CMO Council and KnoledgeStorm Partner in Major Study
on How Online Content Syndication Drives Tech Buying
Peer Group of 1,300 High-Tech Marketing Execs Teams With Top Technology Search Site to Explore Multiple Forces and Factors that Drive Complex Technology Purchases
PALO ALTO, Calif. (April 25, 2005) – The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, an elite affinity group of chief marketing executives in the high technology industry, and KnowledgeStorm, the Internet’s top-ranked technology content and search site, today announced a knowledge sharing partnership as well as a vital, industry-impacting thought leadership initiative.
More than ever before, today’s IT buyers are using the Internet as a primary resource for purchasing decisions. According to eMarketer, last year 57 percent of U.S. B2B buyers turned to the Web first when researching IT solutions. That number is expected to rise in 2005. To give both buyers and solution providers greater insight into purchase decisions, the CMO Council and KnowledgeStorm will field a study titled Driving Decisions: Online Content Consumption Patterns, exploring where and how IT buying is shaped, influenced, qualified and driven by online content syndication and consumption.
Both organizations will use their extensive resources in fielding the study. For its part, the CMO Council will conduct qualitative interviews with IT buyers and seller, and a quantitative survey of its 1,300-plus membership of senior marketing executives from the tech and communications industries—who control more than $45 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures—to gauge the level of dependence, confidence, trust and value placed on the online content.
At the same time, KnowledgeStorm will employ its advanced analytic capabilities, a network of more than 150 access channels and 600,000 registered users—300,000 of them opt-in users—to conduct a quarterly audit and analysis of technology content being sourced, viewed and downloaded across multiple categories and vertical industry sectors.
Using the raw data, the CMO Council and KnowledgeStorm together will publish a quarterly report of Leading Content Consumption Indicators (LCCI), highlighting shifts and trends in content topic postings, areas of interest, purchasing intent and other data points, as well as an overall Driving Directions survey report.
“As the leading provider of online technology product and services content, KnowledgeStorm is uniquely positioned to monitor and analyze content consumption for this important joint study with the CMO Council,” said Laurie Hood, vice president, Marketing for KnowledgeStorm. “The results of this initiative will not only benefit the 1.5 million IT buyers and solution providers who visit KnowledgeStorm each month, but the technology sector as a whole.”
According to Hood, the Driving Decisions: Online Content Consumption Patterns report will guide marketing executives, business strategists and IT professionals in creating an initiative that gains a business advantage by giving decision makers a broader understanding of where they should be investing their resources.
“Now that the Internet has become the go-to resource for IT buyers, it is industry critical that we explore consumption habits to optimize content offerings and maximize sales opportunities,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “This partnership with KnowledgeStorm, the top online IT content destination, demonstrates our dedication to creating the highest quality thought leadership initiatives that empower technology marketers.”
Driving Decisions: Online Content Consumption Patterns is the newest of many relevant and compelling thought leadership initiatives fielded by the CMO Council. For more information on these programs, visit the CMO Council web site at www.cmocouncil.org.
About KnowledgeStorm
Founded in 1998, Atlanta-based KnowledgeStorm is the Internet's top-ranked technology content and search site. With the largest online index of IT solutions, KnowledgeStorm attracts technology buyers from companies large and small and across a wide spectrum of industries, including technology, manufacturing, finance and healthcare, among others. KnowledgeStorm offers buyers a free, easy and comprehensive means to match business requirements to a "short list" of technology providers and to stay current on technology topics and trends. This information is available through the KnowledgeStorm Network, which includes www.knowledgestorm.com, specialty search sites and syndication partners. Technology vendors use KnowledgeStorm's efficient, effective lead generation services to fill sales pipelines with motivated and educated buyers. For more information, visit www.knowledgestorm.com.
About the CMO Council
The CMO Council is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers in the global technology industry. Based in Silicon Valley, the Council works to further the stature, credibility, influence, and understanding of the strategic marketing function among business executives, opinion leaders and critical stakeholders in the technology sector.
