11 Key Highlights From The Gartner Summit 2023-Charting the Future Of Data And Analytics

 The human side of analytics is the biggest challenge to implementing big data. – Paul Gibbons

Gartner’s expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decision-making and stronger financial performance for an organization. In the face of a continuously challenging global environment, you’ll need to purposefully lead your team by balancing trust, accountability, governance and security with adaptability and responsiveness.

This event on data analytics briefed a lot about do’s and don’t’s in the data world, especially for the CMOs. As the event was a three-day event, a plethora of points were discussed briefly. We have tried to incorporate the best of all the three-day summit in a summarized format which shall give you a good outlay of the event in a short span of time. Now, get the best out of any event with us at AiThority.

Data & analytics leaders can deliver increasing value to their organizations. Gartner’s latest event discovered fresh data and patterns that can help you identify new, potent strategies for engaging stakeholders, addressing skill gaps, and fostering trust to overcome cultural resistance to change.

Gartner Keynotes:  11 Key Highlights From The Gartner Data And Analytics Event 2023

 

1. Gartner’s 2023 CMO Survey — Marketing Focuses On Efficient Growth In A High-Velocity World  

As volatility becomes the new normal, many CMOs are pricing disruption into their 2023 plans -Ewan McIntyre, Chief of Research and VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice.

Seventy-one percent of CMOs said they lack the budget to fully execute their strategy in 2023, according to a Gartner, Inc. survey of 410 CMOs and marketing leaders.

The annual Gartner 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey was conducted in April 2023. Survey respondents were CMOs and marketing leaders in North America and Northern and Western Europe across different industries, company sizes, and revenue, with the vast majority of respondents reporting annual revenue of over $1 billion.

The survey revealed that marketing budgets compose 9.1% of total company revenue in 2023, remaining relatively flat but still dipping slightly from the 9.5% reported in 2022.

2) Gartner Says Catalytic Marketing Allows CMOs to Drive Profitable Growth Amid Macroeconomic Pressures  

During the opening keynote of the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, Gartner experts explored how catalytic marketing can help alleviate the pressures CMOs are under to deliver profitable, digital growth amid disruption.

“The singular focus on customers results in a series of escalating and unprofitable investments in experiences that customers find invasive and tune out. To spark productive, lasting changes in organizations and audiences requires catalytic marketing. In a pressurized environment, CMOs are eager to optimize their investments and justify their existence. Yet they overcompensate in their customer-focused activities, continuously investing in more channels, technology, customer data, and personalization. ” said Carlos Guerrero, VP, Advisory in the Gartner Marketing Practice.

The Three C’s of Catalytic CMOs: 

• Clarity (of strategy) – They willingly articulate a limited set of core objectives and brand traits.
• Connections (of capabilities) – They prioritize capabilities and management techniques that enable coordinated, adaptive use of resources.
• Courage (of convictions) – They defend choices to constrain remits, push back on urgent but unimportant requests.

Catalytic marketing experiences provide the greatest boost to commercially productive behaviors such as paying a premium or referring other customers to the brand, according to Gartner, Inc. Catalytic marketing experiences are defined as those that change customers’ understanding of their own needs and make them feel more confident moving in a new direction.

3) Five Tips to Win at Advertising in Adverse Conditions  

When times get tough, discretionary expenditures go on the chopping block – and advertising budgets are often first in line. In his session, Mike Froggatt, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, outlined five tips for advertisers who are up against an uncertain economy, increased data limitations, and changing audience behaviors.

• Play to Win: “Playing to win means budgeting to win. Cutting ad budgets is a classic penny wise, pound foolish scenario. Firms that increase advertising in this environment can enjoy higher sales and market share.”
• Do Fewer Things Better: “When a media plan has so many parts it becomes impossible to focus. A streamlined media plan focuses more on audience reach and impact, less on shiny objects.”
• Update the Strategy Playbook: “Ensure that the positioning, value proposition, brand story and creative placements resonate with winnable audiences.”
• Mind the Long Game: “Buyers willing to make scaled, guaranteed commitments directly to ad sellers will likely find opportunities for efficiency.”
• Re-Frame Media’s Value: “To put the ad strategy and budget on the right footing for financial conversations, marketers need numbers: market sizing, cost per acquisition, incrementality measurement.”

