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It is time for marketing to move from its perception as a cost center to that of a command center powered by business-centric, real-time data-driven decisioning. This is the finding from the CMO Council’s exclusive, inaugural Marketing Vitality Report – an annual assessment of forces and factors impacting functional performance.

Global economic growth is expected to remain stagnant at 2.8% in 2025, mirroring 2024 and falling short of the 3.2% pre-pandemic average, according to United Nations forecasts. In contrast, Brand Finance reports the world’s 500 most valuable brands are thriving, with their total value rising 10% year-on-year, from $8.6 trillion in 2024 to nearly $9.5 trillion in 2025.

The CMO Council has curated indicator statistics from trusted third-party sources and centers of domain knowledge to inform an analysis on marketing vitality for each of the marketing categories. In addition, the CMO Council incorporates proprietary data from its qualitative and quantitative reports. These indicators fall into five core marketing categories:

• Marketing Mix + Spend
• Organizational Dynamics
• Market Outlook + Trends
• Customer Affinity + Attachment
• Technology Adoption + Execution

“Inflationary pressures, rising costs, and economic uncertainty have reshaped the landscape, putting unprecedented strain on marketing budgets. The challenges marketers face today are sharper than ever. Leadership demands tangible returns on investment, consumers expect relevance and connection, and the macroeconomic environment leaves little room for error. This turbulence forces marketers to make hard decisions: where to cut, where to invest, and how to balance immediate performance needs with long-term brand growth. Yet, the path forward is clear – the key to thriving in troubled times lies not in cutting back indiscriminately, but in spending smarter,” says Paul Sinkinson, Managing Director, Australia and Asia, Analytic Partners.

In his interview with CMO Council, Sinkinson agreed that the risks were very real for marketers. “Many marketing teams lack the tools, frameworks, or visibility to confidently defend these investments to leadership. Simplistic attribution models often mask the real drivers of ROI, leading to misguided budget cuts that hinder performance rather than improve it. The temptation to focus only on short-term wins, like performance marketing, risks eroding the very brand equity that powers sustained success.”

DOWNLOAD: The Marketing Vitality Index Report

Marketing Spend

CMOs are in the hot seat to make their marketing mix and spend deliver real revenue growth. Gone are the days of willy-nilly spending on sponsorships and campaigns influenced by salespeople, internal politics, or emotions. In a CMO Council survey, 65% of CMOs said marketing must own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine. This means getting serious about where marketers can get the most measurable returns on investment. Attribution and accountability have come to marketing.

With so much at stake, revenue science must be the guiding light for marketing spend. CMOs should allocate spend to mostly digital channels that engage target customers more actively, more visibly, and can be measured and optimized. Smarter spending is also being driven by increased competition and audience fragmentation. According to GroupM, local advertising spending last year hit $1 trillion, which was a year earlier than expected. Audiences are spread out in a plethora of social media channels that rise and fall in popularity overnight.

Kathleen Schaub, author of ‘Marketing in the (Great, Big, Messy) Real World: Rewire Your Marketing Organization to Navigate Anything’, says while change reshapes business, marketing playbooks need an update. “Leaders must also sharpen their organization’s ability to adapt and respond. The next big opportunity might require seizing an unexpected moment, making a wise decision under pressure, or pivoting quickly when the market surprises you. Success may depend on a team’s ability to act despite setbacks — or simply stay attuned to subtle market shifts. Strategies for agility include empowering customer-facing teams, adopting flexible operational methods, and integrating marketing systems and data for seamless adaptation.”

Organizational Dynamics

The marketing organization is full of gaps and holes — and leaking revenue. In a CMO Council survey, a whopping 86% of CMOs said a lack of resources or capabilities has resulted in missed revenue, growth or customer acquisition opportunities. On the upside, the marketing workforce is ready for a shakeup that ultimately will lead to a more efficient and effective operation. It’s a positive evolution for CMOs who have the fortitude to make big changes. Make no mistake, there will be transitional pain.

