Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

A reflective survey of MarTech professionals and what it means for brands

and the profession
Its yesterdays news that marketing and technology have become inextricably intertwined.
Tectonic forces, enabled by technology, have fueled more disruption and competition for
customer attention in the last five years than corporations experienced in the 50 years prior.
On one hand, CMOs have realized that marketings success is gated by the digital acumen
of their own organizations. On the other, CIOs find that the expectations of their engineering teams are influenced more by digital exemplars like Amazon, Google, and Silicon Valley
startups than by peer benchmarks within their own industry.
Its no surprise then, that Harvard Business Review recently joined the chorus and profiled
the Rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist (CMT)1 a new type of executive responsible
for bringing marketing and technology together. According to a 2014 Gartner study, 81% of
large organizations now have a CMT2.
Despite the excitement around marketing technology and the CMT role, the ambiguity as to
who these individuals are, the skills they possess and where they sit organizationally has led
to considerable confusion. And the confusion results in two related issues. One, executives
need better clarity regarding how they can identify, recruit, on-board, and retain these talented individuals. Second, aspiring marketing technologists have no guidelines against which to
benchmark and level-up their own skills.
To help us shed more light on these issues, SapientNitro partnered with Scott Brinker, the
host of the MarTech conference and popular chiefmartec blog to conduct a first-of-its-kind
study of marketing technologists skills, career paths, attitudes and behaviors3.
For the first time, we have been able to x-ray the professional marketing technologist. The
results are striking:
Todays marketing technologists cluster into 6 distinct archetypes, and they are not
equivalent or interchangeable. Of the 6 archetypes 3 are focused on technology, 3 on marketing. Respondents self-identified skills fell into distinct clusters, revealing the archetypes.
Marketing Mavens (26%): With marketing
skills emphasized over technology, Mavens
specialize in building marketing programs
using expertise in marketing strategy, strategic positioning and promotion.

Infrastructure Architects (16%): Enterprise-level technology chops define this

archetype, but they are also business consultants and bring a high-level understanding of a companys marketing initiatives.

Data Divas (17%): Divas are skilled in

marketing operations management, CRM,
data science, analytics and modeling. They
know how to acquire, integrate and make
data perform.

Experience Engineers (15%): One foot in

technology and another in experience. They
are experts in cutting-edge technology:
from eCommerce to front-end technology
and mobility.

Content Curators (16%): Storytellers.

Message crafters. Marketing strategists.
Content Management platform experts.
This type exercises considerable knowledge of the content marketing and related
technologies to direct communications-oriented marketing.

Media & Marketing Analyzers (10%):

specialize in research, consumer insights
and strategic planning. They think strategically about segmentation and connections
planning.

HBR July 2014 The Rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist, by Scott Brinker, Laura McLellan

https://www.gartner.com/doc/2652017/presence-chief-marketing-technologist-impacts

3 We

asked the community of marketing technologists recruited from the MarTech 2014 fall conference and Scott Brinkers popular Chief
Martec blog - to help us document this group. We contracted an independent market research firm Decision Analyst to execute the survey.
Our study had 280 respondents, and took place from August 15th, 2014 to September 8th, 2014. (for more details, see About the Survey at the
end of the article).

2015 SapientNitro

Key Points
4 in 5 companies have a marketing
technologist. Yet, analysis of their careers
and skills reveals a profession in a
formative stage.

Marketing technologists are not

equivalent. Today, there are six
archetypes, 3 focused on technology, 3
on marketing. Prospective employers
must mind the differences because doing
so will help define the role they hope to
fill. Prospective marketing technologists
should pay attention as well if only to
better recognize the skill gaps they may
need to develop.

Most marketing technologists have

marketing job titles, and a majority report
to a CMO, senior marketer or CEO.

STEM degrees are in the minority (26%)

and professionals are learning on the
job. We are concerned as to whether or
not this provides enough preparation /
ensures a strong enough set of skills upon
which to build.

Alarming skill deficiencies exist. Of

greatest concern, Information Security is
the single weakest skill.

94% of marketing technologists say that

marketing and IT skills can be combined
in one person, yet most self-classify
within one discipline.

THE SIX ARCHETYPES HAVE TWO MAIN AREAS

OF FOCUS
52% Marketing
10%
Media &
Marketing
Analyzers
16%
Content
Curators
26%
Marketing
Mavens

48% Technology
17%
Data
Divas
16%
Infrastructure
Architects
15%
Experience
Engineers

We found that Marketing Technologists are grouped into

six archetypes - three with a marketing focus, and three
with a technology focus.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

