CMOs have all the data and tech they need for growth
Here’s how to put it to work
The omnichannel dream needs a new approach
CMOs are operating in a tough climate. They must drive growth despite stagnating marketing budgets. They’ve invested heavily in talent and technology to keep up with evolving expectations, but they’re not getting the return they need. They’re under mounting pressure to make use of AI, but they don’t know where to start.
The secret to success – as just about every martech player will tell you – is seamless, omnichannel customer experiences that elevate a brand above its competition.
But the harsh reality is most brands are unable to deliver truly omnichannel experiences due to disconnected data and technology. Brands might celebrate omnichannel campaigns but really they’re still just stitching together silos, not fully integrating customer journeys to drive strategic business outcomes.
Something fundamental has to change. CMOs can’t keep doing the same thing they’ve done for the past ten years and expect different results. No amount of new technology will drive the growth they need unless they first connect the underlying data foundation that feeds up into those technologies.
Instead of chasing the latest experience platform, CMOs need a modernised approach to marketing – one that makes use of the data and technology they already have, and puts the customer at the centre of everything they do, to deliver growth through a genuinely omnichannel strategy.
This is about more than transformation — it’s about customer centricity and building marketing that works the way people live.
Smash those siloes once and for all
Marketing has seen a flood of new channels and technologies in the past decade. But there’s been very little real change in the way marketing teams and departments are set up.
The majority of brands operate fragmented ecosystems of tech, data, agencies, and internal teams that serve individual channels, not integrated customer journeys. So they’re still marketing through the lens of how their business is structured.
Paid media, for example, is managed by a media agency, while the web experience is the responsibility of a digital agency, and physical advertising is handled by a brand agency. Data and technologies are deployed within the confines of these siloes – limiting their potential from the outset.
This disconnect is caused by:
Tech
Tech is historically designed and deployed for a single channel, whether that’s email, website, or display advertising, so it can’t deliver connected experiences.
Expertise
Marketing talent is focused on specific channels or technologies, resulting in fragmented customer experiences.
Partners
Agencies and consultants are often structured around single marketing functions, making it difficult to deliver a holistic omnichannel experience.
These traditional channel or function-based ecosystems aren’t built for the omnichannel journeys taken by today’s (and tomorrow’s) customers. Brands can’t keep deploying data and technology in siloes and somehow expect breakthrough performance.
It’s time for brands to reimagine what data, tech, agency partnerships, and internal structures look like, dismantle those siloes once and for all, and build ecosystems for intelligence and integration.
Your brand needs an agile marketing engine that is:
-
not managed in isolation
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which is embedded into every decision
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because customers move across channels
Strive for more value, not more tech
What’s holding most brands back from achieving the omnichannel dream isn’t the tools — it’s how they’re using them. After years of relentless tech buying, the capabilities already exist in most organisations to deliver growth through omnichannel customer experiences. The data and tech just need to be connected and orchestrated in the right way.
The average enterprise is juggling a complex martech stack and there’s no let-up, with 99% of businesses planning tech changes this year. But according to Gartner, only a third (33%) of existing martech solutions are currently being used, meaning brands are spending budget on technologies they’re not getting a return from. Our own research reveals 63% of martech purchases occur across different teams without collaboration, and 66% of brands report overlapping functionality, leading to waste and unnecessary complexity.
It’s time to end the martech arms race, and for CMOs to shift their focus from acquiring more tech to deploying the tools they have as part of a martech strategy that’s fully aligned with business strategy.
To optimise the tech you already have:
1. Start with the customer
With a clear martech strategy that’s wrapped around the customer rather than channels or tech, CMOs can get clarity on what customers want and what the business is trying to achieve to ensure alignment across functions like marketing, IT, sales, and customer service. Then tech tools can support the plan, instead of dictating it.
