THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey

Sponsored by

THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Introduction
Enterprise marketers face nonstop budgetary, resource, and global collaboration pressures during the best oftimes. These stresses were further intensified in 2020, thanks to the worldwide pandemic coupled with tremendous political and economic turbulence. Now more than ever, CMOs are focused on ROI and business impact.
To successfully meet the realities of marketing in 2021, CMOs are relying significantly more on their marketing
operations team — a powerhouse group of professionals in charge of the technology, data, and processes thatenable their organization to run effectively and optimize their marketing ROI.
But what are the realities of marketing ops endeavors in 2021? How do CMOs value the marketing operations
function? How critical are marketing ops team members to their organization, and do they fit in? Is the martech
stack delivering on the promise to improve marketing agility? And most important, what are the challenges holding companies back from continually improving their marketing return on investment?
The following report, sponsored by BrandMaker, is based on an online survey of more than one hundred CMOs
and similar top marketing executives working in large retail, financial services, and fast-moving consumer goods(FMCG) companies.

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Key Findings• Marketing operations is a top CMO focus- Marketing operations is the number two skill reported by top marketing executives; only marketing strategy rated more highly- And yet, 65% report that they struggle to simplify operational data into meaningful insights, and 41%
report issues making sense of too many data sources- 62% want their team to spend more time on marketing operations, tied for first place with marketingstrategy• The 2021 marketing operations team is evolving- 70% have a dedicated marketing ops team
- 73% report marketing ops is responsible for both martech and tracking campaign performance- 66% say marketing operations reports exclusively into the marketing organization- 95% state that marketing operations professionals are different than other marketing staff• The marketing operations tech stack is a priority for 2021
- The top desired market improvement 2021 is better integration of the technology stack- Only 10% are fully satisfied with their martech- 89% plan to spend more on marketing operations solutions in 2021

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Detailed Findings: Marketing operations is a top CMO focus
CMOs are confident in their marketing operations skills
There is an outdated stereotype that paints the CMO as a bigger-than-life personality who wows the C-suite withemotional advertising ideas but is so incompetent with technology that they can’t use email or read a spreadsheet. This stereotype could not be further from the reality of a CMO in 2021. Data and applications drive themodern marketing world, and today’s CMO is a business builder who must demonstrate that their strategy ispaying off.
When asked about the skills that they are most confident in this year, more than a third (38%) of top marketing
executives say marketing operations, second only to marketing strategy (64%) and well above financial management (24%), campaign management (14%), brand building (12%), and other skills.

Of the following CMO-level functions, which do you feel that you are the BEST at?
Choose up to 2 of the following.
Marketing strategy

64%Marketing operations

38%
24%

Financial management
Martech (Marketing Technology) management

19%

Campaign management

14%
12%

Brand building
Pipeline and lead generation11%

People management10%

I am not good at any of these things

0%0%

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10%

20%

30%

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40%

50%

60%

70%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

And yet, simplifying data is a top challenge
While CMOs are confident in their marketing operations skills, this does not mean they don’t experienceobstacles. Almost all (91%) say they encounter challenges presenting data to their executive team, with nearly
two-thirds (65%) of CMOs reporting that they struggle to simplify operational data into meaningful insights.
Other data-related challenges cited include struggling to aggregate large amounts of data into ROI proof points(47%) and too many data sources to easily make sense of it (41%). Fortunately, only a few (11%) report that they
don’t trust their data, which is very good news.

What challenges do you face when preparing presentations to your executive
team on marketing activities and outcomes?
Choose up to 3 of the following.
Simplifying the detailed operational data my teamprovides into meaningful insights

65%

Communicating strategy with stakeholders that are notmarketing experts

52%

We have a ton of data but struggle with aggregating
into ROI proof points

47%

We have so many sources of data, it is hard to makesense of it

41%

We cannot access real-time data for a current view into
budget status and ROI

25%

I don't completely trust the data that I'm presenting

11%

It is not challenging to present to my executive team

9%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

After a year of constant uncertainty, CMOs witnessed firsthand how well their teams responded to changing
market environments and where they struggled. Issues bringing together budget and campaign performance data
frequently made it impossible to react to optimization opportunities in a timely way.