The emergence of these archetypes may represent specialization

within the profession, often seen in mature fields such as medicine
or engineering.
However, we doubt it. More likely, the skills gaps we found indicate
that the archetypes are emerging through a Darwinian selection process as individuals who may not meet the full job specifications are
promoted into this new role.
One immediate implication for those organizations in search of the
best person to steward marketing technology through a period of
profound disruption is that they need to define the role more specifically than simply as marketing technologist. The needs of an
organization may in fact require that the CMT embody a combination
of at least two and possibly as many as all six of the archetypes.
This said, the archetypes are a starting point to contain search efforts
and costs, as they are a clear segmentation of todays talent.
Marketing Technologists report into marketing. While 69.2% report into the C-Suite, just 8.6% of marketing technologists reported
to the CIO, with the majority reporting into the CMO or CEO/President. Our findings matched other recent industry surveys, in this
regard.
In our view, this reporting bias could explain the surprising underweighting of engineering/STEM academic backgrounds in the population, which we describe further below. Our hypothesis: marketers
and business leaders are promoting from their own departmental
ranks and backgrounds. This is understandable, but executives
should consider where pure play digital firms who are setting
the pace of todays disruption are sourcing their talent, and then
consider proactive skills development to level up existing talent, or
increase the diversity of their talent sourcing, for instance, by overweighting IT and business analytics capabilities.
Todays practitioners are learning technology on the job. Today,
marketing technologists are strongest in core marketing skills, and
only 26% have STEM (science, technology, engineering or math)
degrees.
Additionally, nearly half the respondents reported their prior job was
managing technology or programming, often in a marketing context
providing the job environment for developing technical skills. We
believe the lack of hybrid academic programs is forcing talent to train
on the job. The implication? Rudimentary preparation in computer
science fundamentals, systems and algorithmic thinking, statistics
and data science may be glossed over or completely skipped, which
will undoubtedly impair job effectiveness.
Interestingly, technology-oriented marketing technologists are 20%
more likely to be the primary or chief marketing technology officer, indicating that greater responsibilities are awarded to those
with technical proficiency.
Current and desired job skills are balanced between marketing,
technology and business. The top 5 skills that respondents report
they possess are marketing strategy and positioning, marketing operations management, website design, the ability to persuade and
negotiate and marketing channel strategy/connections planning.
Perhaps attributable in part to confirmation bias the tendency to
search for or interpret information in a way that confirms ones preconceptions 3 of these also featured in the 5 skills respondents

2015 SapientNitro

said are most important to the future of marketing. Regardless, we

are delighted to observe a balance between marketing, technology
and business domains, all three of which are essential for success
in the role, in our view.

Marketing
Skills

Technology
Skills

Business
Skills

The most important

future job skills,
according to our
survey, include
marketing,
technology and
business skills.
(see Finding #6)

There are alarming deficiencies in current skill sets. Advertising technology, system performance and resiliency, and several
omni-channel enabling technologies all featured in the bottom 10
of self-assessed current skills, with information security coming in
dead last.
This lack of skills is of huge concern in light of recent massive security breaches across industries, the extreme scale at which digital
businesses must operate during periods of high demand, and the
ever-increasing requirements for brands to imagine and deliver immersive and pervasive experiences.
In addition, when we examined the largest skills gaps (differences
between stated future importance and current self-assessment),
big data techniques and technologies emerged as the skill with the
widest gap. The absolute deficiencies in current skills, the gap between current and desired future skills, and the under-representation of STEM academic backgrounds reinforce our view that todays
marketing technologists must level up their technology chops with
great urgency.
The gap between marketing and technology is real, even for
marketing technologists. While 94% believe that marketing and IT
skills could be combined in a single person, respondents identified a
stark polarity between marketing expertise and systems integration
expertise.
Most technology archetypes are less likely to describe themselves
as marketing experts and marketing archetypes dont think of
themselves as systems integrators. This subtle indication of how
respondents described who they are may be indicative of the culture
gap that must be overcome for the role to attain its highest potential.
In our view, the CMT role must straddle both functions as a native,
not with a major in one and a minor in the other.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

Findings and Analysis:

1. Although most organizations may have a Chief Marketing Technologist (CMT), they are certainly not all alike, or interchangeable.
The CMT role is pervasive, with Gartner recently reporting that 81% of
large organizations now have a CMT. But the roles are not alike.
The July 2014 edition of Harvard Business Review defined the CMT role
noting CMTs are part strategist, part creative director, part technology
leader, and part teacher. (emphasis added) Our survey findings took this
analysis one step farther, providing deep insight into the ratio of those
parts in the current cadre of professionals.

The Marketing Mavens (26%):

The largest single group, the skills and

attitudes of this group show that more
than 1 in 4 marketing technologists have a
much stronger marketing orientation (and
conversely, a weaker technology orientation) than we had previously assumed. This
groups key skills are dominated by marketing strategy and positioning and to a much
lesser extent marketing operations. They
think of themselves as marketing experts,
business consultants, and customer experience specialists.

The Data Divas (17%):

The second-largest group loves their data.

Their skills are grounded in marketing operations management, CRM, data science, analytics and modeling. They scored themselves
highly in managing big data one of the biggest
skill gaps identified by the overall survey population and also are proficient in data management software/systems. With their expertise
in systems; tag management; CRM tools; and
data science, analytics, statistics and modeling,
they know how to acquire, integrate and make
data perform. 68% of members of this group
said they are the primary marketing technologist in their organizations the highest of all the
archetypes reflecting the importance of data
driven marketing.
The Content Curators (16%):

If you want to tell a story and efficiently disseminate it to your consumers this is the group you want. With
considerable expertise in content creation,
content optimization, marketing strategy
and positioning, and content and digital
asset management platforms, this group
helps your brand converse with customers.

We asked our survey respondents to rank their skills, in relative, not absolute terms. We also asked them to choose from monikers they might
use to describe themselves professionally. Analyzing these data sets,
we found clear evidence that the population of marketing technologists
is fractured around distinct areas of expertise.
We identified 6 different archetypes of marketing technologists by identifying distinct clusters of skills rank your strongest/weakest skill
and attitudes I think of myself as. Sorted by size within the overall
population, the 6 archetypes are:

MARKETING MAVENS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning

Marketing
Operations
Management

Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning

The Ability to
Persuade and
Negotiate

Website
Testing and
Optimization

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

80.8%
61.6%
41.1%
38.4%
27.4%

A Marketing Expert
A Business Consultant
A Customer Experience Specialist
An Entrepreneur
A CRM Expert

Mavens view themselves as professional marketers, business consultants and customer experience specialists. They
are the oldest (43% are 45+), and have the highest mean salary ($149k).

DATA DIVAS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

35.0

Marketing
Operations
Management

34.0

Customer
Relationship
Management
(CRM) Systems
and Platforms

31.7

Data Science,
Analytics,
Statistics, and
Modeling

17.4

Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning

16.8

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

55.3%
53.2%
53.2%
51.1%
42.6%
42.6%
40.6%

A Marketing Expert
A Database Marketing Specialist
A Business Consultant
A Systems Integrator
A Data Scientist, Statistician, Analyst
A CRM Expert
A Customer Experience Specialist

Data Divas have much stronger sets of skills in database marketing, system integration and data scientist-related
skills than the other archetypes. They were the most likely to be the primary marketing technologists in their
organization (68% reported being the CMT).

CONTENT CURATORS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

45.6

Content Creation,
Copywriting,
and Content
Optimization

39.8

Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning

17.2

Website Design
Including
Responsive
and Adaptive
Design

16.0

The Ability to
Persuade and
Negotiate

24.6

Content Management and

Digital Asset
Management
Systems

23.4

Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning

21.6

Website
Testing and
Optimization

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

64.4%
57.8%
53.3%
46.7%
35.6%

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Data
Management
Software and
Systems

A Marketing Expert
A Content Management Expert
A Writer Or Content Creator
A Business Consultant
A Customer Experience Specialist

Content Curators specialize in content creation, content management and the customer experience.
They were also the youngest, with 42% under 35.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

Findings and Analysis:

The Infrastructure Architects (16%):

This is a classically trained cohort of

technologists, with expertise in developing enterprise marketing platforms. With
deep understanding of technology architecture and selection, software development,
content and digital asset management platforms, they describe themselves as the IT
specialists, systems integrators and business consultants that deploy marketing technology at scale within the enterprise.

INFRASTRUCTURE ARCHITECTS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

46.8

9.0

Enterprise
Architecture,
Tech Selection,
and Lifecycle
Management

31.6

Software
design,
programming,
and coding

23.3

Content
management
and digital asset
management
systems

17.1

Software
Development
Operations
and IT
Operations

11.4

Front-end
technologies
(e.g. HTML5,
Javascript,
and CSS)

Visual display of
data (including
infographics and
dashboards)

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

73.3%
64.4%
60.0%
35.6%
33.3%
33.3%

An IT (Information Technology) Specialist

A Systems Integrator
A Business Consultant
A Software Developer, Coder, Or Programmer
An Entrepreneur
A Customer Experience Specialist

Infrastructure Architects are much more aligned with technology. Information technology, systems integration and even a
developer/coder scored highly. They were also the most male (89%), and 40% had an undergraduate technology degree
(versus a 25.3% average for all archetypes).

The Experience Engineers (15%):

This group pushes boundaries at the

intersection of technology and experience. They have remarkable proficiencies in
the technologies that directly touch the customer experience eCommerce, front-end,
and mobility.

EXPERIENCE ENGINEERS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

33.9

13.6

eCommerce
Technologies
and Platforms

Content
Management
and Digital
Asset
Management
Systems

29.8

Front-end
Technologies
(e.g. HTML5,
Javascript,
and CSS)

12.9

Design and
Development
of Mobile
Apps and
Platforms

21.5

Software
Design,
Programming,
and Coding

17.0

GIS,
Geomapping,
and
Geotargeting

17.0

Website
Design Including
Responsive and
Adaptive Design

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

46.3%
41.5%
39.0%
39.0%
31.7%
31.7%

An IT (Information Technology) Specialist

A Systems Integrator
A Business Consultant
A Software Developer, Coder, Or Programmer
An Entrepreneur
A Customer Experience Specialist

Experience Engineers play a hybrid role blending depth in IT and SI skills but also have breadth in the form of
customer experience. They have considerable skills in mobile app development, eCommerce technology and other
core competencies as well.

The Media and Marketing Analyzers (10%):

A rare breed in our survey, this type has

significant skills in research, consumer
insights, and strategic planning. They think
strategically about segmentation and connections planning.

