Could the CIO replace the CMO?

The CMO needs to watch out, because marketing is increasingly about technology, hears the audience at Computing's IT Leaders Summit

The chief information officer (CIO) doesn't have to fear their role being absorbed by the chief marketing officer (CMO), but rather it could go the opposite way, with the CIO taking the role of the CMO.

That's what Trevor Attridge, global director of technology at MEC, one of the largest media agencies in the world, told the audience during a question and answer session at Computing's recent IT Leaders Summit.

The IT Leaders Summit saw the unveiling of Computing's IT Leaders 100, with the full list available to see here.

Attridge was asked his views on the changing relationship between IT and marketing, which is being altered because the CMO is gaining more and more responsibility for technology.

"I think the CIO has to become customer savvy, that's critical as the CMO is becoming more tech savvy. So the CIO has to know a lot about commercial intelligence and understanding people, that's critical," Attridge replied.

"They need to understand the drivers that push the CMO. That could be talking their language, understanding the business context and ultimately understanding the customer," he added.

Attridge said that the CIO is in a unique position and should use it to examine why the CMO is beginning to encroach on IT's patch.

"And as CIOs I think we're uniquely positioned across the business because we're hyper connected and see everything that's going on in all facets of the business," he said.

"We need to align ourselves to those strategies and platforms in order to do that. Ultimately we need to look at why the CMO is becoming so tech savvy," Attridge continued, before going on to point out that technology has become an integral part of the CMO's "complicated life".

"They no longer just have a telephone number to call to find a product and a website. They've got Facebook channels, Twitter feeds to manage, customer acquisition, customer retention, all these things they have to deal with on a daily basis," he said.

Attridge fielded questions from the audience of IT leaders, one of whom was Financial Times CIO Christina Scott, who was interviewed by Computing in May this year.

"We're quite paranoid as CIOs about everyone else trying to take our jobs, the CMO, the CEO and so on. But do you see a world where the CIO can move into the CMO role?," she asked.

Attridge replied that it all comes down to experience, and with technology such as data analytics becoming key in marketing, that department could look to the CIO to lead it forward.

"If you look at certain brands, it's about the experience. If you distill that down it's technology, data and the brand. So if you look at those components, they're about the brand experience. Two of those are technology led, so I think the CMO could absolutely go one way, expanding the brand into technology."

Attridge went on to describe how a different thing could happen, how the CIO could in fact become the CMO.

"I can also see the converse happening, I think the CMO needs to possibly watch out, because someone who's reasonably savvy with a passing background in business could cross over into that role, especially if they had a data background," he said.

"We've already talked about the CIO becoming the CEO, so why not the CMO or the chief digital officer?" Attridge concluded.