Feature
AURORA, Colo. — Stop picking on the CMO.
Who’s the executive bully in this case? The CEO and CFO.
As CMSWire’s Ian Truscott covered so nicely today, the chief marketing officer’s C-Suite colleagues want more from their marketing partner.
A lot more. And then more after that.
That’s one of the reasons we’re on the road here in the Mile High City this week at the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo: get the pulse of marketing’s altitude. Can CMOs make their executive friends happy? Is it possible to get more respect for marketing and exceed expectations?
It’s a tall order. Or, in this state, a tall mountain.
Gartner’s report released in February found only 27% of CEOs and CFOs say their CMO’s performance exceeded expectations in the last year. Not even half of them feel better even when CMOs hit commercial targets and make significant contributions to corporate growth: only 45% of CEOs and CFOs say the CMO exceeded expectations.
Say it ain’t so, CMO.
“Building on clear expectations, new CMOs must become masters of the marketing value and impact story,” Chris Ross, VP analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice, said in a Gartner Q&A released today. “This means ensuring marketing is aligned to core business priorities, and marketing activities are clearly connected to addressing those priorities."
Maintain clarity, focus sharply and achieve results on the most critical objectives, he adds.
“It's nearly impossible for any CMO to fulfill every item on their organization's marketing wish list,” Ross said. “Therefore, new CMOs should be highly selective about where they invest their time and energy.”
Table of Contents
- Marketing ROI Pressure Is Real — Even if the Payoff Isn’t Immediate
- CMOs Confirm: We're Under Great Pressure to Prove Marketing's Worth
- Navigating Volatility Requires Awareness of Blindspots
Marketing ROI Pressure Is Real — Even if the Payoff Isn’t Immediate
Yes, but will it matter? Are some CEOs and CFOs just that skeptical of marketing and its business impact? Is it more of the old-as-time argument that marketing’s just a cost center, just a pretty mountain here in the nearby Rockies that you can’t ski down?
Maybe. We know this: The pressure's on. CMOs tell us themselves.
According to the CMSWire State of CMO Report for 2025, 69% of CMOs say leadership demands measurable results for everything they do, up from 59% two years ago. Further, 95% of marketing leaders said their team is under more pressure to show ROI.
Measuring marketing ROI is increasingly difficult — and increasingly demanded. The pressure to prove impact is rising, yet many factors make it challenging: poor data integration, brand campaigns with intangible outcomes and tight economic conditions. Even high-value efforts like brand awareness or nurturing future buyers often lack immediate revenue attribution, making them harder to justify during budget scrutiny, according to CMSWire researchers on the CMO report.
Still, the report stresses that long-term brand-building efforts pay off as conditions improve. Marketing teams that focus on fundamentals — like clear positioning, brand consistency and audience education — will be better positioned to convert prospects when spending rebounds.
Related Article: CMO Circle: Inside the 2025 State of CMO
CMOs Confirm: We're Under Great Pressure to Prove Marketing's Worth
So what do marketing leaders and CMOs say? Some agree. The pressure to show marketing value is real.
The Short-Term Trap: Why Chasing Quick Wins Can Cost CMOs
“I think the biggest challenge that CMOs face is wanting to show value,” Tom Wentworth, chief marketing officer at incident.io, said on his interview with CMSWire on the CMO Circle TV show (he was with Recorded Future at the time). “We join a new company and want to prove our worth, which for most of us means influencing revenue. At the end of the day, I only keep my job here, and we only keep our jobs if we can help the company grow faster. So there's immense pressure on CMOs to focus on short-term results.”
It’s natural to want to drive results quickly and contribute to revenue, Wentworth added, but it’s a mistake to put all your energy and budget into short-term tactics. While those tactics can boost revenue in the moment, focusing on them too heavily is one of the quickest ways to lose your job.
Because while their C-Suite colleagues toss Rocky Mountain-like ROI avalanches at them, CMOs still need to resist the urge to live in a quarter-to-quarter world hitting sales targets.