MEDIA AND MARKETING ANALYZERS: SELF-REPORTED SKILLS

58.4

Marketing
Research,
Consumer
Insights, and
Competitive
Intelligence

47.3

Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning

24.1

Advertising
and Marketing
Communication
Development

16.6

Market
Segmentation
and
Psychographics

13.5

Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTION: I THINK OF MYSELF AS...

72.4%
51.7%
44.8%
37.9%
31.0%

A Marketing Expert
An Advertising Expert
A Business Consultant
An Entrepreneur
A Customer Experience Specialist

Our final archetype is also the smallest; Media and Marketing Analysts bring strengths in advertising, business and
customer experience. They tend to be younger 45% are under 35 and are the most likely to have a graduate degree
(59% have a graduate degree) and, of those, most degrees are in business (71% of graduate degrees are in business).

2015 SapientNitro

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

The existence of the archetypes shows us that todays marketing technologists do not have
equivalent competencies. In fact, the differences in the ratio of skills between the archetypes are quite large.
One immediate implication for brands looking to appoint a CMT they must be more specific in creating a job description the term marketing technologist simply is insufficient.
Lacking specifics when casting the role will increase the odds of professional failure. For
instance, recruiting a Marketing Maven when the job situation calls for a Data Diva or Infrastructure Architect will require additional senior team members with complementary skills
to build out a capable marketing technology function.
We recommend an outline of the specific skills required, followed by a determination of
which primary, and secondary (or more, if needed) archetype fits best. Brands with stable
business models should be able to define their needs succinctly e.g. evolve and manage
the marketing automation infrastructure. By doing so, they will be able to focus on the
archetypes required, which will increase the likelihood of finding experienced candidates
who can fill the role effectively. Of course, employers concerned about changing consumer
behavior or digital disruption to their core business will need a unicorn with breadth and
depth across multiple, or all archetypes to lead the marketing technology office. In this case,
expect the candidate pool to be much smaller, and the search to take longer.
2. Archetypes are split evenly between marketing and technology disciplines, but marketing archetypes are more likely to operate as a team, while technology archetypes
are more likely to play the role of Chief Marketing Technologist.

THE SIX ARCHETYPES HAVE TWO MAIN AREAS

OF FOCUS

TECHNOLOGY

In our data, we found a roughly even split between marketing and technology orientations
52% of the respondents are classified in one of the three marketing archetypes (Marketing
Mavens, Content Curators, or Media & Marketing Analyzers), while the remaining 48% are
in the technology archetypes (Data Divas, Infrastructure Architecture, Experience Engineers).
Interestingly, those with a marketing orientation are far more likely to operate with a team
rather than as the sole marketing technologist. We hypothesize that marketing oriented archetypes need additional technology support in order to realize the marketing technology
function:

48%

17%
Data
Divas

Marketing Archetypes (52% of respondents): Marketing-oriented archetypes tend to

be self-taught in technology, to have more marketing academic training, and to be
equally divided by gender. They are slightly more likely to report into the CMO than any
other group (33.9% report to the CMO vs. an overall average of 31.4%).
Technology Archetypes (48% of respondents): Technology archetypes are younger,
more likely to have STEM degrees, and are more likely to report into non-marketing
leaders (e.g. the CEO, others, or the CIO).
A full 55% of the three technology archetypes reported that they are the Chief Marketing Technologist, (CMT) a moniker roughly equivalent to the CMTO. In contrast,
only 35% a full 20 percentage point delta of the three marketing archetypes report
themselves to be the Chief Marketing Technologist.

16%
Infrastructure
Architecture

15%
Experience
Engineers

MARKETING

52%

26%
Marketing
Mavens

16%

10%

Content Media & Marketing

Curators
Analyzers

Our six profiles are evenly split between

marketing focused and technology focused
archetypes - consistent with the blended nature
of the role.

Our hypothesis is todays technology archetypes (Data Divas, Infrastructure Architecture, Experience Engineers) possess more of the skills needed to align the marketing team, technology vendors, service providers and corporate IT. Our recommendation for brands? Evaluate
your CMTs ability to be the glue between these teams, including her ability to represent the
interests, viewpoints and concerns of the different stakeholders without bias, see the big
picture while not missing key details, and her gravitas as a cross functional leader.

2015 SapientNitro

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

3. Marketing technologists most likely work for the Chief Marketing Officer. They also have marketing titles.
Our respondents report into a marketing function most frequently.
Just 8.6% of marketing technologists report into the CIO; most report into the CMO (31.4%), CEO/President (23.9%), or CDO (chief
digital officer)/CSO (chief strategy officer) (5.3%). In sum, 69.2% reported into the C-suite. Chief Marketing Technologists (CMTs) are
similar, with just 5.5% reporting into the CIO.
In our view, this distribution of reporting relationships is supportive
of our thesis that the marketing technologist is broadly the equivalent of a CIO or CTO dedicated to marketing, and the CMO or CEO
needs a trusted advisor skilled in technology and marketing on his/
her team.
PARTICIPANT JOB TITLES OVERALL AND CMT

Current job titles are predominantly in the marketing domain. CMTs

were 7% more likely to have a marketing title. We also found that
the title of Marketing Technologist is rarely used and made up only
a small fraction (11%) of CMTs in the field.
Given the title variance and reporting into IT by exception, rather
than norm, we recommend that the individual tasked as the CMT
have explicit objectives, socialized with all concerned stakeholders,
to align marketing and technology concerns, and own the blueprint
for how marketing technology is deployed and will evolve in the context of the enterprise technology estate.

REPORTING TO THE CMO, CEO, OR CIO OVERALL AND CMT

60

50
40

30
20

CMT

OVERALL

10

33.1%

31.4%

CMO, EVP of Marketing, Senior VP 

of Marketing, or VP of Marketing

29.9%

23.9%

CEO or President

5.5%

8.6%

CIO, EVP of IT, Senior VP of IT, or VP of IT

e.g.
Marketing
Technologist

4.7%

3.2%

Chief Digital Officer/Director of Digital

Marketing/Digital Research

Director
of Market
Automation

Marketing
Technology
Consultant

3.1%

2.1%

CPO/CSO/Director/VP/Manager of Strategy,
Planning, or Development

Director of CRM

Marketing
Technology
Manager

21.3%

28.9%

Other Business or Group

76.3%

69.2% reported into the C-suite

55.9% 48.9%
CMT

Overall

16.5% 23.2%
CMT

Overall

18% 16.8%

11%

7.1%

CMT

CMT

Overall

Overall

Marketing
Title

Business
Title 

Technology
Title 

e.g.
CMO

e.g.
CGO/CSO/
Director/VP/
Manager of
Strategy

e.g.
CTO/CIO/
Director/VP/
Manager of IT/

Director/VP/
Manager of Digital
Marketing

Project Manager/
Account
Marketing
Manager/Director/ Manager/
Director/VP/
VP/Manager of
Manager of
Marketing
Business, Product,
Technology
or Application
Development/
Strategist

Director of
Analytics

Marketing
Technology
Title 

Market
Automation
Specialist

Marketing technologists job titles are typically marketing titles. And Chief
Marketing Technologists (CMTs) were even more likely to have marketing
titles.

2015 SapientNitro

Marketing technologists reported into senior leaders in an organization; the

most common were the CMO suite, CEO and, at a distant third, the CIO.
CMTs are 7 percentage points more likely to report to the c-suite.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

4. Only a quarter of todays marketing technologists have

STEM degrees. Predictably, technology training is done on-thejob, not in school.
Surprisingly, 3 in 4 marketing technologists do not have a traditional STEM degree. 25.3% have a STEM undergraduate degree, while
18.8% have a STEM graduate degree. Instead, the most common academic majors for marketing technologists are business and business
administration (13.7% of undergrads and 41.4% among graduates).
Once in the workforce, marketing manager is the #1 job leading
to a marketing technologist role, followed by web/CRM/automation
platform technology management. But when we group all responses by domain, the technology/programming domain emerges as the
most common prior job focus, followed by the business/management domain, with the marketing/communications domain in third.
Almost half of all the respondents had a prior role in technology, and
primary marketing technologists skew higher 53.5% report having
a technical/programming role prior to their current primary marketing
technologist role.
Our conclusion? Todays talent has cross-skilled themselves, especially in technology, on the job. This is understandable, given the paucity of cross-discipline academic programs. However, we are concerned that preparation in computer science fundamentals, systems
and algorithmic thinking, statistics and data science are hard to pick
up on the job absent curricula, coaching and skills roadmaps for
which there is no industry consensus. The marketing technologist is,
by its very moniker, a technical and marketing role, and those recruiting or planning their own career must have a strong grounding in the
fundamentals of both. We recommend that both brands looking for
CMTs, as well as aspiring CMTs themselves, evaluate their skills
across the archetypes to understand existing gaps, and to create
development plans or source additional talent to fill the gaps.

PREVIOUS JOBS
46.9% Technical/Programming Background
01 20.7% Web/CRM management/

01

Automation platforms

02

14.5%

Web Developer/Programmer/
Software Engineer

03 14.1% IT/Tech background

02

03

04 4.6% eCommerce
05 3.7% SEM/SEO/Search engine
management

04

05

Background in mobile

06 2.9% platforms/mobile aps

06

Technology/programming is the dominant background for marketing

technologists. Specifically, we found focus areas in web/CRM platforms,
web development and general IT/technology.

