Blurring The Lines Between The CMO and CTO

With technology becoming an intrinsic part of marketing, AND CTO we explore how the relationship between marketing and technology teams have evolved, and how their synergy is increasing in media organizations.

- Simran Sabherwal

THE DISCUSSION POINTS

The difference in the agenda between a CMO and a CTO

How dependent are CMOs on the CTO for support?

What kind of support do you hope to receive from the CTO? What are the shortfalls in the support that you get from them?

If you were the CEO, what would you do to make the CTO and CMO work better together?

Here are excerpts from the insightful debate.

CMO VERSUS CTO AGENDA

Rahul Mishra, General Manager, Marketing, Shemaroo Entertainment:

Over time, technology can get commoditized, whereas a CMO’s objective is to build a brand for the future, one that is distinct and loved by consumers. At the same time, brands have to adapt to the technology trends. However, until such time as artificial intelligence (AI) does not become so strong, as to actually predict every aspect of human behaviour, I would imagine that CMOs and CTOs will have fairly distinct Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in organizations.

Manav Sethi, Chief Marketing Officer, ALTBalaji:

In the new world order, Marketing is the new Sales, as the CMO drives growth for the business. The nature of the game has changed as technology is far more pervasive and a marketing guy has to have an understanding of technology. When you execute a campaign, you have to go back to the tech stakeholder for everything. Thus, the tech stakeholder has become a very important person in a marketer’s life, which was not the case earlier. At ALTBalaji, the CMO and CTO are collaborative roles as certain KPIs are linked.

Sonali Bhattacharya, Head Marketing – Kids Cluster, Viacom18: