Are marketers ready for the future?

Nine in ten marketing leaders believe CMOs have a meaningful impact on the pipeline of future revenue, but less than half think their business is ready to embrace a “new radical future”.

That’s according to a new report* from strategic advisory firm Medialink which finds that just 44% of marketing leaders are ready for a “new radical future”, down from 70% and 71% in similar surveys in 2022 and 2021.

Why marketing forecasts matter

Even as more marketing leaders indicate unreadiness about what the future holds, nearly 80% trust their company’s leaders to get the business to its future destination, up from 65% in 2022 and 71% in 2021. It seems marketers entrust that responsibility to the C-suite, to connect the dots between their investments, sales, revenue, and profits.

Takeaways

• Seventy percent of marketing leaders believe the biggest focus in the next 24 months will be investing in long-term growth.
• Eighty-four percent have used AI in some capacity, but they grapple with the upcoming regulatory and policy impact, and many still need to figure out a roadmap to make the most of the technology.
• Just 18% say diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental sustainability is a top priority.
• Partnerships between agencies and brands need to be reimagined: 36% of respondents foresee creating more flexible arrangements with partners, and 30% want to add specialist agencies into their ecosystem. 
• Marketing leaders are looking at new revenue sources, including expanding their brand beyond their sector of origin (nearly 70%), betting on non-traditional consumer interactions with creators (52%), and trailblazing new channels such as retail media (24%). 

Key quote

“The dynamics and opportunities we are experiencing put marketing more front and center. How do you understand customers, do more personalizing, leverage technology to do content creation, insight mining, and proposition development? All of that says there’s a role for marketing” – Margaret Jobling, Group Chief Marketing Officer at NatWest Group.

* The Marketer’s Forecast 2024 is based on a quantitative study among 400 senior and executive marketing leaders in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Sourced from Medialink