Career Boosters is a monthly e-panel discussion led by Boost Agents. We scout out leaders in the marketing, digital, communications and advertising spaces to provide their perspectives on industry topics related to career development, talent acquisition and hiring practices.
For this feature, we spoke to Chantal Tomlinson, CIO and VP technology and innovation at World Vision Canada; Darryl Clews, marketing IT at GSK; and Anshul Kumar, sales and marketing technologist at Addictive Mobility.
What is a marketing technologist?
Tomlinson: The marketing technologist ensures the tools and technology are effectively married to the creative and communications theory of the marketing world. They champion experimentation, analytics, big data and an agile management style.
Clews: An experienced marketing technologist would understand their CMO’s priorities and would be able to recommend the appropriate technology to achieve their business objectives. They can speak to the leader in a way they can understand and describe the business requirements for investing in marketing technology.
Kumar: A marketing technologist serves as a bridge between the CMO and CIO.
What skills does a successful marketing technologist possess?
Tomlinson: You need to love technology and embrace technological changes. You need to be an avid learner and want to try new things. You also need to be a champion for change in your organization. Change is not easy, specially if technology threatens the way things are done. And don’t be afraid to fail. The organization will need to change along with the technological changes and cultural changes take time. A marketing technologist will be supporting this change in ways they never thought possible.
Clews: Initially, I feel it is important to have an experience in building software or data driven websites. I would strongly encourage those considering a career as a marketing technologist to pursue SCRUM (Agile) courses and certifications. Your marketing department will benefit from increased productivity, transparency, feature prioritization of value and your flexibility to change.
Kumar: A successful marketing technologist must be tech savvy, have a passion for marketing, and an understanding of the brand’s digital content universe.
Can you speak to the similarities and differences between marketing technologists and creative technologists?
Tomlinson: Marketing professionals continue to manage the creative aspects of a campaign from the creation of content, expression of brand and call to action. Technology can absolutely support this process, but as an input into the larger creative marketing effort. Creative technologists are there to support the larger marketing efforts. A marketing technologist is very different, and in many ways plays a leadership role. It is no longer enough to look reactively to website analytics, or wait for the response from a direct mail piece. Marketers instead are able to respond instantly and anticipate what will be required, create personalized and more importantly relevant experiences at the time of engagement.
Clews: I believe a creative technologist role evolved from our marketing agencies where brand teams needed them to develop the user experience (UX) and user interfaces (UI) for digital channels. However, in companies we realized that digital channels needed to integrate with several marketing systems such as CRM, Analytics and Social. That’s where a marketing technologist can bridge the gap between marketing objectives and a traditional IT department.
Kumar: While both make data-driven decisions and are tech-focused, marketing technologists look at customer data and are able to understand their audience segment. Creative technologists create relevant real-time content that is delivered to the audience segment.
How can a marketing technologist impact an organization’s marketing budgets and digital marketing efforts?
Tomlinson: Marketing technologists can help facilitate a number of functions that were once available for only the wealthiest organizations. Leveraging technological functions such as analytics, digital focus groups, multivariate testing, a marketing technologist has the ability to engage and support tests in a cost-effective, efficient manner. In addition, with the growth in available data and measurement tools, a good marketing technologist is able to attribute the effects of the company’s marketing efforts to the bottom line, providing for a better overall vision to strategic planners.
Clews: A marketing technologist who is empowered in their organization can avoid purchasing the same software twice or invest in capabilities they don’t need at this time. This cost avoidance should benefit the the digital marketing efforts to have funding available for campaign innovation.
Kumar: Everyone knows digital spend has increased over the years, but a lot of the dollars are being wasted on users who are not receptive to your product. Having a clear strategy and understanding your brand CRM data, you can deliver your audiences with the right message at the right time.
In order to be an effective marketing technologist, what personal brand must an individual embody?
Tomlinson: An effective marketing technologist is not necessarily concerned with developing their personal brand. They are likely to be active in the digital space, but at the speed current technology is progressing, professional marketing technologists are better off spending their time experimenting with tools, data sets, case studies and platforms, as opposed to focusing on the building of their personal following.
Clews: Find multiple ways to be always producing value for your organization and focus on the marketing technology stacks that you are passionate about. People will naturally associate you being a subject matter expert in that marketing technology and count on you to educate, advocate and deliver their business objectives.
Kumar: [They] must be analytical problem solvers, content curators, and understand the constantly changing landscape of digital environment.