2. Stop chasing shiny things
All too often martech tools are bought based on hype, a slick sales pitch, or a belief they’ll be a “silver bullet”. But that mindset leads to knee-jerk decisions with no clear return on investment. AI is a great example, with 48% of businesses saying AI’s emergence has already prompted them to review their existing tech stack. But AI, like any other tool, is only useful when it’s aligned to a clear, customer-centric strategy and fueled by clean, connected data.
3. Build a data foundation
You can have the most advanced platforms in the world, but if your data is fragmented, outdated, or inconsistent, you’re building on shaky ground. You need to maximise the quality and accuracy of your data, ensure that data is compliant, connected, and actionable, and use it to create a single customer view. Then embed that intelligence at every level — planning, activation, and optimisation — to make your martech work for the business.
The brands that succeed will be those who stop chasing tools — and start building smarter strategies, grounded in solid data.
real results
Heathrow Airport adopts one-to-one communications
Heathrow Airport had a CRM, but it wasn’t delivering the expected return. Data was fragmented, and personalisation was limited.
Acxiom helped Heathrow modernise their stack and build a CRM strategy that included segmentation, campaign execution, analytics, and business intelligence.
The result? One-to-one, personalised communications that improved the passenger experience and unlocked new revenue streams. That work even earned us a Salesforce Partner Innovation Award.
Meet customers throughout their journey
Once you dismantle those siloes, and orchestrate technologies through a connected data foundation, you’ll finally meet your customers where they are. Instead of single marketing moments in individual channels, you can engage in intentional interactions at every step of their journey. Why? Because you can predict where they’ll be on the path to purchase.
Despite decades of talk, most brands still fail to operationalise true customer centricity. With connected data you really can put people at the centre of everything your brand does, and leverage technologies like AI to build marketing the way they live their lives.
Data is your clearest window into customer needs, preferences, and behaviours. It’s the foundation for meaningful marketing. So, if you put AI-powered customer intelligence at the heart of your marketing strategy, your business naturally becomes customer centric. Only by making full use of the data assets available, can brands gain the insights and understanding to drive omnichannel customer experience and competitive advantage.
Customer centricity powers enterprise growth. When marketing leads with insight and intent, it creates ripple effects across sales, product, service, and innovation — fueling collaboration, consistency, and long-term value. And time to value is surprisingly short. A unified vision and strategy alignment across the business can generate value in months, when you also optimise your existing data and technology.
real results
South Western Railway takes a passenger-first approach
South Western Railway (SWR) had a siloed infrastructure, making it difficult to understand customers and deliver consistent messaging across channels.
Acxiom worked with SWR to evaluate their needs, develop a strategy, and implement a transformational roadmap, connecting data to enable omnichannel experiences.
The result? SWR now takes a passenger-first approach which leads with data and activates via a fully integrated marketing intelligence solution.
Realise fast value from your data and tech
Acxiom will be by your side during your transformational journey. We’ll help you integrate siloes, centralise customer intelligence, and modernise your marketing strategy enabling you to achieve up to:
25%
better customer engagement
34%
uplift in sales performance
73%
reduction in integration costs
Our simple four-step process delivers value in a matter of months:
Step one: Maturity assessment
We’ll assess and score your marketing maturity state, and identify the sticking points in your customer journey.
Step two: Strategy setting
We’ll understand what you want to achieve and define a new people-first marketing strategy.
Step three: Ecosystem redesign
We’ll analyse and redesign your martech and adtech ecosystem to make your existing data and tools work harder for you.
Step four: Roadmap implementation
We’ll implement a phased multi-year roadmap that connects your people, platforms, and processes around impact.
Get in touch to find out how we can put your data to work, solving your most difficult challenges, and realising the greatest value from the data and the technology you already have, as you deliver growth through truly customer-centric, omnichannel experiences.
Get in touch to find out how we can put your data to work
Solving your most difficult challenges, and realising the greatest value from the data and the technology you already have, as you deliver growth through truly customer-centric, omnichannel experiences.