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Not surprisingly, 94% of marketing organizations face barriers. These include inadequate technology to support
marketing ops and new workflows (39%), lack of access to real-time budgets (34%), the inability to integrate andcorrelate information into meaningful insights (33%), inflexible processes hampering collaboration (29%), anddifficulties in adjusting campaigns for optimal global impact (28%).
What are the top barriers that your marketing team faces in effectively
responding to changing market environments?
Choose up to two of the following.
Inadequate technology to support efficient marketing
ops and new workflows

39%

Lack of access to real-time budget visibility hampers
our ability to redirect budget to where it is needed toeffect change

34%

The team struggles to integrate and correlate
information from across our organization intomeaningful insights to aid decision making

33%

Our processes are inflexible which hamper
collaboration, agility and quick decision making

29%

Difficult to adjust campaigns for optimal global impact

28%

We don't face any barriers

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5%

10%

15%

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20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Marketing strategy and marketing ops tie as the leading areas to dedicate more time
Effective marketing is vital if enterprises want to be successful, especially as market conditions continuallychange. Last year was a disrupter for most marketing organizations, and it taught global CMOs that they cannot
always predict what’s coming next. The challenges of 2020 encouraged many marketing organizations to become
more agile by extending marketing operations skills across such core areas as financial planning, campaign
execution, content creation and distribution, brand management, and performance measurement.
Marketing ops is central to the efficiency of marketing activities by helping teams collaborate across continents,
languages, local laws — and even internal silos. CMOs couldn’t agree more. Nearly two-thirds (62%) rank it anumber one priority (tied with marketing strategy) where they want their teams to spend more time compared toother critical areas such as brand building and lead generation.

Which of the following activities would you like you andyour team to spend more time on?
Choose all that apply.
Marketing operations

62%

Marketing strategy

62%

Brand building

41%

Financial management

40%

Campaign management

35%

Martech management

29%

People management

28%

Pipeline and lead generation
None of these are worth spending more time on

26%
0%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Conversely, when we asked top marketing executives what areas they preferred their teams to spend less time,they cited people management (26%), martech management (19%), financial management (17%), pipeline andlead generation (17%), campaign management (15%), brand building (10%), and marketing strategy (9%). Only atiny number (6%) noted marketing operations.

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Marketing teams struggle with global campaign coordination
Global marketers admit that they are at a crisis point where they simply don’t have the budgets, the time, or
the personnel to meet the full range of demands for worldwide campaign management in what has become the“new normal.” In fact, 90% of marketing teams struggle with global campaign coordination. According to CMOs,
the most frequent challenges with their campaigns are missed opportunities for time-specific programs (44%),difficulties in shifting resources to respond to market changes (43%), delayed localization (41%), tedious review
cycles for content creation (37%), and the inability to change directions quickly to meet new market opportunities (29%). One CMO in our study was frustrated enough to take the time to write an “other” response, saying thatno single region has enough budget to move the needle.

How do struggles with global campaign coordination impact your marketing programs?
Choose all that apply.
Missed opportunities for seasonal or other time-specificprograms

44%

Difficult to quickly shift resources to respond to market changes(i e shift budget from brand to pipeline and back)43%

Localization is slow and adds significant delays to programs

41%

Content creation is slow because of the time intensive review
process37%

We cannot change direction quickly enough to respond to
new or changed market opportunities

29%

Other

1%

There is no impact on marketing outcomes

10%
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

These campaign coordination struggles are magnified for those organizations operating across more countries
where they need even more flexibility for the agile allocation of time, talent, and budgets to achieve optimal
campaign impact. Well over half (57%) cite localization issues, and close to half (45%) report slow-downs in content creation when their company operates across four or more countries.

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Detailed Findings: The 2021 marketing ops team is evolving
Marketing ops is typically a dedicated team that reports to marketing
In the past, marketing ops was an overshadowed marketing function that worked in the background to solveinternal pains. But during the last decades, marketing ops has evolved from something “nice to have” to an integral part of the marketing organization. Today, marketing doesn’t produce anything that does not require a set ofprocesses, data, technologies, and people to make it all happen.
The maturing of this core marketing function — through automation, digitalization, and integration of critical marketing systems — is transforming the marketing organization. This research shows that most companies(70%) have a dedicated marketing ops team to help minimize missed opportunities, maximize leads, and improvecustomer experience, and a further quarter (24%) have a shared responsibility. Only a small number (6%) still
have individuals that work alone on marketing operations tasks.

