We are bringing you news and highlights from the 2024 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, taking place this week in Denver, Colorado.

Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On Day 3, we are highlighting the future of customer data in marketing, advertising automation and the challenges CMOs are facing as GenAI erodes marketing's value proposition.

Key Announcements

Press Releases and other conference updates links can be added here:

Gartner Survey Reveals Marketing and Sales Functions Collaborate on Only Three Out of 15 Commercial Activities

Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo 2024: Day 2 Highlights

Gartner Marketing Survey Finds 84% of Business Leaders and Employees Agree their Company Identity Must Change Significantly to Achieve Objectives

The Big Bet: Radical Prioritization as a Marketing Strategy

Presented by Chris Ross, VP Analyst, Gartner

Prioritization is a pressing challenge for 71% of marketing leaders. Many struggle with the challenges of short-term priorities interfering with long-term strategies, and many CMOs struggle to prioritize effectively given their limited resources. In his session, Chris Ross, VP Analyst at Gartner, outlined the concept of radical prioritization and explored how CMOs can begin to make big bets that drive big results.

Key Takeaways

'CMOs struggle to make the 'big bets', those single significant initiatives that have a major impact. This is because, instead of being able to identify one key priority to pursue, everything is a priority. CMOs need to be radical when it comes to prioritization.'

'Not addressing prioritization can create very real issues. Teams end up working on so many competing priorities that they struggle to make progress on anything. Teams become burnt out and CMOs struggle to create real impact.'

'Radical prioritization differs from regular prioritization in three key areas:

Narrow focus on a small number of initiatives rather than broad business support

Active deselection of initiatives, rather than juggling a large volume of requests

Objective-focused, not service focused'

'To prioritize effectively, CMOs need to 'purge the zombies': those middling initiatives that are positive, but mediocre, and fail to drive exceptional results. Focus instead on those initiatives that provide disproportionate value to the organization.'

'Communicate that marketing is a finite resource, but expect some pushback. Rally executive-level support, be explicit about your team's need for extreme focus, and set expectations. Actively, consistently purge initiatives that don't have impact and continuously recalibrate your function's priorities.'

It's Time to Renegotiate Marketing's Value Proposition

Presented by Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst, Gartner

As GenAI erodes marketing's value proposition, CMOs need to reset perceptions of the unique value it offers the organization. In his session, Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst at Gartner, explored the challenges CMOs face in proving marketing's value, and how they can build a value story that goes beyond ROI.

Key Takeaways

'CMOs face three hard truths in 2024:

Stakeholders still don't really understand the value of marketing: proving the impact of marketing's value is one of the most urgent priorities for CMOs.

Value perception gaps hurt. It matters whether stakeholders view marketing as a cost center, or a profit center that drives value creation for the organization.

Proving value is not a data challenge. 9.8% of CMO budgets are spent on marketing data and analytics, yet CMOs still struggle to prove marketing's value, because it's not a data problem.'

It's time to face down the hard truths about marketing's value:

Understand why your stakeholders don't understand marketing's value

Prioritize campaigns that focus on marketing's enterprise value

Create value narrative that focuses on changing perceptions'

'From a CFO's perspective, marketing has a messy value case: its scope is complex and varied, and its value is intangible and ephemeral.'

'Imagine value as a negotiation - marketing campaigns should be laser focused on aiding your negotiating position. They need to create messages that:

Motivate - make it worth it for your audience to invest

Challenge - prompt reappraisal of assumptions or biases

Minimize - area easy for the audience to process'

The Future of Customer Data in Marketing

Presented by Lizzy Foo Kune, VP Analyst, Gartner

As GenAI erodes marketing's value proposition, CMOs need to reset perceptions of the unique value it offers the organization. In her session, Lizzy Foo Kune, VP Analyst at Gartner, explored the challenges CMOs face in proving marketing's value, and how they can build a value story that goes beyond ROI.

Key Takeaways

'CMOs are still reeling from the waves of change impacting customer data in recent years, from data privacy regulations to technological developments such as customer data platforms (CDPs).'

'Marketing will begin to lose control of customer data and technology as IT centralizes enterprise ownership. CMOs should increase their focus on data purpose rather than data management and guide the organization with their insights and experience.'

'Gartner predicts that by 2026, 75% of businesses will use GenAI to create synthetic customer data, up from less than 5% in 2023.'

'Machine customers will drive change. To prepare, CMOs should ensure their customer data model can identify and categorize machine customers.'

'To prepare for future disruptions, CMOs should conduct scenario planning with cross-functional stakeholders and ensure their vision for customer relationship, data exchange and use-cases is ready for these changes.'

It's not too late to join the conference!

Watch this space for more updates throughout the day.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization's mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

(C) 2024 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire