This is a rough time to be a Chief Marketing Officer. All this new-fangled technology has created a big problem for them, one that they are almost entirely unequipped to deal with. As a result they’re getting canned left and right only to be replaced by other equally confused CMOs.

So what is this great insurmountable challenge?

Measurement.

Outside of the marketing industry it is a little known fact that most marketing has, historically, been unmeasurable. Pretty odd considering that hundreds of billions are spent on it every year. These days, though, thanks to the internet, marketing is highly measurable, and do you know what they’re finding? They’re finding that their marketing strategies don’t actually work.

A headline in yesterday’s Advertising Age summed it up nicely:

Blame CMO Turnover on Metrics Mania
The article points out that the average tenure of a CMO is now only about 26 months and goes on to say:
“The current demand for greater metrics, more measurement and increased accountability on the part of CMOs has resulted in demoralized marketing departments and muddled messaging.”

Ah, Accountability, the bane of the advertiser.

So what’s a CMO to do? Well, whine, of course. Rather than question the validity of their hobbling and wheezing strategy, marketers are sounding the alarm that all this data could mean the death of “creative,” “audacious,” and “original” campaigns.

To that I would say — What the hell makes you think that being original and audacious does a damn bit of good anyways? Are we supposed to believe that your creativity has some kind of magical and unmeasurable power?

If it works, it’s measurable. Right? So maybe, just maybe, it’s time to move on. Embrace the fact that the old ways no longer work and start using your creativity to find a way that does.

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