World-class marketing campaigns aren't enough anymore!

World-class marketing campaigns aren’t enough anymore.  In the past, a marketer could “wow” the senior management of their company with amazing creative work that was totally on message.  Whether it was a commercial, a print ad, a banner ad, an out-of-home board, etc., it was magical to the executives.  Marketers had a certain panache, an aura of understanding that was almost zen-like in its appearance.  Nobody was sure why certain things were “successful” from the marketing department, but you could look at the output and judge for yourself whether it touched your sense of direction or not. 

However, the landscape of the company management world has definitely changed.  What was a recognizable forest in the past is now a completely open plain.  Everything is exposed.  Social media, emails, web-reporting, to name a few, now highlight marketing investments that in the past were easy to keep from public scrutiny.  Today’s leaders are as concerned about a potential social media viral storm as they are of a hostile takeover.

Enter the age of marketing accountability.  It’s been coming on the horizon for a long time – and its now here.  If a senior manager cannot prove to his/her constituents that an investment has a return (more sales, more anything!), they are literally taking risks with their careers.  People do not become senior managers by taking risk – they rise on the tide of others taking risk and staying just far away enough from it to keep from being burned.  They enter the picture when the fire is gone and there are rewards to be reaped. 

So that great commercial or creative ad of the past, while still very important for a number of reasons, cannot stand as the sole justification of the large investments involved.  The senior managers need something to explain why they did it – and what the benefits or returns on that investment produced.