Two-thirds of global marketers lack confidence in their data, analytics and insights

Source: © CMO Council CMO A new report show that 62% of marketers are only moderately confident (or worse) in their data, analytics and insights systems

Yet, says the report, to spot sudden, disruptive changes in customer and market behaviour, modern marketers need high-velocity data marketing, and these data systems need to be agile and adaptable with the ability to acquire real-time, relevant data signals and close the gap between data, insights and action.

The new research examines the high-velocity data marketing maturity curve, including critical capabilities today, plans for the next 12 months, and gaps between top performers (i.e., marketing leaders who are most confident in their data/analytics/insights systems to win and retain customers) and bottom performers.

A new era of high-velocity marketing

“CMOs around the world have entered a new era of high-velocity data marketing,” says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

“Many need to get better at extracting relevant data signals across channels, generating actionable insights, making insights available in real-time, and going deeper and more granular with customer insights.”

He adds that there is a significant opportunity for CMOs to climb the high-velocity data marketing maturity curve.

"Our report looks at emerging, relevant data signals (e.g., buyer intent data), identifies challenges and regional differences, and recommends actions for achieving high-velocity data marketing."

Mastering a new landscape

Gonzalo Garcia Villanueva, CMO of GfK says "CMOs today need to manage hyper-targeted brands and messaging across thousands of potential touchpoints. Mastering this new landscape requires the best dashboards and data – yet our research shows that relatively few CMOs actually have the sophisticated insights and tools they need."

Villanueva adds that marketing leaders need to partner with CTOs, commercial leads, and other key stakeholders to be sure that organisations have the high-velocity data and platforms they need to meet aggressive growth targets.

"And CMOs are uniquely positioned to curate those insights, informing essential decisions through just the right combination of learnings,” says Villanueva.

Key findings

Key findings from a survey of over 300 marketing leaders globally showed that:

• 62% of marketers are only moderately confident (or worse) in their data, analytics and insights systems.
  
• 46% say access to relevant customer data is hit or miss or worse.
  
• 39% of top performers say the journey from data gathering to actionable insights is fast or immediate compared to only 7% of bottom performers.
  
• 60% of top performers say their data/analytics/insights systems are very agile and adaptable compared to 9% of bottom performers.
  
• 30% of top performers use AI pervasively in multiple systems compared to 4% of bottom performers.

Methodology

The report is based on a survey of over 300 marketing leaders globally. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with executives at Capital Group, Vodafone, Hitachi, Al Safi Danone, Kyndryl, Fisher Funds, Nesnah Ventures, NCCI, Blue Buffalo, and Dolmen Group.

The CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is a global network of executives specifically dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 60,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and marketsDownload

Download The high-velocity data marketer report here.