{"id":2301,"date":"2026-06-26T14:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:39:39","slug":"the-new-cmo-playbook-how-marketers-are-balancing-broader-remits-and-tighter-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2301","title":{"rendered":"The\u00a0new CMO playbook:\u00a0how marketers are balancing broader remits and tighter budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As marketing leaders have taken on broader responsibilities, budgets have\u00a0remained\u00a0flat. Across the U.S. and Europe, businesses\u00a0allocated\u00a0an average of 7.7% of company revenue to marketing in 2025\u2014the same as in 2024 and down from 9.5% in 2022, according to Gartner\u2019s 2025\u00a0Global\u00a0CMO Spend Survey<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Deep-red Idaho just realized Trump\u2019s immigration policy is lethal for its $20 billion dairy industry<\/a><\/p>\n

The representation of marketing heads in the C-suite is also declining. Less than half (49%)\u00a0of Fortune 500 marketers held the \u201cCMO\u201d title in 2025,\u00a0down from 55% a year\u00a0earlier, according to\u00a0research by Forrester.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Separate research by\u00a0leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart\u00a0found\u00a0that a\u00a0third of Fortune 500 marketing leaders did not have the word \u201cchief\u201d in their title,\u00a016% carried dual-function titles such as chief marketing and communications officer, and 11% had no reference to marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UPS,\u00a0for\u00a0example, has\u00a0grouped the\u00a0leadership responsibilities for sales, marketing, and communications under the single role of chief commercial and strategy officer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Reckitt, the multinational consumer-goods company, folded\u00a0marketing and commercial strategy into a single function\u00a0and gave\u00a0regional teams more power to build the brands in their own markets.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis was an explicit attempt to break down silos and push brand-building power out to local markets,\u201d Ryan Dullea, Reckitt\u2019s chief growth officer, tells\u00a0Fortune.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cWe need to stop running brand and commercial strategy as separate disciplines if marketing is to be viewed as a continuous business function.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Tim Ellis,\u00a0executive vice president and CMO\u00a0at the\u00a0National\u00a0Football\u00a0League\u00a0(NFL), believes marketing chiefs still need their own\u00a0voice within the C-suite.\u00a0\u201cCMOs need to\u00a0be\u00a0at the table, listening and contributing to every decision the business makes,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0tells\u00a0Fortune<\/em>. \u201cYes, we have to be experts in the marketing\u00a0world. But we also need to be experts in business.\u00a0That requires\u00a0completely\u00a0new ways of thinking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The most effective way to\u00a0communicate marketing\u2019s value internally is through profitability and revenue growth, according to 46% of\u00a0the\u00a0marketing and\u00a0finance decision-makers surveyed by\u00a0Fortune<\/em>,\u00a0in partnership with Morning Consult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe traditional CMO was a steward of creativity and communications, occasionally fluent in data, and perpetually at war with the CFO over budget,\u201d says M\u00e9lanie Brinbaum,\u00a0Nestl\u00e9\u2019s European\u00a0head of marketing and\u00a0consumer\u00a0communications. \u201cToday, the ones who can speak finance, supply chain and risk fluently are the ones who can prove where growth and value actually come from.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Communication with data and\u00a0technology teams has also taken on added importance for CMOs.\u00a0\u201cI used to need one language. Now I need several,\u201d says Lynsey Woods, senior global\u00a0brand director at Carlsberg. \u201cI talk to finance, data, and\u00a0tech daily.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0not a soft skill anymore.\u00a0The whole business is reorganizing itself around new\u00a0technology and data, and marketing can\u2019t sit in a corner and lob campaigns over the wall.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This added focus on financials can sometimes be at odds with the more creative aspects of marketing.\u00a0Ellis\u00a0admits\u00a0that the creative instinct that defined his early career is no longer where the value sits. \u201cCreativity still matters, but it\u2019s not the\u00a0center\u00a0of the job anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m expected to understand how brands move through culture and actually shape society, not just how to nail a clever campaign.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0Marcela Melero, chief growth officer for Dove in North America,\u00a0remains\u00a0adamant\u00a0that marketing\u00a0should\u00a0not lose its creative edge.\u00a0\u201cThe internal corporate environment can be a bit like a meat-grinding machine, where high-quality creative ideas get turned into a generic product by stakeholders with too many opinions,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finding allies within the C-suite can be helpful when trying to get a creative idea approved.\u00a0\u201cBefore I take a risky idea forward, I look for at least one other person in the C-suite who believes in it,\u201d Melero says. \u201cThere was a project my Argentine team was convinced would kill the brand, but it worked. Once you have one of those on the board, the next risk is easier to sell.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur job is also to make sure we don\u2019t manage the business purely through a scorecard or a P&L,\u201d\u00a0Brinbaum\u00a0says.\u00a0\u201cMarketing leaders today have to create conditions where people feel safe enough to give direct feedback, take risks and think slowly when everything around them is moving fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

AI is also placing some of marketing\u2019s creative roles at risk. A third (34%) expect AI to replace some creative functions, and 19% think it could significantly reduce the need for human creativity altogether, the\u00a0Fortune<\/em>\u00a0and Morning Consult survey found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spirit of marketing hasn\u2019t moved\u2014you find an audience and persuade them\u2014but the\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0has been utterly rebuilt around generative and agentic AI,\u201d says Dullea. At Reckitt, internal AI tools now surface insights and ideas in\u00a0roughly a\u00a0third of the time once\u00a0required.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sephora US CMO Zena Srivatsa Arnold\u00a0warns against \u201csurrendering\u201d to the technology.\u00a0\u201cMarketers\u00a0can\u00a0use AI to inform them but must maintain their own conviction,\u201d\u00a0she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For\u00a0Andrew Warden, vice president of marketing at Adobe, agentic AI\u00a0represents\u00a0the \u201csingle biggest shift in marketing in 25 years\u201d.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0changing not just how marketing works but who,\u00a0or what,\u00a0brands are talking to. We\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0expect bot traffic to overtake human traffic so quickly,\u201d he adds. \u201cCMOs need to stay focused on marketing to humans, but also to AI agents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Warden, this\u00a0represents\u00a0a\u00a0\u201chuge challenge\u201d.\u00a0The most successful CMOs will have to adapt to these challenges and\u00a0their\u00a0expanded brief, while\u00a0continuing to communicate marketing\u2019s value to the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more It could be more dangerous inside your house during a heat wave<\/a><\/p>\n

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Marketers at Cannes Lions discuss their expanding list of responsibilities, AI\u2019s threat to creativity and the importance of having a CMO on the C-suite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[354],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cmo"],"yoast_head":"\nThe\u00a0new CMO playbook:\u00a0how marketers are balancing broader remits and tighter budgets - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2301\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The\u00a0new CMO playbook:\u00a0how marketers are balancing broader remits and tighter budgets - 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