This IDC study provides essential guidance to CMOs and their executive team for developing an online and interactive marketing strategy for their organization, including insight into online and interactive marketing activities and best practices from leading technology firms. Based on the results of this study of the field marketing teams and processes of 15+ tech marketing leaders, the IDC CMO Advisory Practice provides insight into what specific online and interactive marketing activities currently exist in technology companies and how technology marketers are measuring these activities. Specific case studies are provided for Adobe, Avaya, BearingPoint, EMC, HP, IBM, and Intel.

"The new and constantly changing digital marketplace represents great opportunity for marketing organizations and their companies; however, many tech marketers are off to some operational false starts in this area," said Michael Gerard, director, IDC's CMO Advisory Practice. "Essential guidance for every marketer to prevent being derailed by these new technologies and channels includes consolidating online and interactive marketing efforts from a process, infrastructure, and governance perspective within marketing without disenfranchising other groups in the organization and incorporating online and interactive marketing efforts as part of broader awareness-building and demand-generation strategies as opposed to managing them as a standalone opportunity. Marketers should not hesitate to experiment; instead they should build it into their plan. They should also collaborate with IT and should not abandon their more traditional marketing knowledge and experience ? a 'build it and they will come' strategy will surely lead to failure."