One of my favorite blogs, MarketingNPV, recently posted an actual email recently posted an actual email from the CFO to the CMO of a global 1000 company.

The net of the email: Congratulations on being on MediaWeek’s list of “most efficient media buying organizations,” but what does this mean? Why can’t we connect the data across campaigns to get more meaningful insights into the effectiveness of the spend? What is the actual value of incremental media spend? How about we try spending nothing and see what the results look like.

Marketing is undergoing a seismic shift in how business is being conducted. You could call it an inflection point. Marketers are beginning to be recognized as pivotal players in their organization. Some innovative marketing organizations are even beginning to be viewed as profit-centers vs. cost-centers. Marketing Automation is helping change that perspective.

Marketo recently hosted a Webinar called Can Marketing Help Sales Sell? that investigates the collaboration between Marketing and Sales departments. Clearly, the MA industry has come a long way in the past five years.