The most important objective for a CMO is balancing short- and long-term goals in an environment that’s pushing to demonstrate short-term success, Julie Bowerman, CMO at Kellanova North America, said at the Zeta Live ‘24 conference last week.
Pressure to deliver short-term objectives can dilute a brand in the long run as companies push campaigns that aren’t consistent with brand identity. It can also lead to consumer fatigue from ads pushing for immediate conversion.
A lack of focus on the long term can also lead to underinvestment in emerging technologies, including AI. Some 41% of CMOs said AI technology-driven efficiencies were a top priority for 2024, but more (54%) are focused on top-line revenue growth, according to a study from CMO Council and Zeta Global.
Here are four other takeaways on AI and personalization that CMOs and other marketing execs from big brands offered at last week’s conference.
1. Marketers must communicate the potential of AI and other marketing technology with their organizations.
What marketers see as an investment in infrastructure, other parts of the business may see as purely a cost, said Tariq Hassan, CMO and chief customer experience officer at McDonald’s USA.
The CMO’s job is to communicate the potential of that investment. For established martech like customer relationship management platforms (CRMs), communicating value will come from case studies. But for generative AI (genAI), where proven case studies aren’t as available, CMOs play a role in defining use cases and communicating that value to CFOs, Bowerman said.
2. There are examples of genAI marketing campaigns.
Mastercard has created methodologies to predict microtrends in real time using AI, said Raja Rajamannar, CMO and chief communications officer at Mastercard. These microtrends, which last three days or less, can be used with an AI repository of deals and promotions to target ads to consumers. GenAI is used to optimize and serve that ad, Rajamannar said.
McDonald’s coupled genAI with a product launch earlier this year, releasing a butterscotch-flavored Grandma McFlurry alongside a genAI product that transformed consumer videos into different languages. Those videos, which could be shared between grandchildren and grandparents who speak different languages, were a success, said Hassan.
These examples show how AI can improve personalization, something consumers are growing to expect, said Christopher Thomas-Moore, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Domino’s Pizza LLC. “With the advances in AI technologies and machine learning, we have the ability to have a higher fidelity of that [personalized] experience than ever before.”
3. As companies adopt genAI, CMOs need to ensure their companies are structured to work with that tech.
CMOs are responsible for advancing the organization’s technology, said Diana Haussling, senior vice president and general manager of consumer experience at Colgate-Palmolive.
When it comes to adopting AI, “the hardest part is acquiring the organization and the change-management processes that have to go with [new tech],” said Kellanova’s Bowerman. “The biggest work that I’ve done as a CMO is really getting into the process of the way we work.”
4. AI-enabled personalization can happen without robust consumer data.
Collecting first-party data is the top goal for CMOs, said Kheri Tillman, CMO and executive vice president of BlueTriton brands. That first-party data must flow through a solid tech stack.
“Prioritizing the resources, the right tools, has become No. 1 mission critical for everyone in the organization,” said Tammy Henault, CMO of the NBA. At the NBA, that means refining its CRM tech stack and improving measurement.
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