Event report: The Golden Age of Digital Marketing

We held our first regional directors dinner in Manchester last week (Thursday July 17th) after the one- day road show event we ran during the day.  It was held at a fine dining restaurant called Stock, which was from the converted old stock exchange building and the food and atmosphere was to be highly recommended.

Aside from the lovely surroundings we had an excellent speaker, Phil Williams, Industry consultant and leader of Rocketseed, and an illustrious set of guests (see below) that made for a very interesting debate.

As all of the guests were well versed on all things digital, Phil decided to debate a topic that has been bugging him for a good while now. He was keen to understand why the discipline of marketing was less likely to be taken seriously at board level than other disciplines and why there are so few Marketing Directors in FTSE boards.

A fact often forgotten is that finance, Sales IT and HR mostly rank higher at board level and that marketing as a profession is often seen as a necessary overhead rather than a core business enabler.

However, this surely shouldn’t really be the case as the marketing department is responsible for the public face of the company and is the driver of revenues and guardian of the brand. Phil presented some recent Henley Group research looking at the top executive accelerators that determine success in the Board room.

Looking at what determines success, this split is as follows:

•               10% is technical skill

•               30% is image

•               60% is exposure

Therefore personal brand image and reach is largely what drives personal success.

There are a number of success factors in any career and the top three identified in the research are;

•               Ability to develop or adapt

•               Consistent exceptional performance

•               Ability to establish strong collaborative relationships

When I think of people I know in the digital sector then these factors seem to be very reflective of those who have achieved great success; James Aitken, Sean Phelan, Martha Lane Fox, are just a few that spring to mind.

So going back to the point in hand why is the marketing function less likely to be considered key at board level. Is it because there are not enough dynamic talented people in marketing?

Phil Nott and Lorna at .Fox Networks referred to the marketing department as often seen as the ‘colouring in department’  or the place for unsuccessful or burnt out sales people to go, which might be reflective of the poor image marketing has internally in many organisations. How strange then that the marketing function is all about projecting an image and a message that they perhaps cannot do that for themselves!

Chris Bennett of Blyk thinks it’s not about the person themselves but about perception that marketing is not the main business driver. Although people such as Richard Brasher of Tesco proves that the role is critical to business success.  Proctor & Gamble is also a marketing driven organization so these two companies prove the effectiveness of marketing at the centre of a business.

Daren Forsyth from the BBC said that he has often had a chat with the Director General both business and personal and feels that people often forget the head honcho is also a person and relishes personal feedback from their colleagues. You can gain influence through building these kinds of relationships so that the main decision maker trusts your point of view and ability to deliver what you promise. You need to be on their radar to progress and achieve. Daren also believes that emotional intelligence is a necessity in a successful career.

Andy Nicol of Sputnik Internet an up and coming web design agency based in Manchester said that when it comes to business sometimes it’s good to have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Maybe marketing directors don’t do enough of this then? It seems unlikely as they present at conferences like the ones Netimperative hold and regularly speak to the press.

Phil Williams thinks it important to develop the skill sets that are respected in the board room to add to your technical marketing skills and this needs to include being financially literate; talking the language of the accountant for example. He is also keen to see organisation's such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing demonstrate stronger leadership and offer broader soft skills training added to more awareness of the growing importance of digital marketing.

So why is it that generally marketers are not on the main board? Perhaps it’s because the marketing director finds it more challenging to present 'hard and fast' linkages between marketing cost and business return than say the finance director. Phil Williams summarised by concluding that in the growing world of online this is no longer the case and with talk of a recession then surely Marketeers are better placed than ever before justify their efforts and argue for increased resources.

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