First Phase Focuses on Analysis and Deep Dives with over 100 Brand Interviews Conducted by Prominent Academics

MOSTT Steering Committee includes Marketers from the MMA Global and NA Board; Salesforce Joins as Strategic Partner

New York, NY September 25, 2017: Committed to helping brands capitalize on the dramatic changes in consumer behavior, technology innovations and marketplace disruptions, today at the SM2 Innovation Summit, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the creation of the Marketing Organization Structure Think Tank, or MOSTT.

By defining and developing the organizational marketing capabilities and best practices (i.e. structures, processes, market intelligence etc) MOSTT intends to lead CMOs in accelerating marketing performance and business growth through best in class organizational design transformation. MOSTT is the second Think Tank developed by the MMA and follows the successful creation of the Marketing Attribution Think Tank (MATT) launched at the same time last year.

The first phase of the MOSTT initiative is being led by a group of prominent academic researchers and industry consultants from The Scheller College of Business (Georgia Tech), The Terry College of Business (University of Georgia) and The Kelley School of Business (Indiana University). This phase includes interviews conducted with upwards of 100 CMOs and other marketing professionals and focuses on the organizations changes induced by analytics, real time programming, growth in social networks as well as mobile adoption & technology.

The Research Team includes:

In preparation for the next phase of MOSTT, the MMA conducted a marketer usage and attitudinal survey to determine how marketers respond to the dramatic changes in technology and highlight immediate challenges and opportunities. Here are some highlights:

1. The pace of organizational change is accelerating. But marketers are not convinced that´s fast enough: 50 percent of marketers had reorgs in last 6 months and 99 percent in last two years. And although two thirds feel that´s faster than the past, half of them still don’t think it’s enough to put them ahead of the competition.
2. Technology is at the heart of most reorgs. But cost cutting and other realities stand in the way. 61 percent of reorgs aim to improve use of technology. Yet, cost cutting is also a key goal for almost 50 percent of reorgs, as well as M&A and business model changes (42 percent respectively), so conflicting agendas may compromise execution.
3. Marketers attempt to move many capabilities in house. But skills shortages emerge in key areas. Marketer claim to have already brought in house many key capabilities, or that they intend to do that in the near future including Data analytics (66 percent), Product innovation (64 percent), Mobile marketing (63 percent), Content and creative production (63 percent), All digital media buying (59 percent), Measurement and attribution (51 percent). Yet, about half the marketers say they have skill shortage in most of these areas, again compromising execution.
4. Mobile is eating the world. But it´s not (yet) changing the org. Mobile is one of the top two technologies that marketers say it will impact organizations in the next 12 months (social is the other one). Yet marketers say that internal team structures and their relationship with agencies are the two things that have changed the least because of it.

 “It is critical for Coca-Cola’s success and every other marketer to re-engineer marketing organizations for the digital age, said David Godsman, Chief Digital Officer, The Coca-Cola Company. “As a market leader, we need to be able to quickly take advantage of insights, measurement, data and more all the way from product development to consumer engagement through CRM.”

MMA’s MOSTT team will be led by a Steering Committee comprised of nine of the top global brand marketing marketers including:

• Kristi Argyilan, SVP, Marketing, Target
• John Costello, President, Global Mktg & Innovation, Dunkin¹ Brands (former)
• Jon Suarez-Davis, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
• Norman DeGreve, CMO, CVS
• Brad Feinberg, Sr. Director Media & Digital, MillerCoors
• David Godsman, Chief Digital Officer, The Coca-Cola Company
• Sanjay Gupta, EVP-Marketing Innov. & Corp. Relations, Allstate Insurance Co.
• Kellyn Kenny, VP, Marketing, Uber
• Rebecca Messina, CMO, Beam Suntory - NEW Global Board member
• Louis Paskalis, SVP, Enterprise Media Executive, Bank of America

“The marketing function is going through an incredible period of disruption and transformation driven by consumers increased expectations for brand engagement in a connected, mobile world, said Jon Suarez-Davis, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud is excited to partner with the MMA MOSTT initiative to help to define the structure, capabilities, and technology platforms of the modern marketing organization.”

Marketers interested in learning more about MOSTT and participate in the Task Force can contact the MMA for membership information. For more information email [email protected].