EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE

In CMO Council’s recent research report, ‘Marketing and Data Security: The Unlikely Brand Building Partnership,’ Aditi Uppal, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Demand Gen, Teradata, gave her executive perspective on this crucial challenge. She was interviewed by Tom Kaneshige, Chief Content Officer at CMO Council.

What customer interactions lead to risk? What are the dos and don’ts with generative AI? When should marketing reach out to security? These are just a few of the questions spurring a reevaluation of marketing and security working together.

“The relationship between marketing and information security absolutely has to evolve because of the unknown territories we’re in, such as the influx of GenAI and the role of trust and privacy,” says Aditi Uppal, Vice President Of Digital Marketing And Demand Generation at Teradata. “The relationship has to be a lot more proactive and strategic in nature.”

For far too long, far too many marketers have relied on ad hoc conversations with security usually after launching campaigns and executing other data-related marketing activities. This is because marketing often moves at faster speeds than does security.

But this is no longer good enough.

A Strategic Partnership Can Add Value to Marketing and Security Teams

“Ad hoc communication usually comes down to a lack of awareness of security’s role, vision, and charter and how marketing and security teams should work together,” Uppal says. “The onus is not only on marketing but on security to educate and inform their role and how a strategic partnership can add value to both sides and more importantly to the organization and customers. Because of the nature of the work we do and our openness to marketing transactions and customer interactions, it's no longer in our control to even assess what can lead to a risk.”

Uppal says marketing and security need to get ahead of risk by being proactive when it comes to new data sources, data-related technologies, data collection methods, etc. Both marketing and security professionals need to know how to engage with each other early and often with regard to operating principles, priorities, approval processes, and governance models.

Get Ahead of Risk To Build Trust

“This is especially true for tech companies dealing with a lot of data and analytics,” Uppal says. “It's too late when you're running a campaign, in front of a customer, and starting to get all the information. The ball is already out.”

At Teradata, the CISO org reports directly to the C-suite and not to any subteams. Fewer go-betweens mean marketing and security can have a more direct relationship. Together, the information security org and marketing org can share a common goal to show the market that their organization is a trusted one.