CMOs More Empowered Than Ever Before To Deliver Transformation – Dentsu Creative

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have been proven to be more empowered than ever before to deliver transformational creativity and innovation to unlock growth for businesses.

This was established in the  2024 CMO Report released by Dentsu Creative, a division of the Dentsu International.

According to the report, data from the global survey of 950 Chief Marketing Officers shows that 79% of respondents agree that marketing is a key driver of business transformation, with 83% of CMOs of the belief that creative ideas can transform businesses and 81% seeing creativity as more important to their business than ever.

Innovation has also been identified as a key driver of business transformation, with 56% of CMOs planning to invest more than 20% of their budget on innovation over the next 12 months.

With CMOs more committed than ever to creativity, they now describe the need for a new kind of creativity, evolving from omnichannel to omnipresent, applied across every aspect of their wider business. Subsequently, 79% of CMOs are feeling challenged to predict changing behaviours, and shape new products and propositions to serve them; bringing inside-out insight to the business is now identified as the most important role of marketing in many markets. While CMOs are now committed to building brands in emerging spaces and platforms, the data reveals their uncertainty about how to navigate and effectively tell stories in these new channels.

Though 88% respondents agree that it is more important than ever for brands to be part of culture, 74% are unsure how best to connect brands to culture in meaningful and strategic ways. A similar hesitation is evident with 77% of CMOs agreeing that brands today should be built in collaboration with other brands, platforms, and creators, however, 60% also express concern about relinquishing control.

By contrast, trust in Generative AI to enhance creativity and innovation as a co-pilot and accelerator of human creativity is growing, with fewer CMOs considering it a threat to human craft and ingenuity.

While 67% of CMOs doubted that AI could create content that moves us in 2023, the number has dropped 18 percentage points to 49% in 2024. A majority of 77% would now be interested in training AI on their brand’s look, feel and tone of voice. As well as feeling more confident about the potential of AI, CMOs also feel more confident about their own role in the face of AI, this year significantly less likely to believe that AI may replace their jobs.

“What we’re hearing from clients, and our survey confirms, is that they need and value creativity more than ever. But it’s a new kind of creativity; creativity that is business-driven, making an impact across every aspect of their organization from comms to commerce to sustainability. In parallel, we see new attitudes to AI emerging, where it’s not a threat to human creativity but a way of giving human creativity superpowers-exponentially increasing the pace and possibilities of personalization, real time responsiveness, and relevance.” said Abbey Klaassen, Global Brand President, Dentsu Creative.

Now in its fifth year, the annual study is conducted to provide insight into the hearts and minds of CMOs globally, to help benchmark their direction against peers, and support them developing their creative, experience and innovation roadmaps. To form the CMO Report, the responses to 45 questions posed to CMOs in Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UAE, US and UK was decoded by Dentsu Creative’s award-winning Global Chief Strategy Officer, Patricia McDonald, in partnership with its international Strategy, Growth and Marketing community.

Eight key themes have been identified to offer an indispensable industry toolkit and roadmap, this year calling for agencies to not only respond to briefs but also to challenge them and drive transformative change.

Pats McDonald, Global CSO, Dentsu Creative commented, “Brands and businesses are now in the era of sudden change. Changes we’ve anticipated for years are now accelerating dramatically and reaching critical tipping points accelerated by new behaviours, new technologies and new possibilities.

“We can’t reach new customers in old ways, or make new work with old tools. Brands today will be built at the intersection of culture, commerce and community; in a world where stories are shoppable and stores are stories. The challenge for brands will be to engage communities in thoughtful and collaborative ways enabling scale, relevance and authenticity.”

CMOs More Empowered Than Ever Before To Deliver Transformation – Dentsu Creative

CMOs More Empowered Than Ever Before To Deliver Transformation – Dentsu Creative

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have been proven to be more empowered than ever before to deliver transformational creativity and innovation to unlock growth for businesses.

This was established in the  2024 CMO Report released by Dentsu Creative, a division of the Dentsu International.

According to the report, data from the global survey of 950 Chief Marketing Officers shows that 79% of respondents agree that marketing is a key driver of business transformation, with 83% of CMOs of the belief that creative ideas can transform businesses and 81% seeing creativity as more important to their business than ever.

Innovation has also been identified as a key driver of business transformation, with 56% of CMOs planning to invest more than 20% of their budget on innovation over the next 12 months.

With CMOs more committed than ever to creativity, they now describe the need for a new kind of creativity, evolving from omnichannel to omnipresent, applied across every aspect of their wider business. Subsequently, 79% of CMOs are feeling challenged to predict changing behaviours, and shape new products and propositions to serve them; bringing inside-out insight to the business is now identified as the most important role of marketing in many markets. While CMOs are now committed to building brands in emerging spaces and platforms, the data reveals their uncertainty about how to navigate and effectively tell stories in these new channels.

Though 88% respondents agree that it is more important than ever for brands to be part of culture, 74% are unsure how best to connect brands to culture in meaningful and strategic ways. A similar hesitation is evident with 77% of CMOs agreeing that brands today should be built in collaboration with other brands, platforms, and creators, however, 60% also express concern about relinquishing control.

By contrast, trust in Generative AI to enhance creativity and innovation as a co-pilot and accelerator of human creativity is growing, with fewer CMOs considering it a threat to human craft and ingenuity.

While 67% of CMOs doubted that AI could create content that moves us in 2023, the number has dropped 18 percentage points to 49% in 2024. A majority of 77% would now be interested in training AI on their brand’s look, feel and tone of voice. As well as feeling more confident about the potential of AI, CMOs also feel more confident about their own role in the face of AI, this year significantly less likely to believe that AI may replace their jobs.

“What we’re hearing from clients, and our survey confirms, is that they need and value creativity more than ever. But it’s a new kind of creativity; creativity that is business-driven, making an impact across every aspect of their organization from comms to commerce to sustainability. In parallel, we see new attitudes to AI emerging, where it’s not a threat to human creativity but a way of giving human creativity superpowers-exponentially increasing the pace and possibilities of personalization, real time responsiveness, and relevance.” said Abbey Klaassen, Global Brand President, Dentsu Creative.

Now in its fifth year, the annual study is conducted to provide insight into the hearts and minds of CMOs globally, to help benchmark their direction against peers, and support them developing their creative, experience and innovation roadmaps. To form the CMO Report, the responses to 45 questions posed to CMOs in Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UAE, US and UK was decoded by Dentsu Creative’s award-winning Global Chief Strategy Officer, Patricia McDonald, in partnership with its international Strategy, Growth and Marketing community.

Eight key themes have been identified to offer an indispensable industry toolkit and roadmap, this year calling for agencies to not only respond to briefs but also to challenge them and drive transformative change.

Pats McDonald, Global CSO, Dentsu Creative commented, “Brands and businesses are now in the era of sudden change. Changes we’ve anticipated for years are now accelerating dramatically and reaching critical tipping points accelerated by new behaviours, new technologies and new possibilities.

“We can’t reach new customers in old ways, or make new work with old tools. Brands today will be built at the intersection of culture, commerce and community; in a world where stories are shoppable and stores are stories. The challenge for brands will be to engage communities in thoughtful and collaborative ways enabling scale, relevance and authenticity.”