These heady early days of GenAI seem equal parts opportunity and threat. In today’s #Hashtags, we talk about how comms and marketing leaders are racing to protect their brands from deep fakes and bad actors externally — while fending off damaging missteps and backlash inside their own walls.

Best practices are constantly evolving in the digital marketing terrain. To help CMOs keep pace and drive growth, Gartner identified this year’s Genius brands, whose digital marketing performance eclipses that of their peers. In today’s #Hashtags — what CMOs can learn from their success.

Collaboration drag. Design friction. Change and uncertainty. None of this sounds like fun, and it’s what many marketing teams are dealing with. New data from Gartner’s Marketing Talent Survey spotlights some of these urgent challenges which, unaddressed, can keep teams from innovation and success.

For years, CMOs have led the charge in managing customer data, relying heavily on customer data platforms. Despite greater consensus on capabilities, CDP tech is increasingly turbulent. CMOs need to act strategically in order to lead on customer data — and Gartner’s new Magic Quadrant can help.

While economic indicators point to a robust economy and good days ahead, someone forgot to tell consumers. New data shows that even as they continue to spend, consumers are more skeptical and less loyal. This dynamic is catching many CMOs off-guard and has big implications for 2024 planning.

Developing a great loyalty program takes a lot of effort — with heavy investment in customer understanding, new technologies and market research. Ironically, many organizations do the hard part, but fail to communicate with their customers — effectively undermining their own loyalty programs.

The time for playing with ChatGPT is over! Now is the moment for marketers and communicators to step up and implement AI with a strategic, disciplined approach that reflects the business realities of their entire organization — and prepares them for the real-world impacts this technology is unleashing.

Headlines paint a picture of improving economic indicators, from inflation and jobs to consumer spending. Yet consumer sentiment continues to lean negative and skeptical. Marketing and Communications leaders who understand the underlying trends are best positioned to catalyze success in 2024.

CMOs face new challenges as Google’s generative AI search is set to reshape how consumers search and receive information. Maintaining brand visibility and keeping the click-rates up will require marketing leaders to adopt a nuanced strategy for their content and website experience.

Today’s B2B buyer is a digital-first buyer — one who increasingly expresses preference to navigate their purchase process without the aid of a sales rep. But an over-reliance on digital by both buyers and B2B brands can lead to poor outcomes for both parties.

The direct-to-customer route is a tantalizing opportunity for brands to deliver incremental revenue and profit, but it isn’t the right fit for everyone. CMOs must answer: “How do I determine if selling direct to customers is right for my brand?”

The majority of CMOs say they need to make significant changes to their organization-- and they’re throwing large amounts of budget towards driving continuous improvement, transformation and change. But with impact often in question, it’s time for CMOs to re-visit their marops investment.

Marketers may be undermining their own growth thanks to a truncated view of their funnel. If leaders want to fuel growth in 2024, they’ll need to capitalize on the immense potential energy of a brand that’s fully integrated with customer experience.

Brand and customer experience are about improving the experiences that a company delivers to customers. But at many organizations, they operate independently. This disconnect results in experiences that don’t align with either the brand promise or CX best practices — ultimately hurting both.

Creating value is one thing — communicating it is another! The ability to clearly convey the value of marketing and communications to internal audiences allows CMOs and CCOs to secure and defend budgets, rally buy-in and support for initiatives, and bolster credibility across the organization.

Marketing technology is crucial for the marketing function, but benefits are elusive for many. Can a new breed of AI-powered tools change that? Findings from Gartner's latest martech survey clarify the watershed nature of this moment: to double down on the present, or start looking to the future.

Marketers are used to serving humans, but what happens when your best customers aren’t human? Gartner is projecting that billions of machine customers, powered by Generative AI, will upend the marketing function. CMOs must ensure their marketing playbook will remain relevant.

Shrinking margins, excess inventory and inflationary trends exacerbate the need for markdowns. To avoid brand equity erosion and a perpetual expectation for discounts, B2C CMOs must change the way they think about discounting—especially when dealing with Gen Z.

Digital engagement is complex, customers are tuning brands out, and most digital initiatives fail to meet CFO and Board expectations. In today’s environment, CMOs need to generate better reciprocal value between brands and customers. The answer lies in “catalytic” digital experiences.

Marketing budgets face a surprising reduction in digital spend — including mounting pressure to cut martech. CMOs’ investment priorities need to shift in new and sometimes counterintuitive ways. Today, we talk trends and read the tea leaves on Gartner’s 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey.

Organizations often struggle to generate and facilitate ideas that fuel innovation and growth. One remedy: Tap the power of “going rogue.” This #Hashtags Podcast episode empowers marketing and communications leaders to improve innovation through the principles and skills that define rogue thinking.

It can feel like the AI conversation leans toward apocalyptic debate — it’s either destroying humanity, or saving us all. In the midst of great uncertainty, now is the time for marketing and communications leaders to take the reins on AI — steering it to influence people’s behavior for the better.

CMOs are increasingly turning to D&A to help their teams make faster, bolder, more effective decisions. But being successfully data-driven is less about data, and more about how savvy marketers are inputting that data to use. Even better — you don’t have to be a data scientist to do it.

Consumer spending in digital channels grows at a double-digit rate every year, generating a valuable revenue stream. But in the race for revenue, marketers need to beware of engaging in routine e-commerce tactics that are actually unethical — and potentially very damaging to their brand.