• NEWS
    • Agencies
    • Brand Marketing
    • Creativity
    • Digital
    • Programmatic
    • TV / Video
    • FEATURED
    • Challenger Brands
    • Inside the Brand
    • Ad of the Day
    • CES
    • Sponsored
  • EVENTS
    • FEATURED
      • Elevate AI 2019
      • March 21, 2019
        New York
    • COMING SOON
    • Adweek Media All-Stars
    • Fastest-Growing Agencies
    • View All Events
  • WEBINARS
    • FEATURED
      • You’re Measuring Influencer Marketing Wrong
      • Tues., March 5, 2019
        1 PM EST
    • COMING SOON
    • CMO Tenure Data Is the Secret to Agency Business Development
    • The Definitive Approach to Advanced Media Measurement
    • View All Webinars
  • CONNECT
    • Media Kit
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Agency Memberships
    • Group Subscriptions
    • Newsletters
    • Contact Us
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • Brand Awareness
    • Thought Leadership
    • Lead Generation
    • ADWEEK NETWORK
    • AgencySpy
    • MarketerMoves​
    • Social Pro Daily​
    • TVNewser
    • TVSpy
  • ADWEEK JOBS
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • CURRENT OFFER
    • Unlimited Job Postings
My Account Log Out Sign In Subscribe

Digital Transformation

5 Dos and Don’ts of Digital Transformation

What marketers need to do to position their companies for success

By Marty Swant
|
October 30, 2017
Creating a small, trusted group to properly vet ideas can help move better ideas forward faster.
Getty Images
Share
By Marty Swant
|
October 30, 2017
Share

Over the past two years, businesses have put increased focus on digitally transforming their brands from the inside out. That’s led not only to taking new risks with emerging tech, but also implementing changes to company culture and organizational structures.

To better understand what works and what doesn’t, Adweek spoke with a number of brands, analysts and agencies.

Here’s what marketers need to do to position their companies for a customer-focused future:

Icons: Getty Images

Build a strong relationship between the CIO and CMO

Last year, Gartner predicted that a company’s chief marketing officer will spend more on tech than the chief information officer by 2017. And that’s a good reason for the two to work hand in hand. According to Forrester analyst Nigel Fenwick, companies that maintain a good relationship between the CIO and CMO are better performing than those that don’t. He said sometimes a company will even hire a chief digital officer just to fix a broken relationship between the two.

“If they’re both customer-focused and customer-obsessed and joined at the hip in terms of a partnership, they can do great things,” Fenwick said.

Create an innovation steering committee

Creating a small, trusted group to properly vet ideas can help move better ideas forward faster and put the brakes on those that shouldn’t, said iCrossing chief strategy officer Anne Bologna.

“One of our clients recently said that with the degree of complexity that exists today, you need your shortlist of partners that can sit around a table with you and help figure things out,” she said. Saneel Radia, evp and global head of consulting at R/GA, agreed: “The more voices involved in innovation decision-making, the less successful it will be.”

Integrate teams more often

Cross-pollinating teams can lead to better understanding and better idea creation between departments. For example, Levi’s has begun integrating its tech and business teams for projects, while Marriott has brought processes from global strategy into marketing. “It’s been really great over the last few months to not just workshop that, but even change up our organization to set up internally to better optimize for that performance,” said Marriott CMO Karin Timpone.

Take time to think about your internal story

If you’re going to make digital transformation work, you have to understand the narrative to help people understand why something should change. According to a 2015 survey of nearly 400 executives conducted by Forrester, most didn’t feel confident in their CEO’s vision or in their company’s ability to define or enact a successful digital strategy. (In fact, only 14 percent said they felt they had the “necessary processes” in place.)

“The thing about change when it’s happening behind the door is it’s super scary when it’s unclear how it’s going to impact the employees,” Radia said.

Create customer-facing metrics to change culture

While companies are often judged by their financial performance, failing with consumers will lead to failing numbers overall. According to Fenwick, the No. 1 barrier to change is culture, and most people get their cultural signals from how they’re measured. And while marketing might have customer-facing metrics, other units like business and technology often don’t.

“If you look across metrics and you don’t see customer-facing metrics—metrics that indicate the value a customer is getting from the business—in every employee’s metrics, then we’re not communicating to the employee that we need to focus on the right things for the customer,” Fenwick said.

Click for more from this issue
This story first appeared in the Oct. 30, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Share
http://adweek.it/2xrq7pj
Marty Swant

Marty Swant

@martyswant
Marty Swant is a technology staff writer for Adweek, where he specializes in digital marketing trends, social platforms, ad tech and emerging tech such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Adweek Adweek Adweek

Popular Now

  • 1
    Did Burger King’s Super Bowl Ad Actually Work? CMO Fernando Machado Shares 10 Insights
  • 2
    ASMR Marketing Is Officially Dead After This Soothing 4-Minute Clip About Shaving Your Balls
  • 3
    U.S. Digital Ad Spend Will Surpass Offline in 2019
  • 4
    Look Out, Colonel Sanders: Burger King Is Calling Itself the KFG, ‘King of Flame Grilling’
  • 5
    Apple Watch Defies Gravity in Latest Sky-High ‘Air Dancing’ Spot From Director Jonathan Glazer

Featured Jobs

Advertising Inventory Analyst
DraftKings
Boston, Massachusetts
Vice President, Brand and Consumer Marketing
NFL
New York, New York
New Business Sales Executive
Thomson Reuters
New York, New York
School Marketing Director
GoNoodle, Inc.
Nashville, Tennessee
Anchor/Producer/Multi-Media Journalist
WENY TV
Horseheads, New York
See More Jobs

EDITOR'S PICKS

AdFreak

Look Out, Colonel Sanders: Burger King Is Calling Itself the KFG, 'King of Flame Grilling'

by David Griner

AdFreak

ASMR Marketing Is Officially Dead After This Soothing 4-Minute Clip About Shaving Your Balls

by David Gianatasio

AdFreak

Thanks to Ancestry, Six Strangers Learn How They're Connected Via the Underground Railroad

by Shannon Miller

Creativity

Apple Watch Defies Gravity in Latest Sky-High 'Air Dancing' Spot From Director Jonathan Glazer

by Patrick Coffee

Programming & Performance

Nielsen Creates Advanced Video Advertising Group to Expand Addressability Push

by Jason Lynch

Publishers & Platforms

How a UK-Based Media, Tech and Entertainment Company Will Try to Break Into SXSW Next Month

by Sara Jerde

Ad of the Day

The Replacer is Responsible for All the Newsworthy Chaos in Call of Duty’s Newest Campaign

by Shannon Miller

Data & Insights

Did Burger King's Super Bowl Ad Actually Work? CMO Fernando Machado Shares 10 Insights

by David Griner
View Latest News >
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Media Kit
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Sponsor Content
    • Jobs
  • Subscriptions
    • Subscription Options
    • Digital App
    • Newsletters
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Customer Service
  • Awards / Honors / Events
    • Awards and Honors
    • Adweek Events
    • Webinars
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Trophies / Awards / Seals
  • Publications
    • Adweek Network
    • RSS
    • Backissues
    • Reprints / E-Prints
  • © 2019 Adweek, LLC. - All Rights Reserved
  • About Adweek
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy