The survey was conducted among 1,100 senior marketers in the Netherlands (200), Australia (200), Germany (250), the United Kingdom (250) and Sweden (200), in companies or business units with more than 500 employees.

at the time
The survey was conducted in July 2021 and shows how the pandemic has changed the way of leading the marketing department strategically, operationally and creatively. The last year and a half has been challenging, with widespread budget cuts and strong marketing pressure to accelerate the digital transition, decision-making, creation, and launch of campaigns. The survey findings of senior marketers show a picture of what these “CMOs of tomorrow” will bring to the table as corporate executives. And in which the “CMO of now” can already pre-order.

more for less
The need to do more with less makes senior marketers open to transforming the marketing function and investing in process changes and better digital tools. The researched senior marketers want:

• fit well with top management’s strategy and priority setting (48%);
• reduce the pressure caused by repetitive daily tasks (36%);
• reduce distraction from the use of different digital tools (43%);
• create a place for all work management (work management, 37%).

Four features
The report describes four key characteristics of the CMO of tomorrow:

• Change Agents – Senior Marketers on their way to the top believe their department’s marketing work needs to be strategically managed – 43% believe that orchestrating, executing and measuring strategic work is the biggest challenge facing the CMO.
• Digital First: The Next Generation CMO Will Turn To Technology To Solve Problems – Seven out of ten (70%) senior marketers surveyed want to implement digital tools, for example for mature work management or work management, to help their teams do their best work, in line with the company’s strategy.
• Hybrid creatives: A large majority (71%) of senior marketers believe that creativity has been affected as a result of the pandemic. In response, tomorrow’s CMOs are developing a “hybrid creativity” strategy: more than three-quarters (76%) will resume live meetings to stimulate creative thinking; and more than two-thirds (68%) want to invest in technology that fosters a culture of creativity and offers clear creative processes.
• Agile Leaders – Tomorrow’s CMO wants to develop a broad skill set to be the agile leader of the future and to drive the innovation and growth needed for their department and organization. That skill expansion includes data analysis, finance, project management, and division of labor (31%); more advanced knowledge of the latest marketing techniques (14%); better skills to motivate and lead a team of marketing professionals (14%); and a better understanding of the possibilities with IT and digital transformation (11%).

Speed ​​up
A year and a half of restrictions and crown closings have accelerated marketing developments. For example, a lot of effort has often gone into getting the Digital First strategy off the ground quickly, which is why the digital transition was fueled. And it has been discovered that forms can collaborate fruitfully at a distance, so the pendulum is now backing slightly towards hybrid forms of collaboration.

The crisis has exposed weaknesses and revealed opportunities, the Adobe Workfront report shows. It’s clear that the pandemic has only fueled tomorrow’s CMO’s ambition to do a good job through process improvement, better IT tools, and expanded skills at the top of marketing. The closure has not turned out to be a slowdown.

The full report can be found here: https://www.workfront.com/tomorrows-cmo