Edited on Jun 24, 2026.
IBM has launched a new advertising campaign targeting chief marketing officers — and the underlying strategic read about who the next decade of enterprise technology buyers will actually be is worth examining. The campaign is running on television during the U.S. Open and across broader business and trade media, positioned around Gartner research projecting that by 2017 CMOs will spend more on information technology than CIOs. The framing is ambitious. IBM is betting on a category shift other major technology vendors have not yet committed to.
This is the working read on what IBM is actually doing, why the strategic logic behind the campaign matters, and what the broader corporate communications category should be taking from the case.
What IBM Is Actually Saying
The IBM 2012 CMO Study — a research franchise IBM Institute for Business Value has been running since 2004 — is the underlying intellectual foundation for the campaign. The research surveyed approximately 1,700 CMOs across 64 countries and 19 industries. The findings frame several structural shifts.
Data explosion. CMOs are responsible for understanding customers through data volumes that have grown substantially across recent years. The data infrastructure needs are exceeding what marketing departments have historically managed.
Social media proliferation. The social platforms have produced customer engagement surfaces that CMOs need to manage and that produce data and engagement requirements that traditional marketing infrastructure was not designed for.
Channel and device proliferation. Customers now engage with brands across mobile devices, social platforms, traditional digital, and traditional media in patterns that produce technical infrastructure requirements.
Shifting consumer demographics. The customer base is becoming more diverse, more digital-native, and more demanding in terms of brand engagement and personalization.
The combined picture: marketing is being reshaped by data, analytics, and customer-touchpoint technology in ways that produce substantial enterprise technology buying requirements.
The Strategic Bet
IBM's bet is that the CMO will become a major enterprise technology buyer over the coming decade. The Gartner research projecting that CMOs will outspend CIOs on technology by 2017 provides the specific reference point.
The strategic logic has several elements.
The CIO is not going away. Information technology infrastructure, broader systems, and the core enterprise technology stack continue to sit under CIO authority. IBM is not predicting CIO replacement.
The marketing function is building its own technology stack. Customer relationship management, marketing automation, content management, web analytics, and broader marketing-specific technology categories are being built and acquired primarily through marketing department budgets and decision-making rather than through IT.
The CMO has buying authority. Marketing departments have substantial budget authority. The shift from traditional advertising spending to technology spending within marketing budgets produces meaningful enterprise technology buying opportunity.
Most enterprise technology vendors are not targeting CMOs. The traditional enterprise sales motion targets CIOs and other technology buyers. The opportunity to build relationships with CMOs ahead of competitors is meaningful.
What IBM Is Building Around the Bet
The advertising campaign is the public-facing element of a larger strategic commitment.
The CMO Study research franchise. The 2012 study is the latest in a series IBM has been publishing since 2004. The research provides credible content that supports broader CMO-targeted positioning.
CMO-targeted conference programming. IBM has been expanding executive events, advisory boards, and broader conference programming targeting marketing executives.
The Smarter Marketing positioning. IBM's broader marketing-technology positioning under the Smarter Marketing framework extends the broader Smarter Planet strategy into marketing-specific applications.
Product positioning. IBM has been positioning Coremetrics (acquired 2010), Unica (acquired 2010), and the broader IBM Enterprise Marketing Management portfolio specifically toward CMO buyers.
The combined investment represents one of the more substantial enterprise vendor commitments to a specific buyer persona in recent years.
The Competitive Context
IBM is not alone in identifying the CMO as an emerging enterprise technology buyer. Several competitors are building similar capabilities.
Salesforce. The recent acquisitions of Buddy Media (June 2012) and Radian6 (March 2011) extend Salesforce's positioning into marketing-specific applications. The broader Salesforce platform is being positioned toward CMO buyers.
Oracle. Oracle's acquisition of Eloqua, announced in December 2012, signals broader Oracle commitment to marketing technology. The competitive dynamic in marketing automation will accelerate.
Adobe. The Adobe Marketing Cloud positioning has been building across recent years. Adobe is one of the more substantial competitors in the broader CMO-targeted enterprise technology category.
Specialty vendors. HubSpot, Marketo, and a generation of specialized marketing technology vendors are competing for the same buyer persona at different scale points.
The competitive intensity in the broader category will increase substantially across the coming years.
What the Broader Corporate Communications Category Should Take from This
Four operating considerations.
Research-based positioning produces sustained credibility. IBM's CMO Study franchise provides credible content that supports broader positioning. Brands building research-anchored campaign positioning produce stronger outcomes than brands operating on aspirational framing alone.
Buyer-persona-targeted campaigns can produce category authority. IBM's CMO-targeted positioning differentiates the broader corporate narrative from generic enterprise technology positioning. Brands operating across multiple buyer personas should consider whether persona-specific positioning would compound advantage.
Strategic bets require sustained investment. The IBM commitment includes research, conference programming, advertising, and product positioning. Brands making strategic positioning bets without sustained multi-channel investment produce weaker outcomes.
Category creation through positioning is a multi-year strategy. IBM is positioning a category that the broader market has not yet recognized. The strategic logic requires patience across multiple years. Brands attempting category creation through quarterly campaign cycles consistently fail.
The Bottom Line
IBM's CMO-targeted advertising campaign is one of the more substantial strategic positioning bets any major technology vendor is making right now. The Gartner research projecting CMO-CIO budget convergence by 2017 provides the credibility anchor. The broader research, conference programming, product positioning, and advertising work combine into one of the more interesting category-creation efforts in modern enterprise technology marketing. The brand and PR teams across the broader B2B technology marketing category will be watching closely. The eventual outcome — whether IBM captures the CMO buyer relationship at scale or whether competitors prove more successful at the same positioning — will be one of the more consequential enterprise technology stories of the next several years.
