REPORT

Much is riding on your media marketing and advertising strategy. Driving sales, mostly. Brand loyalty and customer experience, too. CMOs really need to get this right. The problem is that the media landscape, chock full of digital channels, has become wildly unpredictable. 

Today’s CMO must be incredibly agile in order to successful navigate this environment. They have to be able to learn quickly and pivot fast when things aren’t going to plan. They need to make smart decisions based on data, not only gut hunches.

Unfortunately, most have a long way to go. Our study found that 2 in 3 marketing leaders are not very confident in their current media marketing and advertising strategy to effectively produce desired outcomes. They run into budget barriers, lack data science skills, and sometimes are mired in a corporate culture stuck in old ways of thinking about media marketing and advertising.

The CMO Council and NCSolutions embarked on an extensive study to understand what’s the impact of media marketing and advertising today, where marketers can improve their capabilities, what they should be planning over the next 12 months, and what challenges need to be overcome.

Our findings are based on a survey of over 160 marketing leaders in North America predominately in CPG and retail. Additionally, we conducted in-depth interviews with executives from companies such as Blue Buffalo and Red Wing Shoe.