Facebook names first CMO: Will he have tech spend?
Facebook has hired its first chief marketing officer, Gary Briggs, a Google veteran.
Briggs led Motorola Mobility's marketing efforts for Google and before that gig marketed Chrome, Google+ and the search giant's overall brand.
The hiring of Briggs, detailed in AdAge, recasts the marketing function at Facebook. AdAge noted that Briggs will lead branding and marketing efforts for users, developers and potential customers as well as lead product, platform and brand marketing, events, communication and content.
As most technology execs know, CMOs are the belles of the IT spending ball. Every tech vendor is salivating over the CMO, which will allegedly have more money to spend since he's the exec most aligned with growth and revenue. The CMO-CIO relationship has been the one to watch in 2013 and it's unclear how it's going to turn out.
Meanwhile, vendors such as IBM, Salesforce, Oracle and others are all pitching CMOs with intelligence suites, marketing platforms and social listening tools.
Facebook's marketing efforts will be interesting---can it really get Facebook Home to be a hit?---and Briggs role will be to add analytics and structure to the company's efforts. For instance, how does a company that's used by nearly everyone find new customers and engage more?
Although it's unclear whether Briggs will have an IT budget rest assured vendors are probably calling him as we speak.
More:
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- Why your CMO may spend more money on the cloud than your CIO
- Digital diaspora in the enterprise: Arrival of the CDO and CCO
- Gartner: CIOs and CMOs must 'turn sparks into flame'
- CxO Talk: Can a CIO and CMO be friends?
- Technology center of gravity shifting to marketing departments
- A new reality between the CMO and CIO