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4) The Story of Marketing: How to Create a Compelling Narrative on the Value and Impact of Marketing  

Half of marketing leaders believe they can’t prove the value of marketing.

This struggle transcends being a simple measurement or reporting challenge. In his session, Chris Ross, VP Analyst at Gartner, provided a framework for how CMOs can craft a compelling story of marketing impact.

• Start with the big business questions: “The ability to effectively communicate value is grounded in an understanding of how the business at large thinks about value.”
• Think in terms of marketing value vectors: “Value is qualitative and quantitative, not just dashboards and KPIs – although those things are still important. Marketers must find the understated, or unstated, value marketing provides and tell a story of ROI.”
• Value creation prioritization: “Marketers must think about where these narratives need to land: Who is the audience? What headwinds and pressures do they face? This allows them to think about what outcomes to communicate.”
• Distilled story of marketing: “Think of the 3-5 core value stories that need to be communicated, and how they will evolve over time with respect to business needs, audience and other factors.”

5) The Three Priorities of Successful Brand Leaders (and How to Achieve Them)  

Brand leaders are faced with a never-ending to-do list, both in the near and short term.

In her session, Julie Reeves, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, shared new data from the 2023 Gartner Brand Leader Survey to demonstrate what the most successful brand leaders are prioritizing.

• Creating and communicating differentiated value: Brand leaders know the power of brand differentiation, yet many don’t make the time to clearly and consistently articulate brand positioning. A formalized positioning statement is the key to unlocking this priority.
• Educating senior leadership: Despite being strong storytellers, brand leaders do not always prioritize communicating brand strengths and limits with senior leadership. Brand health measurement is the recommended way to do so.
• Limiting brand changes: Less is more in terms of the importance of limiting changes to the brand. Typically, brand governance is a sore spot for brand leaders, but empowering users to see the possibilities in the existing brand reduces their requested changes.

6) First-Party Data 101: Discover the First Party Data Strategy Fit for Your Organization  

Recognize its importance in your ability to predict, segment and deliver insights that support decisions.

With so many changes affecting the collection and utilization of customer data, it can be difficult to know where to start and how to plan effectively for the future. In his session, Joe Enever, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, discussed how CMOs can navigate the challenges of leveraging first-party data in 2023.

• Customer Experience (CX) and Journey Orchestration: Scrutinize which insights from first-party data will inform decisions to improve CX and provide personalized recommendations along the journey.
• Advertising and Targeting: Use direct and indirect targeting to grow your first-party data.  Lookalike audiences, data partnerships and contextual targeting all benefit from insights created via first-party data.
• AI, Segmentation and Insights: First-party data is the fuel for the marketing machine as well as the analytics that power it.
• Measurement and Attribution: Comprehensive first-party data can be used to understand campaign performance measurement and attribution directly, and, in turn, model anonymous audience performance.”

7) 2023 Digital Marketing Trends in Retail  

There are important shifts in consumer behavior that are impacting digital marketing best practices among brands in the luxury, mono-brand and multi-brand retail industries. In her session, Kassi Socha, Director Analyst at Gartner, outlined the critical trends and innovations in the retail sector along with their impact on CMOs’ marketing strategies.

• Evolve digital channel strategy to drive acquisition and growth: Leverage leading social media platforms to drive high video engagement. Define a strategy for emerging platforms, such as metaverse and NFTs.
• Reset loyalty efforts to retain existing customers: Expand loyalty program benefits from transactional to experiential. Simplify messaging by shifting to a tiered program where purchases easily translate into rewards.
• Reduce omnichannel friction to improve hybrid shopping experience: Enable customers to filter and digitally hold in-store inventory. Enhance the app experience as both an in-store and digital shopping tool.”

8) Harness Your Creative Superpowers with Generative AI  

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, has the potential to transform the marketing function: Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of outbound marketing messages from large organizations will be synthetically generated. Gartner was all over the social media. A snapshot is below.

In her session, Nicole Greene, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, outlined how marketing leaders can use AI to automate the creation of content, enhance creativity and boost their function’s productivity.