39.0% Business/Management Background

01

01 10.4% Consulting/Management Consultant/

User Experience Consultant

02

Management Background/

02 9.1% Manage a Team

03 9.1% Account/Project Management

03

04

04 8.3% Sales/Lead Generation

05

05 7.5%

Business Development/
Strategy/Research Strategy
Analytics/Business Analyst/

06

07

06 5.4% Business Background

Market research/Research

07 4.1% and development

EARNED DEGREES
Earned At Least Bachelors Degree
92.1%

Business and management was also a popular job category, and we observe
prior general management roles described as consulting, managing teams,
and project management.
40.7%
Advanced Degree
(Masters, ph.D)

AREAS OF STUDY

51.4%

7.9%

Bachelors Degree

Associates Degree

Undergraduate

Business or Business
Administration

14%

Marketing

11%

Communications

9%

Computer Science
Information Technology

12

Engineering
Science or Math

Vocational or less

37.3% Marketing/Communication Background

01 22.4% Marketing background/Mar-

01

Graduate

keting Manager/Marketing

02 13.7% Digital/Interactive Marketing

41%

03 4.6% Digital producer/Graphics/

16%

Animation/Video/Audio Engineer

8%
%

(Economics, Sociology, Psychology)

Social Sciences

10%

Art and Other Majors (Net)

31%

04

Communications/Market Communications/Database Marketing

media/social platforms

04

2%
5%

05

11%

Marketing technologists are a highly educated group, with 92% having at least a bachelors
degree - compared to 29.5% for the U.S. general population. Undergraduate areas of study
included liberal arts, and, at the graduate level, skew towards business.
2015 SapientNitro

03

05 3.3% Background in social

3%

4%

02

14

3.7%

While marketing background/marketing manager/marketing is the single

most common single (historic) role for marketing technologists, the marketing/
communication category as a whole ranked below technology focused prior roles.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

In the light of recent massive security breaches in many industry

verticals, the extreme scale with which digital businesses must
operate during periods of high demand, and the need for brands to
imagine and create immersive and pervasive communications and
experience, the lack of needed skills in these areas is worrisome.
Our recommendation? Understand your weakest skills and source
help from specialists to mitigate risks and avoid blind spots. Consider immediate audits in gap areas, and strategy retainers for forward
planning.

80

MOST IMPORTANT FUTURE JOB SKILLS

60

62.1%
43.9%

43.9%

42.9%

40

44.3%

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System performance and resiliency, advertising technology and several omni-channel enabling technologies (e.g. in-venue, in-store experience technology, physical computing and IoT, tag management,
and geotargeting) all featured in the lowest 10 self-assessed current skills, with information security dead last. Of all our findings,
we were concerned with this one the most. In our view, marketing
technologists must envision and lead the delivery of omni-channel
experiences that are integrated, scalable and reliable. This in fact, is
a core mandate of the role. Further, the bottom 10 list also included
some core marketing topics, such as loyalty programs, internationalization, media and ad-tech.

We asked our respondents which job skills were the most important for the future success of marketing. Of the top 5 skills important for the future, two are marketing related, two are technology
related and one is business related. This supports our view that
the marketing technologist must span marketing, technology, and
business. However, the technology-oriented skills are narrower than
wed anticipated.

20

Our respondents say their strongest skills are marketing strategy/

positioning, followed by marketing operations management and
website design (including responsive and adaptive design). At first
glance, this is great a mix of strategy, operations and technology,
in that order. Our concern? Operations the second strongest skill,
is ranked 2.5 times weaker than strategy, and technology website
design (responsive + adaptive) is ranked almost 3 times weaker.
Given the demo or die mode in which most digitally native competition operates, marketing technologists must be as proficient in the
details of execution (operations and technology), as in strategy.

6. Desired skills in the future span marketing, business and

technology, but mind the data gap.

5. Marketing technologists are strongest in core marketing

skills, and weakest in information security and system
performance/resilience.

When we asked respondents for the top skills for future success, the top two skills
which emerged were traditional marketing skills, although technology skills rounded
out the next two slots.

MOST IMPORTANT FUTURE JOB SKILLS BY DOMAIN

Marketing Technologists Must Span Marketing, Technology and Business

CURRENT JOB SKILLS: STRONGEST SKILLS

38.1
15.6
13.3
12.3
12.2

Marketing Strategy and Positioning

Marketing Operations Management
Website Design Including Responsive and Adaptive Design
The Ability to Persuade and Negotiate
Marketing Channel Strategy/Connections Planning

In these data, we were particularly surprised at the strength of Marketing Strategy/

Positioning and the relatively balanced set of current strengths across disciplines.

Marketing Skills

Technology Skills

Key Gaps:
Marketing Strategy
& Positioning

Key Gaps:
Website Design
including responsive
design adaptive

Target Marketing
Identification

CRM Systems
and Platforms

CURRENT JOB SKILLS: WEAKEST SKILLS

Business Skills
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1

In-venue/In-Store Experience Technology

Physical Computing and the Internet of Things
Tag Management and User Management (United User Profile)
Loyalty Programs
Media Planning and Buying
International Marketing/Translations/Legal Issues
Digital Ad Networks and Real-time Bidding
System Performance and Resiliency
GIS, Geomapping and Geotargeting
Information Security/Firewalls/Encryption/Data Recovery

We were startled by the importance of several of the skills on which marketing

technologists evaluated themselves poorly. Information security, particularly, is of
growing import.

2015 SapientNitro

Key Gaps:
Ability to persuade
and negotiate

In our evaluation of the survey data, we found that a mix of marketing, technology,
and business skills were important for marketing technologists for the future.

