Don’t Let Technology Best You

New and Emerging Technologies to be Mindful Of

By Jeffrey Hayzlett
Primetime TV and Radio Host
Best-Selling Author and Global Business Celebrity





 

It seems that every day, a new tool is being introduced to the market that will revolutionize the way we do social media, content management, reputation management – you name it. Ad technology is another one of those areas many C-Suite executives feel there is much left to learn about.

When I speak to CMOs about emerging technology, a few key themes always seem to pop up:

• CMOs are overwhelmed by the plethora of ad technology
• Our ad tech lexicon is a mystery
• Marketers are challenged when implementing programs using new technologies

There are a few key areas CMOs and marketing leaders need to be aware of when dealing with emerging technologies.

Big Data is not a new discovery. 

First, you need to understand the issues CMOs face when it comes to advertising technology. I think the biggest over-used words right now are big data. It has been here for years and it’s not going away nor is it this great big new discovery. Rather than try and eat the whole hog, you need to find the piece of bacon that can help you achieve maximum efficiency using data to gain more engagement with your customers. The discovery of big data is not the answer, it’s the use of the right data that is the real game. If content is king and activation is queen, then context is the kingdom. Therefore, what you have to do as a marketer is to find more ways to utilize the data and all of the pieces to foster engagement with clients and to do that, you use great content, activate that content and put it into context, which will be meaningful for your customers.

Privacy and avoiding the creep factor. 

The second issue to understand is privacy. We need to be able to continue our engagement with customers so that they’re comfortable. You have to become a trusted partner for customer’s information. Everyone likes to go to a great restaurant and be treated like a king or a queen -- a place like Cheers where everybody knows your name. To do so, you need to find ways for the customer to trust your brand, bit by bit, and show them that you’re reliable. But do so carefully – to avoid the ‘creep factor’ of going too far with the information you have been given access to. 

Mobile is the future. 

Mobile is the most personalized technology we have at the moment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – ‘people know where their phones are more than they know where their children are,’ but it’s still something that’s in its infancy stage and it’s extremely complex. While it’s in the millions, it’s not in the billions in terms of revenue with regards to advertising and marketing. It’s certainly become a place to go for search but it has not become a place to go for advertising. The good news is the best is yet to come!

Another important step to better utilize this new technology involves strategizing with your team. I recently interviewed Frank Cooper, CMO of Global Consumer Engagement for PepsiCo, on C-Suite TV. We discussed the way PepsiCo uses mobile technology and the organizational challenges he faces when developing mobile campaigns. There are still too many CMOs right now whose mobile strategy is “I have an iPhone app.” Since that is not a very strong strategy, I think most CMOs right now need to start by forming “tiger teams” to start to formulate and implement that strategy. Tiger teams should be small at first, since they will be testing different techniques and tactics in order to find out what works best, not only for your organization, but what resonates better with your customers.

Patience, no one is going to die. 

Finally, you need to make sure you really understand the new technology at hand, and have patience with yourself and your teams as you learn. Most large brands don’t know every developing technology and the best ways to use it. There are so many new things they are developing every single day, they can’t even keep up with the terms. I was in a conference where an executive from TubeMogul stood up and started talking about video platforms and supply-side platforms and asked how many people, in a room of CMOs, knew about these terms. Maybe it was the after-lunch coma, but only one or two hands went up in a room of a few hundred. Executives have to get down into the details, they need to get out of the meetings and gain hands on experience with new tech solutions.

Technology is ever evolving, especially in today’s fast-paced business environment. There are still new and developing fields. The most important piece is to crawl, walk, then run when it comes to implementation. Get in, get dirty. The good news is that even if you are crawling, at least you’re doing something. As marketers, we need to adapt, change or die otherwise we will be left behind – and you don’t want to be left behind. 

Jeffrey Hayzlett won a Frost & Sullivan Sales & Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.