Technology ‘The Tool For Change To Take Place,’ Says SKY’s Alex Rocco

The CMO of Brazil’s largest pay-TV operator explains why he bets on data-driven marketing and, above all, a customer-centric strategy.

This article is part of CMO.com’s September series on the state of media and entertainment. Click here for more.

The digital sphere has created many possibilities for brands and consumers to connected. At the same time, it also has brought in new challenges for leaders in this field.

To overcome them, SKY—Brazil’s largest pay-TV operator, with more than 5 million customers—bets on data-driven marketing and, above all, a customer-centric strategy. Alex Rocco, SKY’s chief marketing officer, points out the biggest contemporary obstacles at play.

1. High-media fragmentation: The traditional and well-known media mix has gained new players with the digital revolution.

“Nowadays, the whole environment and the speed at which information spreads dictate a more personal approach to marketing,” Rocco explained. The solution, he said, involves smart management of customer data.

“In addition to using the available data, we have adopted a strategy to generate new insights, which are used to connect us with subscribers in a meaningful way, favoring greater brand engagement,” Rocco added.

2. Multichannel management: Managing different points of customer contacts is not for the faint-hearted.

“Integrating data from traditional channels with the new channels generated by digital signals is on the agenda of any CMO,” Rocco said.

In his opinion, the solution involves breaking down the silo mentality within companies. “Marketing still operates separately. We need to integrate areas and bring technology to the center of discussion,” he said. “Not that technology is the only solution, but it is the medium. In other words, [it’s] the tool for change to take place.”

3. New communication formats: More points of contact with consumers call for adopting new formats to talk to the audience.

“Marketing tends to be so fluid that the best option is to bet on content,” Rocco said. “We have to engage the consumer, and within SKY that means we need to increase our offering of on-demand content. Good content, supported by data strategy, is what makes a brand relevant.”

To that end, trying new communication formats is mandatory. He offered an example: “We sponsored the ‘Rock in Rio 2017’ [music festival], and in order to generate discussion about our brand, we created a content platform with a web series to support our activation during events and spread the experience people will have at the festival.”

4. Deconstructing the job description: The CMO job description today, according to Rocco, is completely different from a decade ago.

“All of the changes in the media we talk about have a strong impact on the marketing area and on how we manage it,” he said. “You need to be flexible and agile to test, make mistakes, and correct strategies in real time.”

It’s also critical to be aware of how technology connects to the area. “This is related to management of customer contact points,” he said. “If we don’t understand the power of data and how much it reflects behavior, we cannot advance as a field.”