“It's the fastest way to not generate the kinds of results that you want to generate for your company,” Wentworth said, “but it's the pressure that we all face.”
When he was CMO at Acquia about a decade ago, he said he made the mistake of focusing almost entirely on short-term revenue goals.
Every quarter, he prioritized hitting the number, without thinking about long-term brand building or how to elevate Acquia to compete with a giant like Adobe. While Adobe had broad recognition, Acquia didn’t — and he didn’t invest in changing that.
“Had I spent time thinking about how to do something there, I think Acquia would have gone public and would have been maybe, you know, even bigger than they are now,” Wentworth said. “And it was the biggest mistake I've made in my career by far.”
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Related Video: CMO Circle: Tom Wentworth's Unconventional Approach to Long-Term Marketing Success
Why Brand Still Matters — Even When ROI Is Hard to Measure
Cultivating brand trust and affinity are still really important in the CMO’s world, according to Lena Waters, chief marketing officer at Notion (formerly with Grammarly at the time of the interview).
“And I think sometimes this is difficult because marketing leaders often face internal resistance to brand investment because it's viewed as being harder to measure the immediate ROI,” she said in her CMO Circle interview. “So I think it's really incumbent on us as marketing leaders to understand that that hesitance, making sure that you're paying attention to how a brand is perceived and that you're really shaping that in the market. That needs resources and time and attention because we all know that strong brands lift companies over time.”
Related Video: CMO Circle: Inside Grammarly's Leap From Consumers to Enterprises
Proving Your Worth Means Evolving Beyond Marketing Skills
It’s not just about proving ROI for CMOs. It’s about proving, well, themselves, according to Jonathan Copulsky, senior lecturer of marketing at Northwestern University and seasoned marketing leader who caught up with us in CMO Circle.
“I think the biggest challenge is that people, assuming someone is well-qualified and they've had good experience, often don't recognize that the skills and expertise that got them to where they are may be insufficient to take them to the next level,” Copulsky said. “Where there tends to be gaps is less about technical or functional skills and much more about leadership, interpersonal and collaborative skills that will be essential for success in more senior roles. That's the biggest challenge.”
The CMO’s role is market-specific, and sometimes that can backfire when marketing leaders are trying to prove their value and worth.
“The second challenge may be that there may be specific gaps from a functional standpoint — perhaps they've worked in media but don't have the same level of expertise in data and analytics, or they've worked in data and analytics but haven't had a chance to develop their creative skills,” Copulsky said.
Related Video: CMO Circle: From Classroom to C-Suite With Jonathan Copulsky
Customer Connections Still Matter
Want to prove your worth as a CMO? Connect with customers. Period.
DeLu Jackson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at ADT, said staying relevant starts with listening to your customers — especially as your portfolio and their needs grow more complex. The more we observe and understand what they’re looking for, the better we can show up in ways that feel meaningful.
He cited the example of a partnership with the Miami Marlins Major League Baseball team. ADT used the phrase “safe at home” in the stadium and on their jerseys — a message that ties both to baseball and ADT’s brand promise of protection for homeowners.
“So again, as a long-time marketer, whenever we can find great context and people see it and they say, that makes sense,” Jackson said. “I love to see that and understand that it's connecting with people. And again, back to that relevance, that's how we stay relevant is understanding what they care about, what's most important in the context in which they see us. And we can do that in a relevant way. That's a win.”
Navigating Volatility Requires Awareness of Blindspots
The path forward for CMOs? Especially in a volatile economic and political climate here in the US and abroad?
Navigate volatility differently, Gartner’s Ross said.
“New CMOs should be looking for potential organizational blindspots,” Ross added. “This involves continuously monitoring market trends, shifts in customer behaviors and competitive dynamics. Paying close attention to the macro environment and calibrating strategy and programs accordingly is key to staying attuned to conditions.”
