The marketing ops profession: Monday’s Daily Brief

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Good morning, Marketers, and Marketing Operations professionals,

Because we’re trying to speak to both of you, but we know you’re each hardwired a little differently. (Okay, that’s a generalization — I’ve met CMOs from an ops background who are clearly very much marketers too. But you know what we mean.)

A new report from MO Pros (see below) offers a portrait of today’s marketing ops professional: Gen Z or Millennial, not always feeling well-compensated, looking for problems to solve — including on side projects as well as in their career role.

How much do marketers and marketing ops sit around the same table? I was speaking with a content marketer, very much on the creative side of her organization (a high profile agency). She said she had started attending marketing ops meetings in order to understand better what was possible and how to frame her requests to them.

Baby steps, but to paraphrase the old song, the marketer and the MO pro should be friends.

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

CTV growth continues and 30-second ads remain dominant

We know that with the successful launch of new streaming apps, as well as the growth among platforms like fuboTV, that viewers are flocking to the medium to watch on-demand and live content. For instance, sports-themed live streaming platform fuboTV hit records in revenue and new subscribers in Q2. Ad revenue grew 281% YoY, and they now have close to 700,000 total subscribers who pay for the service.

But from an advertising perspective, marketers should look at the CTV share in relation to other digital channels. Extreme Reach, as a global ad platform for all forms of TV and streaming video, shows that CTV is holding steady in their latest Video Benchmarks report, as marketing dollars rebound from the pandemic.

Across the industry, overall CTV impressions are up 3X over Q2 2020. In terms of share, CTV maintains its lead over other video platforms, holding at 35%. Desktop and mobile app ads are neck-and-neck at 22% and 23%, respectively. After closing 2020 at 35% share of ads, CTV actually rose to 40% in Q1. “CTV is definitely a priority for many marketers and is a focal point in the industry as more advertising dollars flow to that platform,” said Melinda McLaughlin, Extreme Reach’s CMO.

Why we care. Consumer viewing behavior is transitioning to streaming and CTV viewing habits. This means there are a lot more on-demand viewing and one-to-one addressable opportunities for marketers in these channels. But just as important is the TV ad experience. The jury is still out — do viewers want personalized TV ads, or do they expect personalized messaging to be conveyed to them by email or another more private channel?

Read more here.

Marketing ops today: Who are these people? 

A new report packed with data describes the state of MOPs today — who they are, where they sit in their respective organizations, the technology and tools they use, and the future of MOPs. Here’s the current state of play: “With constant requests for reports, growing responsibilities, and being siloed from other departments, ops professionals don’t have the support and resources they need to scale and empower others with data.” 

But that doesn’t mean the outlook is gloomy: “The future of marketing operations is more marketing operations teams and less individuals. More alignment between teams. More resources and training for marketing ops. And more collaboration and community between them.”

The report, compiled by the MO Pros community, is rich in demographic information about today’s ops professionals, as well as insights into how they feel about being valued and compensated (38% don’t feel compensated enough).

Why we care. Marketing operations professionals are in most cases part of a marketing (or perhaps a revenue) organization. On the one hand, they’re not to be confused with marketers — in the traditional sense of the teams responsible for brand, campaigns and creative ideation. On the other hand, it becomes clearer almost by the day that data-driven brand and campaign initiatives, with actionable metrics, just aren’t a realistic possibility without execution by marketing operations.

We believe ops professionals will increasingly have a seat at the table when it comes to strategy and planning. We also believe there is enough commonality between what ops does and what the rest of the marketing organization does that they can speak the same language and share the same priorities.

Read more here.

Quote of the day

“Marketers: I’ve worked in our industry for two decades. I’ve never seen this many solid job opportunities. I’ve never seen comp levels this strong. And, I’ve never seen agency & brand leaders struggling this hard to find talent. If you’re feeling unhappy, feeling undervalued, or perhaps you just need a new challenge, now is the time.” Michael Barber, brand consultant and marketing strategist