Editor's Note: Marketing Plans... and Then Some

This is the time of year when things slow down, people go on vacation, companies go into mini-hibernation and the flow of industry news turns to a trickle until Labor Day. In September, we push ourselves ahead. But for a lazy-days-of-summer August issue, I have to say this one is pretty packed.

First, we turn or attention to our cover story "Getting to Know the CMO." Traditionally, we haven't written a ton about Chief Marketing Officers and the work that consulting firms are doing for them. But, as it turns out, there's plenty of marketing-related work out there… and it's growing. Thanks to digital transformation, an explosion of marketing automation technology and breakthroughs in the tracking of customer behavior, there's suddenly soaring demand for marketing-based consulting services. This, of course, is great news for the industry.