Chief communications officers globally are increasingly taking on marketing responsibilities, according to the fifth annual The Rising CCO survey. The rate of global CCOs who have oversight of marketing duties increased from 26% in 2012 to 35% in 2104.
The survey of just over 200 chief communications officers in the world’s largest companies is conducted by global PR firm Weber Shandwick and executive search firm Spencer Stuart.
“[The increase] shows the importance of engagement and dialogue in terms of the ultimate marketing success of organizations,” said Greg Power, president of Weber Shandwick Canada. “Organizations are looking at who understands that best and in more and more cases, they’re deciding that it’s the communications person, which is really new.”
There is also a rise in the reported prominence of public relations as a component of the overall marketing mix. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of CCOs surveyed agree that PR has risen in status over the past few years.
Social media continues to be a game changer
Fully 91% of CCOs expect social media to increase in importance more than other communications responsibilities over the next few years. This finding is consistent across every region in the study, which includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Globally, CCOs expect mobile (73%) and video production (69%) to increase in importance as well.
“Social media has [created] a seismic change in their role because it’s made the public visible to the C-suite in a way that it never was before in terms of how people perceive a company’s reputation, how they experience their brands and how they talk about you,” said Power.
“The second part of it is a lot of companies recognize that they need to tell their own story. Media is still very important… but now you have the opportunity through content hubs and social media channels to engage your target audience in a dialogue about what they care about and tell your story on your terms.”
CCOs see effectiveness in media integration
CCOs use traditional and social media for different purposes and see effectiveness in integrating both for some communications activities, including crisis resolution, and not for others. Nearly two-thirds of CCOs (63%) find traditional and social media to be equally effective for resolving a crisis or issue.
“If you’re in a communications role and you’re dealing with building or protecting a reputation, you’ve got to know how to behave in both of those spheres,” said Power. “You’ve got to be effective in listening and in storytelling in both of those formats if you’re going to be able to do your job.”
At least half of CCOs report that traditional and social media are equally effective for retaining customers (58%), attracting new customers (54%) and creating awareness of a new product or service (50%). Traditional media is viewed as more effective for announcing financial performance (76%) and promoting the visibility of senior executives (54%), while social media is more effective for attracting talent (56%). Overall, CCOs report that their external communications focus more on traditional media (64%) than social media (36%).
The “golden era” for communicators
The survey found that 90% of CCOs have content publishing on their agendas, and the move toward content marketing has given CCOs a bigger voice their organizations.
“It’s kind of the golden era for internal communicators because they truly have a seat at the table now that is more meaningful than it was previously,” said Power. “Their job is more complicated and it’s about telling stories as opposed to answering questions or trying to keep a company out of the news… More and more they’re an important voice in what’s happening in marketing within their organization.”
Fifty-eight per cent of CCOs report they create and publish their own content, 18% are in the process of preparing to become an original content publisher, and 14% are considering becoming an original content publisher in the future.
The vast majority of CCOs (86%) agree that the changes in the media environment in the past few years have had a significant impact on communications strategies, and they expect the landscape to continue to evolve. More than one-quarter of global CCOs (28%) expect the media environment to change extensively over the next few years. Another 51% are moderately bullish about change to come.
