Why Brand Transformation Can Only Happen With the Demise of Silos

COLOGNE, GERMANY—With data at the forefront of conversations about the future of marketing at the DMexco conference in Cologne, Germany this week, Jon Suarez-Davis, chief strategy officer at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, sees the stirrings of meaningful brand transformation that will continue only if legacy insight silos collapse.

“Marketers have moved past this time when disruption is all they’ve been concerned about and really focusing on how to transform their organizations,” said Suarez-Davis in a interview with Adweek in one of the overflowing DMexco exhibitions halls.

Still that transformation around structure and strategy to provide modern and competitive sales, service and commerce needs the oxygen of data flowing across departments via intelligent systems in order to be successful and Suarez-Davis sees that as a work in progress.

Transforming brands “don’t necessarily have the right data,” he said, adding that “some of that data is not complete and doesn’t allow them to tell a story in a way they want to in the marketplace.”

James Cooper

@jcoopernyc

James Cooper is editorial director of Adweek.