Super Bowl 50 is finally behind us. Forget the lackluster commercials — led by the silly puppy monkey baby— and the amazing technology feats that accompanied the NFL experience in downtown San Francisco. What was clear is that Americans are more obsessed with the national pastime of NFL football than ever. The leadup to Super Bowl 50 was like no other, with discussions of how the game has changed and the impact technology will have on the fan experience.

But the game is what most fans, me included, wanted to see. While it may not have been the most exciting Super Bowl of all time, one thing was clear almost from the start: Superstar and 2015 MVP Cam Newton couldn’t win the game on his own. Almost from the beginning, Denver prevailed — not because of the prowess of starting quarterback Peyton Manning, but rather because the Broncos had the right people in the right roles working together as a team to demolish the previously indestructible Carolina Panthers.

 What lessons can CMOs learn from this year’s Super Bowl?

While this may surprise you, your marketing team isn’t much different from the teams in this year’s Super Bowl. You doubtless have superstars who go the extra mile to power the marketing engine and make it succeed. But ask yourself: Do I have the right role players to keep the marketing team humming? Do I know what role players I need and what to look for when hiring them?

This is where my newly updated report, The New Roles That Will Power Your Marketing Operating System, can help. The report answers these questions and provides a framework that you can use to tune your marketing organization for customer obsession because:

  • New roles are needed to power a MOS (marketing operating system)-based organization. CMOs can execute strategy with greater speed, flexibility, and adaptability by adding five new marketing roles to their teams: customer segment owners, marketing technologists, content chiefs, process managers, and operations managers. Each of these roles fills a void in traditional organizational structures.
  • Customer segment owners will lead the customer engagement charge. Appoint customer segment owners whose job it is to match customers’ needs to your products, services, and go-to-market tactics. These segment owners will prioritize contextually relevant customer experiences over marketing channel optimization.
  • MOS-based organizations need a strong operations function to thrive. Similar to sales and service operations, your MOS needs a marketing operations expert to run marketing as a fully accountable business. Marketing operations experts translate the work of marketing into language aligned to sales, technology management, operations, finance, and business goals.

To best serve customers in the post-digital age, shift your organizational design away from a product- or channel-centric model and realign your team in the context of a MOS. A MOS nimbly moves your organization toward winning, serving, and retaining customers. Staff your MOS with the right new roles and you’ll be on your way.

Have you tuned your marketing organization to be customer-obsessed? How are you adapting your organization’s structure to customers’ changing behavior? What is your plan to succeed in the age of the customer?

I’d love to hear your comments and perspectives on this topic.

I’m very excited to be leading Forrester’s new CMO Executive Program with the goal of providing customized and one-to-one support and insights to CMOs and their teams. Want to learn more? Please reach out to me via email, my blog, or my Twitter account with your thoughts.