We believe the complexity in marketing, and the roles of marketers and procurement in addressing it, are more challenging than ever. We hope the 10 key considerations set out in our paper can help provide a guide.

Read The Media Leader‘s coverage of the report. The full paper is available here.

Nick Louisson (far left) is director of agency services at Isba and Sam Tomlinson is chief client officer at MediaSense