“It is the kind of announcement that must set marketers’ teeth on edge: last month, McDonald’s appointed former Amazon and Yahoo! executive Atif Rafiq as chief digital officer, with the remit to kick-start ‘greater innovation’ across the fast-food chain.
Another week, another chief digital or data officer seems to be par for the course at the moment. On this side of the Atlantic, News UK recently joined the trend by hiring Andrew Day, general manager of business intelligence at Telefónica UK, as head of a newly formed business intelligence division.
So where do the resulting, attention-grabbing headlines declaring “the death of the CMO” leave us? In truth, they provide little genuine insight into how marketing functions continue to evolve in the digital age.”
