By Greg Hazley
Many chief marketing officers are overseeing PR tasks like crisis management and media relations to keep a consistent message amid emerging digital communications, but more than half of the companies in a survey have not aligned their marketing and corporate communications operations, according to a study by Hill & Knowlton and The CMO Club.
CMO Club founder Pete Krainik said CMOs are trying to keep up with an evolving digital landscape, a task which has involved new ersponsibilities not traditionally part of the marketing arena.
The study found that 66 percent of CMOs say they are solely responsible for media relations, while 52 percent handle crisis/issues management, 34 percent oversee investor relations, 23 percent, employee communications, and 55 percent work on blogger relations.
CMOs surveyed said aligning messages is key to maintaining consistency across various channels like social media and employee comms.
“Everything from advertising and collateral, media relations, conference content to webinars and e-mails reflect on a brand and influence image,” said John DuPont, senior vice president, global brand management and strategic planning for RE/MAX, who added that a CMO must forge the collaboration that brings consistency to a company’s communications.
That’s important because, as MaryLee Sachs, US chairman and worldwide director of marketing communications at H&K put it: “Audiences are able to access a range of information at any time and easily can pick up on inconsistencies.”
The study received responses from 129 CMOs among The CMO Club’s 700 members.
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