Who is responsible for marketing operations at your company?
Choose the one answer that most closely applies.
Individuals do marketing
operations tasks, but do
not work as a team6%

Shared responsibility
across teams
24%
Dedicatedmarketing ops team70%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Two of the primary goals of marketing operations are improving processes and promoting cross-department collaboration. Because of their more technical and analytical responsibilities required to get the job done, marketing
ops teams often straddle the organizational lines between marketing and the technology savvy in corporate
IT. However, most (66%) report directly to marketing, with only a handful of marketing operations teams (9%)
reporting to IT.
Where does your marketing operations organization report?
Choose the one answer that most closely applies.
Executive team1%
Matrix reporting
into bothmarketing and IT
23%

IT organization
9%

Marketingorganization
66%

n = has a dedicated or shared marketing ops team

Today’s marketing ops team is incredibly strategic to the business. Not only does marketing ops create repeatableprocesses and programs, but they also enable the whole organization to plan wisely for the future. Modern CMOs leanon their marketing ops teams to fulfill their roles as business builders with demonstrable efficiency improvements
and measurable ROI. When we further explore their specific areas of responsibilities, about three-quarters (73%) of
marketing ops teams have ownership for managing both marketing technology (martech) and campaign performance.
Which of the following best describes your marketing operations team’s responsibilities?
Choose the one answer that most closely applies.
21%

Only responsible for our operating ourmartech6%

Only responsible for tracking campaign
performance
Responsible for both martech and tracking
campaign performance73%

n = has a dedicated or shared marketing ops team

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

CMOs acknowledge their marketing ops staff is different from their other employees
Effective executives know how to lean into the strengths of their team and find effective management styles
for different types of employees. By their very nature, marketing operations professionals are not your typicalmarketers. Their expertise is in systems, processes, data management, and analytics. They tend to be very crossfunctional in terms of roles, and it’s not uncommon for these individuals to exhibit more left-brain skills.
When CMOs were asked to describe a typical marketing operations professional in their organization, 95% said
they were different from their other staff. The most frequent differences cited are marketing operations professionals are more logical and less emotional (42%), prefer a structured management style (42%), and often
struggle with loosely defined projects (35%). Fortunately, the stereotype of the marketing operations professional who works alone with their spreadsheets is not true. Only 13% of CMOs cite that their marketing ops teammembers are less likely to interact with their marketing ops staff, and 16% say they don’t interact with theirco-workers.
Think of a typical marketing operations professional in your organization How isthat individual different from the rest of your marketing staff?
Choose all that apply.
More logical and less emotional

42%

More likely to want a structured management style (formal
1-on-1s, etc.)

42%

More likely to struggle with loosely defined projects

35%

Need help to get out of the weeds of the data tocommunicate effectively

28%

Higher attrition rate

28%

Prefer a more structured review and approval process

27%

Do best when there are solid briefings and workflows tofollow

26%

They are hard to hire because the skills needed are nottypical of most marketing roles

24%

Lower understanding of our customer base24%

Not as likely to have outside-work interactions with their coworkers

16%
13%

I'm less likely to personally interact with them
There are no differences

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5%

10%

15%

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20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Detailed Findings: The marketing operations tech stack is a priority
for 2021
The martech stack is the top area for desired improvements in 2021
Sourcing, managing, and maintaining technology tools play a critical role in marketing operations. It’s no simple
task, though, as new tools are launched frequently, and the smallest of updates can affect the balance (and performance) of an enterprise martech stack. Often these tools are implemented independently, and the effort tointegrate data and workflows is so overwhelming that they run in silos. Analyzing financial and performance data
to understand if the team is delivering on their goals becomes a time-consuming manual process, and it is almost
impossible to analyze information to deliver real-time optimization for reacting to different market situations.
When CMOs were asked about the areas of improvements they would like to see in their 2021 marketing operations, the top answer was better integration of their martech stack (51%).
What areas of improvements would you like to see in your marketing
operations team focus on in 2021?

51%

46%

39%

Better integrate ourmartech stack

More flexible
campaign
management

Real-timetransparency on statusacross inhouse andexternal stakeholders

Only a few companies are fully satisfied with their martech
One of the most worrisome aspects of this survey is the high dissatisfaction rate in the technology that is supposed to lift their marketing efforts and help them gain tangible results. Only one in 10 (10%) CMOs characterize
themselves as completely satisfied with their martech stack, which leaves ample opportunities for marketing ops
teams to seek out more relevant solutions to deliver the desired business outcomes and close the gaps in their
existing technology.
Which of the following statements most closely represents your opinion of the technologythat your marketing team uses?
Choose all that apply.
Our martech is terrible – it gets in the way
rather than helping us

9%

39%

42%

10%

Most of our martech is OK, but could be a
lot better
We have pockets of great martech, butthere are gaps that impact our abilities

0%

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20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

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Our martech is perfect – we can doeverything we want

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Almost all companies plan to spend more on marketing operations solutions in 2021
Even after surviving a long year where customer spending was uneven and marketing budgets were frequently
constrained, marketing executives are eager to invest in marketing operations solutions this year. In fact, most(89%) have plans to spend more in 2021. This number includes more than a third (34%) of CMOs who characterize their increased investment as “substantial.”

