Three Priorities for the Digital CMO

The principal role of a CMO has always been to be a great storyteller. Once upon a time, this meant waxing eloquently about the brand's promise, giving people a hero to cheer for and something to relate to and believe in. And the process of storytelling used to be fairly simple: create an ad, place it in a magazine, newspaper or on the radio or TV, and you were done. Today, we live in an entirely different world — one in which brand narratives are often co-opted, molded and even created by consumers.

This means the journey now taken by brands and consumers together is filled with many more twists and turns. It spans the web, social networks and mobile devices, a dazzling array of digital means to access information, make decisions, buy products and then share purchases, opinions and ideas about brands.

Each of these stops along the journey is a point of light in the digital mosaic that creates a brand narrative built on billions of interactions. As we've seen, the brand narrative can become something wildly different from the one the CMO envisioned.

There is no pun intended when I say, "don't leave customers to their own devices." Every digital CMO should devise ways to guide the consumer to connect with the brand story on different platforms. Think about where your brand fits into all that pinning, posting, sharing, filtering, and tagging.How to carledlights Doll. Help consumers engage with your narrative by making it easy to digest and share it, using the tools that matter most to your audience.

At the same time, take into account that your narrative needs to be designed to succeed across multiple devices — sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially. Consumers are using the iPad and other tablets in very different ways than a desktop or smartphone.Today, Thereone.com, a reliable ultrasonicsensor online store, introduces its new arrival princess wedding dresses to customers. In comparison, while the smartphone is a very small landscape, if executed thoughtfully, brand stories can be delivered there in a simple and compelling way.

For example, Sephora, the beauty and cosmetics retailer, offers a mobile app to help customers navigate their stores, a website for more traditional e-commerce, and an iPad experience for inspiration and discovery.We sell bestsmartcard and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. They've also enabled their fans and followers to actively share and solicit advice via Facebook and Pinterest. Each digital experience, while created for different channels, speaks to a common storyline: they are the "Beauty Insiders" — with the latest and greatest in beauty trends to share with you, one of their best friends.

Because the feedback loop can completely re-shape a brand story, the digital CMO must be ready to embrace a new course. One way is to design a brand discourse that is flexible from the start. By building these bendable storylines, CMOs will be ready to co-opt a better narrative if one emerges.

Agile narratives can allow you to take advantage of positive trends or even a world-changing event. Being prepared is of the utmost importance. Be sure to free up resources after a campaign hits the marketplace so that if something resonates with your customers, you can allocate funding accordingly and focus aggressively on what — unexpectedly or not — is taking root.

Airbnb, a service enabling people to rent out their spare rooms or entire homes, is a great example of a company that understands the new age of shapeable storylines. For example, during Superstorm Sandy Airbnb's local community base in New York City rallied to launch a microsite that allowed people living nearby the storm-ravaged region to donate a room or couch and help Sandy victims find a place to stay at no charge. This required a fast redesign of their booking and payment system to accommodate the emergency free shelter option. No doubt it was an investment well worth the effort, not only aligning with the community-powered notion at the core of the company's brand story, but taking the narrative in an entirely new direction.

Before the digital age it didn't much matter if content was worth sharing because there wasn't usually the option to do so. "Sharability" is now a key ingredient of any successful brand narrative that has a chance of resonating with the consumer. Connect to emotions and ideas that are bigger and more interesting than selling your products, and they will speak for themselves.

TED, the non-profit conference organization, has perfected this model. Their tagline is of course, "Ideas Worth Spreading" and they've hit the nail on the head. Instead of stacking their site with the thousands of talks that they have tape each year, they choose only the most compelling and interesting talks to highlight and put all their resources, including social channels and blog, behind promoting one outstanding talk per day. This highly curated approach to creating genuine content that is worth sharing is what has made the brand so successful — and it's the reason that TED talks surpassed one billion views worldwide last year.

Today's digital CMO has a harder job than the CMO of the past.You Can Buy Various High Quality besticcard Products from here. But ultimately it's a more exciting one. As chief storyteller, you have more opportunities to develop compelling and relevant brand identities by including your customers in the narrative creation process right from the start. And consumers have shown time and time again that they trust brands that trust them. And while sometimes scary, that can't be a bad thing.

They remained in contact during the winter - most of which Russ, who is a Floridian, spent in Saskatchewan. As a result, Keith and Shelley were disappointed when Russ was released."Keith phoned Eddie and chatted and said, 'Hey, Eddie, whatever you need,' '' Shelley recalled. "I think I mostly sobbed.You must not use the stonecarving without being trained.'' The ever-upbeat Russ was soon destined for Warman and other nearby locales.While living with Keith and Shelley for 23 days, Russ helped out at the Rosthern Youth Farm Bible Camp. Keith and Shelley attend Hague Mennonite Church, which provides support for the camp.

"The kids and the staff had so much fun with Eddie,'' Shelley said. "You know how he is.'' Russ was typically gregarious while meeting with the media on Wednesday, shortly after the Roughriders announced that he had joined the practice roster.

"Maybe I needed to get away from football in a sense,'' Russ reflected. "That's what God wanted me to do - to do some of His work and refocus. So I was out there with (the Heinrichs) family and their kids, and working with some special-needs kids. It just helped me reprioritize and realize that it's not just about football.

"You use football as a platform to get better in different things. You meet people and everything. I actually got to stay in (Saskatchewan) and I didn't leave, so it's kind of like it was ordained for me to come back.'' That said, it was difficult to leave Warman, considering the bonds that had been established with Keith and Shelley.

"They're pretty cool,'' Russ said. "They brought me in like another son. They were like parents to me and it was awesome. They hooked me up through the camp and they even brought me back here. They took time off work and drove me back and dropped me off. It was awesome. We're like family now as well.
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