Do You Want a Chief Marketing or Metric Officer?

How important do you think it is for a CMO to be creative?

Traditionally, a CMO is defined as Chief Marketing Officer. I saw an interview with a company that was seriously considering changing its definition to Chief Metric Officer. They felt measuring the metrics of campaigns was far more important than the creativity in today’s market.

When you look at recent economic events, let’s say over the last three years, and factor in that an average CMO remains in one job for only 18 months, to me the title change is an excuse. How important is being creative? Before social media, a CMO had to come up with a campaign, execute it, get approval and make sure it went live. The timing was critical and results were traceable, only to a degree. If a campaign went wrong, the CMO had to start all over and couldn’t release a counter-campaign for another six months to one year or longer.

Today, while yes there is still planning and approval, generally speaking, a CMO has to be more creative because now there are more mediums than just TV and newspaper ads. Campaigns can and do change daily based on viewer responses. That being said, today’s CMO needs to be more creative than ever, be able to think on their feet and understand the numbers.

Don’t get me wrong, numbers are very important and never lie—but they also don’t tell the whole story!

So what is your take on creativity—Is it more important today?