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• “64% of marketers have deployed, or are piloting, AI/ML to support autonomous campaign creation, execution, and optimization capabilities.”
• “While there are many benefits to using generative AI in marketing, such as enhanced creativity and the ability to meet personalization demands, there are also barriers, such as limited trust in AI and mounting ethical and regulatory backlash.”
• CMOs must prepare for the near-term implications of generative AI.
• The Next Year: “Adoption of generative AI will fuel dynamic, tailored experiences, and digital and hybrid applications will transform customer engagement with brands.”
• The Next 3 Years: “Organizations that use AI across marketing will shift 75% of their staff’s operations from production to more strategic activities.”
• The Next 5 Years: “Generative AI will democratize content creation and insights.”

9) Out of Context: How to Win With Contextual Targeting  

The demise of cookies and behavioral targeting is driving vendors and advertisers to take a fresh look at contextual approaches to targeting and measurement. In his session, Andrew Frank, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed the steps advertisers can take to win with contextual targeting.

• “The definition of contextual advertising is not universally acknowledged. One definition looks at ad placement based on the topic or keywords detected on a site, web page or app. The other considers ad placement based on any non-personal, non-persistent information available such as deep AI content or device profiles.”
• “The market for contextual targeting providers should be evaluated according to reach, precision and transparency. Most offer two of three approaches.”
• The three contextual targeting approaches to take are:

• • Walled Gardens: “Walled gardens are an essential component of almost any contextual ad campaign, but their effectiveness can be enhanced with insights from more transparent channels.”
  • Open Standards: “Standards provide valuable data for targeting and analysis but often fall short of performance and privacy goals.”
  • Proprietary: “Experimenting with contextual providers can be a valuable exercise alongside other innovation strategies and may fit well with some campaigns. However, it won’t replace walled garden strategies soon.”

• “CMOs should incorporate context into campaign creative strategy as much as targeting. They should also combine it with first-party data to tailor personal messages to users or segments in context.”

10) How You Fill Your Funnel Matters  

Today’s audience expectations and economic climate make it more important than ever to think strategically about which top-funnel brand activities drive the biggest payoff. In her session, Amber Gallihar Boyes, Director Analyst at Gartner, explored the role of social and earned media, and how they drive long-term brand impact.

 

• “CMOs should focus on the top-funnel brand activation activities that drive the most impact:
• Opportunities in earned media: Strategic earned media can serve as both a brand and business driver at the top of the funnel. It plays an important role in meeting audiences’ appetite for second opinions.
• Tapping into social media’s power to drive media coverage and offline conversations make it a key top funnel priority.
• Filling your funnel for today: Examine budget distribution across top-funnel activations and understand where your brand is falling short. Work to demonstrate the impact these upper funnel activities have on your brand’s long-term health.”

11) The Cultural Wake of Inflation: Why and How Price Increases Erode More Than Spending  

Inflation erodes consumers’ ability and confidence to spend: 90% percent of consumers said inflation had had at least some impact on their household.

During inflationary times, most marketers focus on the impact on consumer spending. But inflation is a disruptive cultural force too. In her session, Kate Muhl, VP Analyst at Gartner, explored how inflation warps consumer aspirations, alters their expectations for brands and changes their thinking about whether and how society works.

• “Inflation warps consumers’ sense of how the world works: Most consumers report putting off at least one milestone event, such as buying a home, due to cost-of-living pressures. As their own spending power shrinks, consumers increasingly question the ethical and aspirational value of wealth.”
• “Inflation should be a trigger for marketing leaders to track consumer sentiment around the brand and societal trust in order to build differentiated and authentic brand value narratives.”

