This Is the Year of the Tenacious CMO

One perk of my job as chief content officer at Adweek is that I get a lot of face time with CMOs—whether that’s on stage at our events, for informal chats over coffee or via Zoom. I always enjoy talking with CMOs because they tend to be interesting and engaging people. Also, and perhaps most importantly, because CMOs are the central nervous system of their companies. While CMOs were once responsible for only creative and branding, today their remit includes the customer experience (CX), customer data and analytics, and business growth. As we turn our focus to 2023, it pains me that these same CMOs are facing immense pressure to justify their budgets, reduce spending and postpone big projects. Many are even fighting for their jobs. That’s why Adweek’s coverage of CMOs and their marketing organizations matters more than ever. Especially in these times of economic upheaval, Adweek must continue to be a critical resource for marketers. We must go beyond just reporting on the news of the day. We must provide marketers with practical insights, advice and connections across the community to help them grow their business and their careers. When it comes right down to it, our entire industry exists to support the marketer. When marketing budgets get cut, our entire industry suffers. And when our industry suffers, so does business itself. In this month's cover story, which is based on a roundtable discussion with six CMOs, we focus on those challenges facing marketers and how they should respond. Knowing CMOs and speaking to them regularly, I wasn’t surprised that one theme that emerged from the discussion was tenacity. The best CMOs are tenacious people. And against the backdrop of economic turbulence, CMOs will need to show their tenacity by controlling what they can, reimagining the possible and using this uncertain time to do things differently than their rivals—all leadership skills they learned and honed during the Covid-19 pandemic. They need to have tenacity not to chase shiny objects but to instead focus on how the newest thing will impact the brand and the business. What we heard from our CMO roundtable is that marketers must also find new ways to better articulate their value story across the company. They need to foster cooperation and communication across the C-suite, rather than promote competition and isolation, and prove themselves to be indispensable business leaders—not just marketing leaders. At the heart of this essential work is trust. One way that CMOs can build trust in the C-suite and across their companies is to be transparent about what is and isn’t working, rather than engage in the usual spin. This year won’t be easy, but I am privileged to be guiding Adweek’s editorial strategy during this time and helping CMOs navigate the future. The year ahead and beyond will require new models of leadership, playbooks for success and, most of all, strong connections and collaboration across our industry. As Amelia Earhart famously said, “The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.”

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The Year of the Tenacious CMO

Especially in these times of economic upheaval, Adweek's coverage of marketers matters more than ever

Ann Marinovich

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Ann Marinovich