In the last twenty years we have seen an industrial revolution that is on par with the first two (mechanisation & mass production), it’s a digital revolution and we are still right in the middle of it. It is not just industry but every part of our working and private lives which has been affected. A company which embraces these changes gains many advantages. In order to seize these opportunities and avoid the pitfalls we must understand the underlying technology. In every department we have seen the rise of the technology role, starting in the IT department through to the top of the company with CIO and CTO. Even creative roles are now needing technology skills as we have highlighted in our recent discussion post “Creatives vs Coders”.
Gartner analyst Laura McLellan recently predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than their counterpart CIOs.
And so marketing departments are being transformed as a flood of new channels emerge for communications, sales and brand awareness. From email marketing to social video campaigns it is a new world of opportunity. The problem is that, like any new frontier, it’s a gold rush: full of promise but laden with danger and lies. A key area is “Big Data” or in other words the collection of vast amounts of consumer activity and the efficient analysis to produce key actionable metrics. Success will take more than simply throwing money at it.
And so the marketing technologist is born out of the need for navigating the future of this digital world. The role is complex and requires a deep understanding of the technology landscape but the rewards are great for those who succeed. Not only must they understand which tools are relevant to their business but they need to measure every activity in order to learn how successful each project is before spending more budget.
One of the main problems companies face is finding a person which fits the role. Some talk of the CTO and CMO role merging in the near future (see here). There are very few true marketing technologists and this means rising salaries as companies compete to recruit them.
The digital world is constantly changing and this makes any tech role a challenge. In order to keep up we must learn every day. It is only through working collaboratively with others that we can truly stay ahead of the curve.
By Dan Kirby, CEO at Tech Dept.
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