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

We also compared responses for skills ranked important in the

future, to those for skills they have today. By doing so, we identified specific skills gaps and their magnitude. The most significant
skills gaps are seen in target market identification; CRM systems
and platforms; data science, analytics, statistics, and modeling; big
data and marketing segmentation. The list indicates that leveling up
is required on both the marketing and the technology side. But by
far, the most significant absolute gap is in big data: techniques and
technologies for handling data at extreme scale.

EXCITEMENT VS STRESS

62.3% Excitement*

32.3% Stress**

MARKETING TECHNOLOGIST SKILL GAP

10

As a professional, marketing technologists report that excitement increases with

income - and, thankfully, that stress does not.

Data Science, Analytics,

Statistics, And Modeling

-6

12

Among roles, those serving as CMTs report higher excitement and stress, relative
to those less involved.

Big Data: Techniques and

Technologies for Handling
Data at Extreme Scale

-27

34

*Score Calculation: 100% Extremely Exciting + 70% Very Exciting

**Score Calculation: 100% Extremely Stressful + 70% Very Stressful

Market Segmentation
and Psychographics

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weaknesses, we identified a set of skills with the greatest gaps, shown above.
Its notable that the biggest gaps span technology, marketing, and business skills.

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8. Marketing technologists have many similarities, but there

are striking personality and identity differences between marketing archetypes and technology archetypes.
Finally, we asked individuals to choose monikers they might use to
describe their personality and profession.

We recommend a careful analysis of skills needed for the future

of your business, and building these skills through development,
talent sourcing and retainers. In particular, given that data centricity
will dominate marketing for the foreseeable future, we suggest additional emphasis on acquiring data science and data management
competencies within the marketing technology function.
7. Marketing Technologists are excited about the future.
To close out the study, we moved to softer, attitudinal factors. First,
we asked how much stress and/or excitement our respondents
received from their jobs.
Less than half 42.9% of marketing technologists reported that
their jobs are extremely or very stressful. Of those who serve
as the CMT role, this number is slightly higher at 45.7%. The good
news nearly 3 in 4 or 74.3% of marketing technologists report
they are extremely or very excited with their current job. Of those
who serve as the CMT, 83.5% were extremely or very excited.
The marketing technologist role has been established in response
to marketing rapidly becoming one of the most technology-dependent functions in business. Intuitively, its not surprising that
marketing technologists are excited about the future they are the
wizards tasked with creating competitive advantage on this frontier.
We did expect greater stress levels given the era of marketing disruption we are in perhaps this is a cue to raise our collective level
of urgency to reinvent the future.

2015 SapientNitro

Regardless of their background, respondents say they have a

logical/analytical side and an innovative/creative one. But, when we
compared technology and marketing archetypes, we discovered
interesting differences:
1. Technology archetypes were almost twice as likely to select
Practical, Realistic to describe their personality. They also
described themselves as Innovative, Creative, more often
than the marketing archetypes.
2. Technology archetypes are half as likely to describe themselves
as marketing experts than marketing archetypes. And, marketing archetypes less than half as likely as the technology archetypes to describe themselves as systems integrators.
94% of respondents believe that marketing and IT skills can be
combined in a single person, yet how they describe their personality and jobs reveals a culture gap. Our recommendation? As we
noted earlier, this role must straddle both marketing and technology
as a native, not with a major in one and a small minor in the other.
If you are a CMT, or aspiring to be one, examine how you view
yourself and whether you are naturally centered in one department.
If you are a brand leader working with a CMT, provide him with
open and timely coaching that will allow him to become aware of
any unconscious biases he might have.

10

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

PERSONALITY TYPES BY ARCHETYPE GROUPINGS

Marketing Archetypes

Marketing Archetypes

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60%

70%

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Personality Types: In terms of personality, it appears those with a Marketing orientation and those with a Technology orientation are more similar than different. Six of
the ten characteristics were similar, although marketers believe themselves to be less
Practical, but more Independent, Original and Organized. Technologists scored
slightly higher overall, and relatively higher in Practical, Realistic. All groups believe
themselves to be Logical, Analytical.

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Percent of respondents reporting the personality or self-description

lla

PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTIONS

Professional Self-Descriptions: A complex picture emerges of two backgrounds - both

alike in dignity, striving to be entrepreneurs, customer experience specialists, and
business consultants, even as significant cultural and professional divisions remain.

