Last updated on June 25th, 2019 at 10:06 am
Consulting firm Accenture this week will begin trying to reach chief marketing officers through their earbuds with a podcast series, called Marketing Disrupted, that explores the challenges they face in harnessing digital technologies.
All seven episodes of the Marketing Disrupted podcast are already available and feature a range of marketing leaders beginning with former Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hazlitt. Others on the program include digital evangelist Guy Kawasaki, Shopify marketing director Arati Sharma and executives from Google and Adobe.
Brent Chaters, managing director of Accenture’s Digital Customer & Marketing Transformation practice in Canada, said while there are plenty of marketing-related podcasts on services like iTunes/Apple podcasts and Google Play already, Marketing Disrupted is debuting at a time when more of the CMO’s budget is shifting to digital than ever before.
“It starts to make you rethink what a digital-first company might look like,” Chaters told B2B News Network at the launch party in Toronto on Monday evening. “Marketing isn’t just about brand. It’s about owning customer outcomes. The CMO now has to work with the chief financial officer, the chief technology officer.”
Chaters said he’s often getting questions from clients and others about what the evolution of the CMO means for the wider marketing team, and in particular what kinds of skills they’ll need to be successful. Marketing Disrupted will now serve as an on-demand resource with in-depth answers to those kinds of questions, he said. Of course, the podcast could also serve as a way to keep Accenture top of mind when brands are struggling with various aspects of digital transformation.
“As marketers we’re all thinking about where do we go next,” he said. “If there’s something we (at Accenture) can do to help, I’d love to have a conversation.”
The firm has chosen Amber MacArthur, more popularly known as Amber Mac, who has a long history of reporting on technological change in Canadian broadcasting and online, as the podcast’s co-host.
“One of the themes that seemed to emerge from a lot of the interviews is that you can’t plan too far ahead,” Mac told the audience during a Q&A at the launch event. “You need to be open to pivoting along the way, or something I call relentless adaptation.”
Besides looking at “the new CMO,” Marketing Disrupted’s season includes episodes focusing on “balancing data and desire,” personalization and corporate social responsibility.