Our Take on the Gartner Summit:  

• Top Trends for Data and Analytics in 2023: AI is not the only thing driving rapid change in D&A.
• How to Measure and Communicate the Value of Data Literacy as a requirement for digital dexterity.
• Five Ways to Mature Your Data Engineering Practice: Consumer demand for usable data has increased the need for data engineering.
• 7 Fatal Flaws of Self-Service Analytics: Self-service analytics are rarely implemented successfully.
• Three Ways Marketers Can Rescue the Business Case for First-Party Data.
• Five Steps to Create a Productive Analytics and AI Center of Excellence to learn how an AI center of excellence can identify business-relevant use cases, empower the right roles, and establish a governance framework to mitigate analytics and AI risks.
• Pragmatic Techniques to Foster a Data-Driven Culture were discussed. While fostering a data-driven culture is cited by many data and analytics leaders as a top priority, culture can be a very ambiguous idea to address.
• Provided a tangible list of components that make up data-driven decision-making and a wealth of techniques that data and analytics organizations can use to drive change.
• CDAOs must step up their leadership and use data literacy metrics as the basis for communicating the value of fostering a data-literate workforce.
• How to Attract, Sustain and Retain Talent for Your Data, Analytics and AI Teams
• Data and analytics leaders trends and best practices around managing and developing the entire skills mix necessary to build successful data, Analytics and AI teams.
• Got to know: What are the best practices for attracting talent? How do you train and sustain talent? How do you retain talent?
• Change Management and Communication Unlock Data-Driven Business Value.
• CDAOs who effectively employ change management and communication techniques wield more influence and impact with their data and analytics strategies than those who do not.
• To be successful, chief data and analytics officers must address both data literacy (skills) and data-driven culture (will) among the workforce.
• Data and analytics leaders can mature their data engineering practice by delivering data products, automating release processes, proving business value early, eliminating operations overhead and fostering collaboration.
• The Active Metadata Helix: the Benefits of Automating Data Management. Active metadata is the conversion of these otherwise passive observations into ML-enabled, automated data management.
• Decision Intelligence and Optimization Across Your Enterprise and Ecosystem for faster and optimal decision-making.
•  Silo data, silo decisions and silo mentality are not cutting it in today’s global and highly interconnected business ecosystems. A more networked approach is required, bringing together technologies such as optimization, graph analytics and AI.
• Data and analytics leaders should certify and catalog D&A assets, promote cross-functional collaboration, optimize their tools portfolio and enable adaptive governance for analytic content in various phases.
• Achieve Strategic Value in AI With Seven Practices. The seven keys distilled from successful pioneers will enable leaders to productize AI at scale and unlock value from their AI initiatives.
• Financial Governance and FinOps in Cloud: Avoid an Unpleasant Conversation With Your CFO: Data and analytics leaders using cloud-based solutions are often surprised by cost overruns.
• How Language Technologies Are Reshaping the Foundation of Analytics and What to Do About It: For a long time, unstructured and structured approaches to analytics were separate platforms and applications. Hence, making sense of both words and numbers was difficult.
• A new crop of platforms including data fabrics, semantic AI, insight engines, and conversational AI are changing the very foundations of analytics to bring words and numbers together. This session will outline how this multi-structured analytics is evolving, the role of language platforms, and your path to richer analytics.
• Understanding the business impact of these changes will allow organizations to resource optimize, accelerate change, drive innovation, and transform society over the next three years.
• Deploying D&A Architecture in Cloud Platforms of AWS, Azure, and GCP: Cloud platforms provide unique challenges and opportunities to design and architect an optimal D&A architecture resolving through complex data management and analytics use cases.
• This session provides detailed insights into the various components of AWS, Azure, and GCP to create reference architectures for deploying an integrated and cohesive D&A ecosystem that includes native, hybrid, and multi-cloud use-case scenarios.
• The Practical Data Fabric — How to Architect the Next Generation Data Management Design: Organizations looking to invest in a future-proof data management architecture must invest in the data fabric design.

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Conclusion

CMOs are caught in a cycle of more that entails increasing technological investments, widening operational responsibilities, and an exaggerated fixation with the consumer despite real restrictions. According to Gartner’s study, catalytic experiences, which alter customers’ perceptions of their own requirements and give them more self-assurance moving in a new path, can assist markets in doing less work while achieving improved outcomes.

The largest boost to economically beneficial behaviors, like recommending the brand to others, comes from catalytic events. According to Gartner’s research, having just one transformative digital experience is more important than having a lot of memorable brand interactions that are all rated highly. High levels of clarity, connectivity, and bravery are displayed by catalytic marketing executives in order to generate a flywheel of commercially beneficial practices.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]