Dentsu Creative has released its annual global survey of 950 Chief Marketing Officers, this year revealing a new era of empowerment worldwide, spurred by an unprecedented confidence in the power of creativity.
Data 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.
TO READ THE 2024 CMO REPORT IN FULL, PLEASE DOWNLOAD FROM THE DENTSU CREATIVE GLOBAL WEBSITE.
www.dentsucreative.com/news/dentsu-creative-cmo-survey-2024
01
FROM OMNICHANNEL CREATIVITY TO OMNIPRESENT CREATIVITY
In a fast-changing world, where growth is harder to come by, CMOs need creativity in every aspect of their business not just communications. 82% believe Creativity has more potential than ever to unlock growth.
02
FROM SHARE OF VOICE TO SHARE OF CULTURE
In a world where attention has shifted, brands will scale in new ways, integrating with culture, content and entertainment. 88% of CMOs agree it is more important than ever for brands to be part of culture.
03
FROM CONTROLLING TO CONDUCTING
CMOs recognise that brands today are built through ecosystems of connected talent, partners and creators: 77% acknowledge that in the future marketing will be a collaboration between brands, creators and platforms.
04
FROM SEAMLESS EXPERIENCES TO DISTINCTIVE EXPERIENCES
As product advantages are swiftly copied, brands will build differentiation through connected and distinctive brand experiences. 75% of marketers agree that every touchpoint can and must tell the brand story-from comms to commerce.
05
FROM INSIGHT TO FORESIGHT
CMOs face pressure to act not only as the voice of the customer, but the voice of the future, anticipating trends and desires before they arise. 79% are challenged to use data and insight to predict future products and propositions.
06
FROM AI AS COMPETITOR TO AI AS CO-PILOT
As AI matures, CMOs are reappraising its potential as a collaborator and co-creator rather than a threat to human creativity. The % of CMOs agreeing that Generative AI will never make content that moves us declined 18 percentage points year on year.
07
FROM INNOVATION AT THE EDGES TO INNOVATION AT THE CORE
As the pace of change accelerates, clients are investing significant proportions of their budget in Innovation, no longer a niche or a nice-to-have. 79% of marketers are planning to invest more than 10% of their budget in innovation, 56% more than 20%.
08
FROM TAKING BRIEFS TO TRANSFORMING BUSINESS AND CHANGING SOCIETY
With uncertainty on the horizon, the role of marketing as a driver of growth becomes ever more important. CMOs want agencies not just to answer briefs, but to help them transform their businesses through the power of creativity: 70% agree they want their agency to bring them what they need, not always what they want. In parallel, in a volatile world, CMOs want to ensure their marketing activities are a force for good: 78% agree “I want my marketing activity to impact people, impact business and impact society.”
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.
TO READ THE 2024 CMO REPORT IN FULL, PLEASE DOWNLOAD FROM THE DENTSU CREATIVE GLOBAL WEBSITE.
www.dentsucreative.com/news/dentsu-creative-cmo-survey-2024
For further information please contact:
DentsuCreativeChina@dentsu.com
A 15-minute online survey was designed by dentsu and was scripted, hosted and monitored in-house by Kadance, an external research company. Fieldwork took place in April 2023 with the total completes (n=975). We spoke to 950 senior marketing decision makers from marketing and advertising roles across 14 markets in a range of sectors and in companies with 250+ employees. We also spoke with 25 US CEOs to get their perspective. The objective was to explore the role of creativity and the creative experience among senior marketing professionals across Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Spain, US & UK.
Dentsu Creative is a global creative agency network designed to unlock exponential growth for clients. We use Transformative Creativity as a differentiating, driving force to bring our capabilities together to positively impact people, businesses and society. Established in June 2022, Dentsu Creative is integrated with dentsu’s Media and CXM businesses in over 145 countries and regions, to offer end-to-end solutions to clients globally.
Dentsu is an integrated growth and transformation partner to the world’s leading organizations. Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, and now present in over 110 countries and regions, it has a proven track record of nurturing and developing innovations, combining the talents of its global network of leadership brands to develop impactful and integrated growth solutions for clients. Dentsu delivers end-to-end experience transformation (EX) by integrating its services across Media, CXM and Creative, while its business transformation (BX) mindset pushes the boundaries of transformation and sustainable growth for brands, people and society.
Dentsu, Innovating to Impact.
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