Marketo, Inc., the leading provider of marketing software and solutions, recently hosted an executive breakfast event to discuss how Australia’s marketing leaders are future-proofing organisations.
The event took place in Sydney this month and included speakers from LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, Cronulla Sharks and Wunderman-Bienalto. Marketo ANZ Managing Director Bill Binch hosted the event, highlighting the evolving role of the marketer in a digitally competitive environment throughout.
“The seat at the revenue table comes with great responsibility and a need to become great technologists … We are engaging in conversations, not one-way monologues. We are building touchpoints across the entire lifecycle and not just focusing on acquisition marketing.”
A panel discussion involving LinkedIn, Google and Facebook explored collaboration in digital marketing and how technology is facilitating stronger relationships with customers as well as internal stakeholders.
Digital technology has provoked a great change in the way we communicate, said head of marketing ANZ at LinkedIn Sales Solutions Ben Eatwell, and has thus effected the buy-sell dynamic.
“It’s dramatically changed the expectations of buyers. You are now competing with every experience, not just your competition. Buyers are constantly demanding more excitement, and a better way to engage”, said Eatwell.
Marketers must harness the knowledge contained within their own organisations to deliver a better customer experience, “Imagine if you knew what you know (across the business)” speaking about crucial data held by different functions.
“It’s (the focus on the customer) been the biggest change I’ve seen at Google over the past few years”, said Maureen Morris, head of industry sales strategy and insights. “It’s a work in progress as we all try to be more customer centric – and understanding them and how we can do that through data and technology.
“It’s a work in progress as we all try to be more customer centric. But it still comes back to the customer, and understanding them and how we can do that through data and technology.”
Jason Juma-Ross, head of technology at Facebook, said improving the communication channel between customers and businesses is critical to improving satisfaction. “As human beings, we’re all hungry for this. We want to engage with organisations in a way that suits us. The traditional silos in marketing have prevented this from happening”.
Scott Maxworthy, Head of Digital Commercialisation at Cronulla Sharks, spoke about the club’s ‘Digital Road to the Grand Final’, and how working with Marketo helped boost fan engagement.
“We had to choose one area of the business where we could pilot the tech and we chose our membership. We were getting about 1.2 million website visitors, but our fan member data base was only 42,000. So there was an obvious disconnect”, said Maxworthy.
“We picked Marketo as the marketing automation tool to help us personalise the customer experience. We have a lot of stakeholders and having that underlying architecture allows us to build a single view of the customer and incorporate this into everything we do.”
Wunderman-Bienalto’s CEO Hurol Inan rounded out the event by bringing the talent, tech and tools together, giving his Five Lessons in Change urging organisational leaders to be bold in approaching transformation.
“Organisations are ripe for disruption – whether its internal or external. Becoming customer-centric to provide better value for customers is a critical part of creating value for the organisation, said Inan.
“You don’t just play around the edges, change buttons on the website, you want to find things that are big enough to make a significant impact on your business outcomes.”
Full list of speakers
Bill Binch: Marketo Managing Director APAC
Jason Juma-Ross: Head of Technology at Facebook
Maureen Morris: Head of Industry Sales Strategy and Insights at Google
Ben Eatwell: Head of Marketing ANZ at LinkedIn
Scott Maxworthy: Head of Digital Commercialisation, Cronulla Sharks
Hurol Inan: CEO, Wunderman-Bienalto
