Ad agencies get kickbacks and not passing the savings on to clients. What are the chances? The cluelessness of CMOs is going to come back and bite them in the ass. So far nobody has connected the dots. The CMOs have not taken the blame for this mess. But pretty soon CEOs are going to figure out who was asleep at the wheel according to Bob Hoffman.
The “business” of marketing is not dead. Ad agencies stroking the ego’s of clueless CMO’s to get more money while they dodge questions on kickbacks and ad effectiveness. I mean, does anyone really believe those Liberty Mutual insurance ads when there are so many people who say that “they suck” online?
I have seen first hand how the big agencies cuddle and stroke clients to get their business while CMO’s fudge numbers to show their ads are working. It happens a lot more than you think and it’s still going on every day.
Senior “C” suite executives are demanding more accountability from marketers and for good reason. Too many marketers believe in soft metrics that have nothing to do with sales. They jump on the new hype like “we have to change our marketing to reach Millennials” or “we have to be on mobile because that’s where people are”. They trust hype more than research and never look beyond the statistics.
The good news is that eventually people will see that they are naked and ask them to get the hell out. They will be replaced with people who can actually think for themselves… what a novel idea.