Enter Generative AI into the marketing workforce… According to the CMO Council, 38% of CMOs see GenAI having the most application in content creation and optimization, followed by productivity and efficiency (37%). More than half of CMOs believe GenAI will create the most value and ROI among MarTech investments. The good news is CMOs have made progress in closing the digital skills gap. More than 4 in 5 CMOs said they now have the requisite digital skills, talents and proficiency in their marketing teams, according to a CMO Council study. In past studies, CMOs had cited a lack of talent as a factor holding marketing back from realizing its full revenue growth potential.

Marketing Outlook

Massive digital disruption is happening not just at the point of sale, but how consumers are finding, selecting and receiving products. Let’s face it, online shopping, e-commerce and home delivery are just simpler, faster and more convenient. CMOs haven’t missed the signs, either. Gartner says 90% of CMOs are aggressively expanding their investments in digital commerce. One of the most exciting online engagement channels this year will be chat commerce. In a Meta-commissioned study, 7 in 10 online adults said they prefer messaging a business over email and phone calls. They feel more connected, thus leading to more upsells and cross sells.

It’s more important than ever for marketers to understand and track buyer intent signals in order to take action at the apex of the purchasing decision. In fact, buyer intent signals top the list of most relevant marketing data, even ahead of purchase data, according to the CMO Council. The Marketing Vitality report highlights that more than half of CMOs conceded their marketing initiatives only sometimes (26%), sporadically (17%) or never (10%) stand out (Source: CMO Council/Gain Relationship)

Customer Affinity

There’s a lot of opportunity for marketers to achieve customer affinity and attachment this year, but it may require new approaches. Traditional channels, practices and loyalty programs aren’t going to cut it with young people who hold much of the buying power today. In fact, 40% of marketers allocate a quarter of their marketing budget to influencer campaigns, up significantly from previous years.

Brands looking to better connect with younger audiences and understand what they’re doing, should tap into influencer channels and crowdsourced content. According to Forbes, the size of the influencer marketing industry is $24 billion, and despite economic challenges, it is still showing growth. Influencer channels and crowdsourced content are driving consumption of products. They’re helping people choose products and get more value out of them. Smart brands are finding ways to multiply influencer interactions and help marketers better understand buyer intentions. This has the added benefit of informing product development.

In fact, 84% of businesses believe they provide “good” or “excellent” customer engagement, but only 54% of consumers agree (Source: Twilio).

Technology Adoption

Digital execution is about leveraging MarTech to process, analyze and use data for better decision making, which, in turn, will elevate the CMO’s influence. It’s about making marketing more adept and agile — and it starts with marketing automation:

• 91% of global marketers say marketing automation helps them achieve their objectives, and 76% of companies use marketing automation resulting in 10% of customer journeys fully automated
• 57% of CMOs said MarTech investments in GenAI are likely to create the most value and ROI, followed by 49% in Customer Data Platform and Insights
• 51% of marketers said they’re in the “testing” phase in their approach to AI

The Global AI In Marketing Market size is expected to be worth around $214.0 Billion by 2033, from $20.0 Billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 26.7% during the forecast period from 2024 to 2033 (Source: Market.US). Fragmentation in a brand’s MarTech stack is a real barrier to executing strategically, delivering personalization across the customer journey, scaling marketing efforts, onboarding AI capabilities, etc. “Marketing leaders know what they need to do — they’re just stuck juggling 16 or more MarTech solutions, creating overwhelming complexity,” says Matt Spiegel, executive vice president and head of TruAudience marketing solutions at TransUnion, which commissioned the Forrester research.

This year’s Marketing Vitality Index shows CMOs under pressure to grow revenue, meet rising customer expectations, create operational efficiencies, improve campaign performance, rein in costs, and address challenges in MarTech. It’s a high-risk, high-reward environment.

Getting more value out of MarTech is an ongoing challenge. Automation and GenAI promise to drive efficiencies and effectiveness in the marketing workforce, but it won’t be easy. CMOs will also have to chart a sensible path through AI’s turbulent waters. The good news is that the expansive CMO remit has created a pathway to the corner office. CMOs focused on customer growth stand to reap the rewards.

PODCAST: The CMO Council and its new Marketing Vitality Index