Twitter's chief revenue officer talks tapping into minds of modern CMOs
SALT LAKE CITY -- Digital marketing is one area that might entail the least amount of technology and platform development, but offer one of the richest opportunities in business -- at least for the "people who get it," according to Twitter's chief revenue officer Adam Bain.
"Our core thesis is to measure the wallet, you have to start by measuring the mind and the heart," said Bain while speaking at the 2013 Adobe Summit on Wednesday evening, hinting that the best way to do that is to survey customers.
But on mobile, Bain argued that surveys are "a broken experience" because there hasn't been a great way to adopt this technique for the platform.
"Everything is better on mobile for us," Bain reflected, saying that's true for both the user experience and marketing purposes.
Bain declared that the Twitter platform itself was "born mobile," citing that the "roots" for the 140-character maximum were founded in SMS texting.
"Everything is better on mobile for us," Bain reflected, saying that's true for both the user experience and marketing purposes.
But mobile also changes everything for marketing, which is one of the major themes already at the software giant's conference this year.
Through a combination of mobile along with social data, Bain said that businesses are moving towards a "more holistic model of attribution" for multiple sources (i.e. online ads, shared content, Twitter, etc.) to draw a better picture of the consumer is passionate about -- and what leads to a purchase.
"The whole idea of a funnel might be yesterday's news," Bain suggested. "The way more modern CMOs are thinking is actually around the customer journey, which looks more like a loop."
Bain defended that all of these types of products are useful throughout the customer journey, but that Twitter does have great examples around conversion pushing people to make sales.
He also pointed out features unique to Twitter, from the obvious (retweeting) to the maybe-less-than-obvious (double-digit percentages on engagement on ads).
Pointing to the San Francisco-based company's product news on Tuesday, Bain cited that beta testing for the new ad unit found a 22 percent brand lift among users exposed to Promoted Tweet campaigns along with over 35 percent lift in brand favorability.
However, when it came to the statistic that many might be the most curious about (revenue), Bain laughed and said simply "we're growing quite nicely."
More coverage from the 2013 Adobe Summit on ZDNet:
- Adobe taps consumer social media trends for Marketing Cloud revamp
- Adobe CEO: CMOs can better predict future of business than finance counterparts
- The evolving role of the chief digital officer, and who owns what: marketing or IT?
- Panel: Applying digital marketing tools means rethinking verticals altogether