Conclusion
The rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist is bridging the worlds of
marketing and IT. In these data, we see a new picture emerging of
the marketing technologist. This first-ever analysis of the professional population gives us a remarkable view of six discrete archetypes,
their skills, and where in the organization they sit. Importantly, we
have a clear view of the skills and attitudinal gaps which employers
must recognize when hiring and that the profession (and, ultimately,
academia) must address.
We can logically infer from the data that marketing technologists are
growing their skills on the job. Thats great news. But, it should be
deeply concerning to both marketing technologists and the brands
that rely on them that the largest skills gaps are in areas of significant opportunity (e.g. targeting, CRM and data) and high risk (e.g.
information security, performance and resiliency).
Academia has yet to create programs for hybrid talent that must

2015 SapientNitro

operate at the intersection of marketing and technology. The need

for marketers who understand technology, data and algorithms is as
pressing and urgent as the need for technologists who have a grasp
of marketing, advertising and the art of growing customers.
Against this backdrop, we believe it is critical for organizations to
invest in ongoing training and skills-development to grow marketing technology talent. As an agency, our clients often ask us to play
advisory CMTO roles. To fulfill the demand, we founded our own
CMTO University. We decided to challenge, rather than coddle our
best technologists. We go deep by teaching marketing, business,
applied influence and persuasion skills, modeled in the style of an
executive MBA (see sidebar on Page 12).
For businesses that want to thrive, and increasingly, those that want
to survive, grooming leaders with relevant skills and who operate
with competence and confidence in the age of the customer is the
single biggest investment we can make in our future.

11

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

Growing Unicorns: SapientNitro CMTO University

With the shift from analog to digital, from communications to experience, from story yelling to Storyscaping, companies need a new
breed of technologist. This new breed sees around corners, paints
the big picture, and gets marketers, ad types and marketing. They
are scrappy innovators, who also understand scale and complexity,
and, who are awesome at influencing people.
For all the hand wringing about Chief Marketing Technologists (CMTs
or CMTOs), talent that gets both marketing and technology is rare.
While marketing technology talent is in very high demand, there is an
enormous industry skills gap. SapientNitro decided to do something
about it by creating CMTO University within our Agency.
CMTO University is an internal leadership development program to
grow some of our best technologists, focusing on three core topic
areas: technology, marketing, and communicating with influence.
It is a year-long experience that combines elements of a corporate
leadership development program with the rigor, challenge and learning of an executive MBA.

The curriculum includes four intensive workshops, conducted in

different SapientNitro locations around the globe, with interim
periods between the workshops. Each intensive and interim has a
specific focus; activities include group projects, weekly individual
assignments and discussions through an online collaboration tool,
and semi-weekly virtual classroom sessions with presentations, held
over the weekend.
Students must also complete an independent study project, the capstone experience of the CMTOu program. Similar to a thesis, the
independent study demonstrates competency in a specific aspect of
critical marketing technology as well as the opportunity to creatively
communicate thinking. Participants select a topic, and then design,
plan and complete this work with the assistance of internal and outside advisors, including several industry luminaries. Each student is
required to present in public at a conference held during the final
intensive.

Modeled as a cohort-based program, our students are selected

through a competitive application process which includes a formal
application from the prospective student, agency business sponsorship and references, and a reference interview with a SapientNitro
client who has worked closely with the applicant and can attest to
her prowess. SapientNitro technologists hailing from any of our global offices at the Vice President, Director and Senior Manager career
levels are eligible to apply. Participants are required to commit to
investing an extra 10-15 hours every week over the course of the
program year, in addition to their demanding jobs. In our most recent
cohort, fewer than 1 in 3 applicants who applied were admitted into
the program.

2015 SapientNitro

Sessions are taught by SapientNitro thought leaders across the

globe, industry and academic external experts, and by the participants themselves as their skills and knowledge are honed. Throughout the program, participants are assessed for progress, share feedback with their peers, and receive personalized coaching from the
program faculty. The curriculum is designed and delivered in collaboration with Hyper Island, a leader in digital learning and executive
training.
This program also imparts the tools to ensure the graduates continue to stay on top of whats next a critical skill in the digital world,
as many marketing technologies become obsolete and new ones
rise in importance. Our clients reap the benefits through the work
we produce, and our participants see the impact of their collective
transformation throughout the program, both in the curriculum and
on client work.

12

Analyzing the Chief Marketing Technologist

About the Survey

The survey was an online questionnaire distributed through two primary channelschiefmartec.com and the 2014 Boston MarTech conference (August 18-20). Survey responses
were collected from August 15 to September 8, 2014.
A total of 280 surveys were completed. The distribution of the sample appears to be representative of the marketing technology community, as defined by the blog and attendees
from the 2014 Boston MarTech conference. SapientNitro sponsored the study and worked
alongside Decision Analyst, a market research firm, to design and execute it.
The authors are grateful to Scott Brinker, the host of the MarTech conference, and owner of
the chiefmartec blog for his support in distributing the survey.

About the Authors

Sheldon Monteiro
Global Chief Technology Officer, SapientNitro, Chicago
Sheldon leads global technology capabilities, engineering, quality,
methods, devops and tools. He sponsors and is a senior faculty member at SapientNitros CMTO University, an in-house executive development program to grow SapientNitros marketing technologists.

Hilding Anderson
Director Research & Insights, SapientNitro, Washington, DC
Hilding is a Director of Research & Insights at the SapientNitro Research Institute, which catalyzes thought leadership within the agency, and advisor to global clients on emerging digital trends and the
changing consumer.

Scott Tang
Head of Global Consumer & Industry Research,
SapientNitro, Chicago
Scott leads a team of researchers that supports SapientNitro worldwide through secondary and quantitative analysis on topics regarding consumers, industries and all things digital.

2015 SapientNitro

13