ProcureCon Marketing Preview
By Andrew Greissman
Convening Nov. 12 to 14 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, Calif., this year’s ProcureCon Marketing prepares to address changes in the industry and macro trends that have been shaping interdepartmental relations over the past several years.
Procurement’s relationship to marketing is steadily deepening, thanks to the growing influence of procurement overspend within many organizations and costs associated with cutting edge marketing technology. Working with marketing is similar to working with the IT group – procurement is asked to control costs and optimize for value within an environment where changes in the industry require constant adaptation.
This year, as ProcureCon Marketing prepares to convene, event producer Michael Dunlap has developed an agenda that addresses the shifts in the industry that are defining 2018, and will surely play a major role in 2019 and beyond.
Incorporating Technology
While the influx of technology into marketing is not a new trend, leading marketing procurement teams are starting to see their IT teams as equal stakeholders to their marketing counterparts based on the increasing complexity and rapid evolution of solutions available to their teams. In a situation where a new technology must be brought into a technology environment that is in transition between a legacy and cloud environment, attention must be paid to what will work in the short-term, what can be scaled out, and what that means in terms of negotiating value with solution providers.
Roles and responsibilities between marketing and IT are starting to blur. Often times marketing procurement is in the role of helping marketing understand the workflow and prioritization process of their internal IT teams, bridging the gaps between these two groups based on their mutual shared skillsets and the requirement to define and meet marketing needs while remaining within procurement and IT best practices.
Procurecon Marketing will address this topic during a panel entitled “Managing Blurred Lines Between IT and Marketing” with executives from MetLife, Michael Kors, Bloomberg, Brinker International and AstraZeneca planned at 8:45 a.m. Nov. 13.
Bringing Buying In-House
In recent months, marketing procurement leaders have expressed increased interest in bringing some creative work in-house to control expenses as well as maintain quality control.
Additionally, these executives have begun to express desire to bring activities in-house on the programmatic media side. This can be a sensitive issue for marketing procurement. In the long-term, they might lose some of the influence they would have retained if there is still a requirement to maintain relationships with suppliers in the space. That being the case, marketing procurement is still looking for ways to determine if in-house makes sense, and if so, how to prepare by bringing the right blend of specialists and creatives onto the team to handle the in-house agency strategy.
The topic will be covered during “Interactive Case Study: Being A Champion, the In-House Martech Journey,” featuring two sourcing managers from General Mills at 10:55 a.m. Nov. 13.
Production Management
Producing marketing collateral – whether print, video or digital, has come a long way. Finding efficiencies in the production process continues to be a challenge for marketing procurement. Many brands are seeing significant cost savings by breaking down the elements that go into the production process. Whether it is moving processes in-house, leveraging tax incentives, using cost consultants, and rate benchmarking, this continues to be a key concern.
A session on this topic entitled “Keynote Fireside Chat – Elevating Your Program In An Era of Change” with Robin Vogel, vice president of commercial at Mars Wrigley Confectionary, at 8:35 a.m. Nov. 12.
More than 200 marketing procurement leaders will gather this November in sunny San Diego to address these challenges and lay plans for the future in a peer-led and highly collaborative environment. The agenda is customizable, with more than 45 interactive sessions led by more than 60 marketing procurement executives from the biggest brands in the world. It’s an event you won’t want to miss. To learn more, visit www.procurecondm.com.
Andrew Greissman is digital content manager for WBR Insights, ProcureCon.