How will your investment in marketing operations solutions change in 2021?
60%

89%

50%
40%

55%

34%

30%
20%
7%

10%
0%

Increase substantially

Increase slightly

4%

No change

Decrease

When asked about what marketing ops areas they would like to spend more on in 2021, the key investment areas
jumping to the top of the CMOs’ lists are marketing and campaign planning (60%), automation of marketing
functions (50%), and financial management (46%).
What would you like your key areas of investment for marketing
operations solutions to be in 2021?
Choose all that apply.
60%

Improve marketing and campaign planning
Expand automation of marketing functions

50%

Improve financial management and budget overview

46%

Additional performance management and real-time visibility

40%

Integrate existing martech

40%

Optimize workflows and resource allocation

39%

Integration with non-marketing enterprise applications (SFDC,
Oracle, etc )

38%
36%

Streamline content creation and brand management
0%

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30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

The greater the marketing investment, the more critical it is to get the most value possible. It is particularlyinteresting to note that the responses were considerably different among CMOs who report that marketing
solution investments in 2021 will increase “substantially” than those that said the increase would be “slight.”
Marketing executives who are planning to increase their spending the most in 2021 are much more likely toinvest in financial management (63%), integration of existing martech (55%), and content (47%).
What would you like your key areas of investment for marketing
operations solutions to be in 2021?
Choose all that apply.
By Change in Investment Planned for 2021
63%

Improve financial management andbudget overview

37%

55%

Integrate existing martech

31%

Increase slightly
47%

Streamline content creation and brandmanagement

26%
0%Page 14

Increase substantially

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

While they plan to spend more, top marketing executives are clear that a great martech stack is not about simply
buying tools. Almost all (89%) CMOs say their teams experience challenges of adopting new technology. The
issues reported are solutions that are so innovative it requires new ways of thinking and breaking old habits(57%), lacking the ability to create new workflows to take advantage of innovative technology (48%), and too
many “breakthroughs” making it difficult to know which solutions to choose (28%). Modern CMOs must lookbeyond tool selection and determine how their teams will use this technology. It is important to identify the help
they need to get up and running in order to demonstrate ROI.
What barriers do you face when evaluating or adopting new market engagement tools?
Choose all that apply.
Innovation requires new ways of thinking and breaking old habits

57%

Innovating with new market engagement tools require entirely
new workflows, we do not have the tools to create them48%

There are too many technology “breakthroughs” and it’s hard toknow what to pick28%

Don’t have the campaign planning and ROI tools to help me see
critical success points that will help me know when to invest moreor to stop the pilot

21%

I don’t have visibility to our entire marketing spend to know which
campaigns to adjust in order to fund pilot tests

11%

I do not face any barriers

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20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

Survey Methodology and Participant Demographics
An online survey was sent to an independent database of CMO and VP-level marketing executives. A total of 114
qualified individuals completed the survey. All participants worked in retail, financial services, or FMCG companies with more than 500 employees. Participants included a mix of company sizes, industries, countries ofoperations, marketing team sizes, and the number of agencies.
Industry

Company SizeMore than 5,000
employees
26%

FMCG (FastMovingConsumerGoods)
31%

500 - 1,000
employees
21%

Retail32%

1,000 - 5,000
employees
53%

Financial
Services
37%

Countries of Operation
More than 10
13%Size of Marketing Team
More than 200
25%

Just 132%

4 to 1025%

Less than 20
8%

20 - 5034%
51 - 20032%

2 or 329%

Number of Agencies
More than 40
8%Less than 5
20%

21 - 4029%

5 - 2043%

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THE 2021 STATE OF MARKETING OPERATIONSA CMO Survey
Dimensional Research|

June 2021

About Dimensional Research
Dimensional Research® provides practical market research to help technology companies make their customers
more successful. Our researchers are experts in the people, processes, and technology of corporate IT. We understand how technology organizations operate to meet the needs of their business stakeholders. We partner withour clients to deliver actionable information that reduces risks, increases customer satisfaction, and grows thebusiness. For more information, visit dimensionalresearch.com.

About BrandMaker
BrandMaker is the leading SaaS provider of effective and scalable marketing operations (marketing ops)
management solutions. BrandMaker delivers the visibility, control, and agility that enterprise marketers
require to optimize their marketing operations. BrandMaker tames the complexity of multinational marketing campaigns, budgets and team workflows, enabling companies to work across borders, cultures, and silos
for efficiency and value. Independent research firms recognize BrandMaker as a leader in marketing ops. Morethan 300 leading enterprises, including Deutsche Bank, BestBuy, and Daimler, trust its solutions to increase
collaboration, efficiency, and performance of their marketing planning and execution. For more information,please visit www.brandmaker.com.

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