CMOs must lead customer engagement: EIU report

The Google-sponsored white paper, 'Future tense: the global CMO', notes that the role of the CMO has adapted to include direct communication with investors, employees and regulatory bodies, as well as consumers. It highlights the need for a greater degree of integration of marketing and communications within an organisiation and a change in approach to involve consumers directly in brand development.

The report also emphasises the importance of localisation in building global brand awareness, and advises that marketing budgets be decentralised to enable decisions based on the demands of local markets. It advises that a portion of a company’s marketing budget should be set aside for experimentation with new online technology.

A total of 263 marketing executives participated in the survey that formed the basis of the paper, 29 per cent of whom were based in Asia-Pacific.