CIO/CMO Partnership
Building the CIO/CMO payments partnership By Diane Bégin
W
hether in-person or through technology the following principle holds true: in places where large groups of people spend a significant amount of time, commerce tends to follow. Recent data tells us that about 3/4 of Canadians spend at least three-four hours online a day, with smartphones as the dominant platform for total time spent. And that some 40 per cent of Canadians made purchases through their mobile phones in 2018: up from just 12 per cent four years prior1. This intersection of payments with digital media has meant a growing intersection between the roles of the CIO (chief information officer) and CMO (chief marketing officer). Recent research by APEX Public Relations and ruckus Digital conducted through Maru Blue, as part of our national CMO Lab, sheds some light on three core principles that Canadian CMOs should value that are also relevant to CIOs in the payments space.
1. Make disruption a mindset. Disruption has long been a given in the payments industry. This gave way to the idea of being comfortable with the idea of constantly being uncomfortable, and even intentionally making yourself so. CMOs from brands such as McDonald’s Canada and Interac Corp. recently shared stories at the annual American Marketing Association (AMA) Toronto chapter CMO panel about how they’ve proactively initiated disruption by inviting external partner companies into their organizations. Comparatively, our CMO Lab research of Canadian CMOs shows that half (49 per cent) find that innovation comes from within 4
PAYMENTSBUSINESS
their organizations, while under a third (27 per cent) says it comes from partnering with external companies. The AMA Toronto panel went on further to say customer-facing employees are often overlooked in carrying organizations’ innovation messages forward. While Canadian CMOs in our research listed employee engagement as “most responsible” for the success of initiative, similarly more than half the time (57 per cent) staff were not included in new initiatives.
2. Make everything about the customer. The recent AMA Toronto chapter CMO panel also agreed that exceptional customer experiences help differentiate brands from their competitors. Similarly, our CMO Lab research found that the top measure of effective content reflected the customers’ needs and values. Almost 2/3rds of Canadian CMOs (64 per cent) always include customers in their programming. In a Forbes interview earlier this year, the “architect of the most digitally savvy country on earth,” former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, offered “one of the key tenets in my push is that digitization must offer things that people like. For example, filling out taxes in threeto-five minutes is something people love because the entire process is digitized2.” This makes it key for the CIO and CMO to concurrently put themselves in the customer’s mind to deliver on something “likeable”.
3. Always communicate the “why”. While your disruptive technology might be the greatest thing for your customers, it means little if they don’t understand why they should use it. In the example of
digitized taxes in Estonia, the “why” was communicating the fact that it will take only three-to-five minutes to complete something that most people find painful i.e. tax returns. The “why”, however, is absent for some Canadians when it comes to new payment options. In a recent Payments Canada The PayPod podcast, panelists from the Millennial (born mid 1980s-2000s), Generation X (born 1960s-mid-1980s) and Baby Boomer (born mid-1940s-1960) generations were not keen on e-wallets or cryptocurrency simply because they did not understand their value. Would your customers understand why they should use bitcoin or care about token IDs? But equally important does your communications approach for the release of your new product or service account for audience feedback on why adoption is lacking? Our CMO Lab research showed that over 60 per cent of CMOs do not have pivot plans should such audience feedback be a reality. The success of payments innovation in Canada will depend on the effort to educate consumers and businesses on its benefits. In an age when talk around privacy and security are at an all-time high, the key to building trust in both CIO and CMO roles will begin by explaining the “why”. Diane Bégin is vice president, social marketing and brand communications at APEX Public Relations and ruckus Digital. CMO Lab is a partnered signature research series launched in 2018, focused on insights and trends as outlined by Canadian CMOs. 1 CIRA, “Canada’s Internet Factbook 2018”, web site, https://cira.ca/factbook/canada%E2%80%99s-internetfactbook-2018 2 Peter High, “An Interview With The Architect Of The Most Digitally Savvy Country On Earth”, Forbes, April 23, 2018.
July/August 2018