CMO Council To Explore Martech Innovation At DEMO Traction

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- How do fast-track marketing technology innovators gain the attention of CMOs, the new powerhouse buyer of customer engagement, big data analytics and go-to-market solutions? One upcoming opportunity will be the DEMO Traction event in Boston on September 16. 

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and DEMO are working together to showcase innovation in martech at the upcoming DEMO Traction event, which will be held September 16 in Boston. The focus of DEMO Traction is to connect more than 30 promising growth startups with prospective customers and investors. A key focus at DEMO Traction is to support CMOs and their evaluation of emerging tech by showcasing five martech startups, as well as incorporating special CMO-focused programming around martech innovation in the conference agenda. We are now accepting applications for martech startups to participate in DEMO Traction. For more information and to apply, visit http://www.demo.com/DTRBSMarTech.

"There is an overwhelming number of new MarTech innovations out there that need to be screened, evaluated and tested," notes Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. "Most CMOs have little mindshare for this, so programs like DEMO Traction offer a natural filtering mechanism to surface the best offerings. Picking winners is not easy, but putting serious buyers in front of qualified suppliers will certainly help."

Erick Schonfeld, DEMO Executive Producer, notes, "DEMO Traction will bring the next generation of marketing technology startups to Boston—from smart data and predictive analytics to video, mobile and social CRM. These proven companies are growing fast for a reason—because they bring real returns to marketing executives."

Some 9,000 members of the CMO Council control an estimated $450 billion in annual aggregated marketing spend, and a growing share of this is being invested in digital marketing solutions, services and channels.

With nearly 3,000 marketing applications clamoring for attention, it has become a real challenge for CMOs to staff up with knowledgeable personnel and collaborate with IT groups to assess where they need to progress. This includes mapping marketing technology architectures, embracing cloud migration, fine-tuning application selection, managing data unification, as well as integrating with back-end systems and infrastructures. 

A global CMO Council study, "Integrate to Accelerate Digital Marketing Effectiveness," found that just 9 percent of more than 200 global marketers surveyed say they have a highly evolved digital marketing model with a proven and clear path of evolution. This compares to 36 percent who report a random embrace of marketing point solutions (many cloud-based) that are not well integrated or unified.

When asked which digital marketing processes and functions had the most appeal to management and LOB leaders, top selections included:

• Customer data integration, analytics and personalization of market interactions (62 percent)
• Lead acquisition, conversion and upselling/cross-selling of customers (60 percent)
• Website performance improvement and richer engagement (61 percent)
• Behavior-based insight gathering for more effective segmentation and messaging (41 percent)
• Search marketing and online advertising (39 percent)

When it comes to assessing which digital marketing platforms, solutions and channels will provide the most value and business gain, the study found that chief marketers tend to look inward to their own teams to determine needs and priorities (59 percent) rather teaming with IT to specify requirements (32 percent). A surprising 77 percent of marketers said their primary source for evaluating and specifying marketing technologies was their own internal team. More turned to vendors and solution providers (46 percent) than their own IT departments (42 percent). However, only 14 percent were highly satisfied with these resources.

The CMO Council's move to identify and promote marketing technology innovation will start at DEMO Traction in Boston and will possibly be replicated at similar events worldwide. It is in discussions with incubators, accelerators and venture capital firms to identify disruptive innovators in the marketing automation space. The CMO Council is also looking to set up an online Solution Sourcing Center, where members could share experiences and gain trusted, peer-based referrals.

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is the only global network of executives specifically dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 9,000 members control more than $450 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 35,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. The council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Mobile Relationship Marketing (MRM) Strategies Forum, LoyaltyLeaders.org, CMOCIOAlign.org, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Institute, GeoBranding Center and the Brand Inspiration Center. Learn more at www.cmocouncil.org.

About the DEMO Conferences

Produced by IDG, the DEMO conferences in the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and Vietnam focus on emerging technologies and new product innovations. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies and have served as launchpad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Salesforce, WebEx, TiVo, VMware, Fusion-io and thousands of others, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships and influence early adopters. The DEMO Scholarship Partner Program, subsidized by corporate sponsorships, offers multiple scholarship opportunities to ensure that deserving entrepreneurs have the chance to introduce cutting-edge technological products at DEMO, which might have otherwise gone undiscovered.

To attend or apply to DEMO, please go to www.demo.com.
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SOURCE CMO Council

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