It’s generally considered one of the best – and most emotional – commercials of all-time.

All it takes is two words and most marketing people know exactly what it is.

Apple. 1984.

With the Big Game only a few days away, marketers around the world are gearing up for one of their biggest days. A day filled with ads that evoke laughter, happiness, fear and all kinds of other emotions in their consumers.

But, should those commercials evoke such emotions? And, what happens when they do – without leading directly to sales and an increase in company revenue?

A recent article from eMarketer calls for the Chief Marketing Officer to be at the same table as the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Executive Officer. In short, if the CMO isn’t directly aligned with the CFO and the CEO, they run the risk of developing marketing messages that don’t also drive ROI, more revenue and/or more customers.

In addition, this same article points to the fact that the CMO is likely the person with the most audience/customer demographic knowledge in your company. That additional knowledge of your customer is invaluable as you make strategic decisions about the future of your company and how best to allocate resources to grow your revenue base.

If you are a marketing professional – or even the owner, CEO or CFO of your business – with decades of experience, none of this likely surprises you. The landscape of marketing has shifted before our eyes in the last two years. Customers are different, so the marketing we need to do to reach those customers is different. And, that difference is the reason why marketing professionals now need to wear so many different hats – from market expert to event planner and from social media manager to website manager.

Those last two roles weren’t chosen randomly. According to a recent survey of locally-owned SMBs by Borrell Associates, the top four characteristics that a SMB is looking for when hiring a marketing professional are:

1. Social media management
2. Creative thinking
3. Website management
4. Email management

Sure, large corporations likely have several people to handle these, while an SMB likely has one person. But, the message is the same. Owners and CEOs, regardless of their company’s size, need a marketing professional who can do many things, be a strong leader and voice for their company and drive ROI through the various marketing channels their brand is seen in.

And, this is what a marketing professional should want. The great ones want to be held accountable for their efforts. They want data driven solutions that show a direct ROI for their department and their business. They want a way to prove that what they do each day is effective.

At the Times Union Media Group, we work with marketing professionals from companies both big and small. And we hear the same thing from each of them. They are thankful that we make their jobs easier. In fact, we’ve had several marketing professional move from one company to another and bring their relationship with us to their new business.

So, whether you are a marketing professional, a business owner, a CFO or a CEO, we want to help you grow your business. Just reach out today and we can show you how.

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