The new report details the best practices and technologies for overcoming the challenges that brand leaders face when aligning marketing and comms teams.

Bridging the Gap for Comms & Marketing aims to highlight the importance of consistent messaging across paid, owned and earned media.

The insights are based on a survey of over 150 brand leaders and nearly a dozen in-depth interviews. These were conducted with executives from companies including: 
  • IBM
  • Nokia
  • Schneider Electric
  • Lamps Plus
  • Certified First
  • Center for Creative Leadership
  • R&R Partners, and
  • InnerWorkings.
Topics that emerged from the study include:
  • 'The future of the marketing-comms relationship'
  • 'The primary challenges when aligning marketing and comms'
  • 'Which technologies and solutions help drive cohesion', and
  • 'The misunderstanding of roles and media channels'.
Brand leaders surveyed for the report also addressed how COVID-19 increased the importance to deliver cohesive messaging.

"With the majority of the world now spending significantly more time at home, consumption, sharing and engaging with digital media has only increased," says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

"In many cases, digital media now singularly impacts buying decisions and how consumers feel about brands — only amplifying the importance of consistent messaging across media channels. Yet over half of respondents agreed that when it comes to amplifying and aligning media strategies, there isn't strong alignment between their teams," adds Neale-May.

Other key survey findings include:
  • Nearly two of three brand leaders felt they're effective at integrating and amplifying earned media to drive customer experience and engagement strategies.
  • 81% of brand leaders said that the change in global business climate due to the pandemic has led to a definite rise in earned media efforts and importance.
  • One out of five marketing leaders were dissatisfied with their earned media performance.
"In order for organisations to achieve true integration between marketing and comms, they must first attain collaboration within the one constant both teams can agree upon: data," says Maggie Lower, Cision's chief marketing officer.

Both teams need to treat data as the source of truth and have someone with the skills to interpret that data as it relates to specific KPIs in order to understand progress and ROI," adds Lower.

"Cision's own partnership with the CMO Council validates the opportunities that can arise when PR and marketing work together," concludes Lower.

The CMO Council, in partnership with Cision, will host a webinar titled Shifting the Content Game on Wednesday, 23 September to discuss the report findings in further detail. Individuals are encouraged to view the report and register for the event here. 

For more information, visit www.cmocouncil.org. You can also follow the CMO Council on Twitter.