
"2025 arrived with a fizzle following the post election malaise, however that lethargy was shortlived as the second and third quarters whipped us all into a frenzy around everything from the AI maelstrom, to the reimagining of the entire marketing and advertising industries. As a result, many brands appeared uncertain of where to go next with their newly transformed organizations as customers remained emotionally detached, with spending stagnant, if not down, and returns on AI investments hard to justify."
"Within these seismic shifts, we witnessed a new breed of CMO continue to arise-one prepared to help their CEOs connect marketing directly to business growth. Along with that massive responsibility came a need for a marketing leader who could also instill continuous learning within culture, largely around AI and other new technologies, in ways that would not replace employees, but rather help make them more proficient at their crafts."
"As 2026 unfolds the core focus of the C-Suite will continue to be finding new and innovative ways to differentiate their organizations from the pack. This will require a deeper emphasis on brand, especially around fresh ways of evolving purpose from being performative, to truly advocacy led. Additionally, adopting new methods of market research and insight designed to meet rising customer expectations and better understand their behavior with greater alacrity, will be a persistent challenge senior leadership must tackle."
2025 began slowly but shifted rapidly in Q2–Q3 due to AI-driven upheaval and a reimagining of marketing and advertising. Many brands became uncertain about direction as customers stayed emotionally detached, spending stagnated, and AI returns remained hard to justify. A new breed of CMOs emerged, focused on linking marketing to measurable business growth and embedding continuous AI-related learning to augment employee skills rather than replace roles. C-Suites must prioritize differentiation through authentic, advocacy-led brand purpose, adopt faster market research methods to meet rising personalization and authenticity expectations, and scale disruptive technologies via ROI-driven use cases.
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