AEG: ‘CMOs need to be rebranded chief cognitive officers’

Speaking today (June 26) at Marketing Week Live, AEG Europe’s executive VP of marketing Kimberly Kriss applauded the shift in how marketers operate, using data-led insights to inform how they make decisions, adding “science needs bringing back to marketing”.

The approach has led to AEG Europe, which owns the O2 Arena and runs festivals such as Coachella, save millions in its marketing budget this year alone, Kriss added.

This in turn can help refine and better personalise marcomms and bust the “myth” of the ‘death of the CMO’.

“CMOs should not think of themselves as CMOs, but as Chief Cognitive Officers [CCOs],” she said, adding “marketing departments should be built with digital, analysts, CRM and activation.”

During her presentation, Kriss also claimed AEG has “saved over £1.5m during the last six months” by using data sourced from its social audiences, such as engaged Twitter users, crossed-referenced with third-party sets, to reduce wastage in its marketing budget.

“Your virtual boardroom should never be empty,” she said when discussing how consumers now readily give cues to marketers on the kind of products they are interested in.

Kriss also used the address to advise her peers to rely on “millennials”, i.e. those born from the 1980s onwards, to help drive the transition to digitally-led marketing which resonates with consumers, both on- and off-line.

This shift in strategy has led Kriss to forecast that 40 per cent of AEG Europe’s tickets sales this year will come via mobile devices – this is up from 16 per cent last year – as consumers start researching their purchases across devices.

This success has been built on using organic SEO and social media marketing, as opposed to paid-for placements, according to Kriss.