What the trend?! 

People and emotions are once more the heart of the matter, especially in marketing. The current CMO Barometer analysis reveals what lies ahead of us in the 2023 marketing year.

2022 has shown all of us that one thing is for certain: uncertainty. It bears upon our day-to-day work, and affects our feelings, thoughts, and actions. Moreover, we are not alone in this, as the current analysis from the annual CMO Barometer indicates.

However, let us begin on a positive note – what is good about these times is that we are getting back to what is important:people. In 2023, it is people and their emotions that are the focus. This has been confirmed by 470 leading marketing managers in Europe. Whatever the case may be, it is perhaps a clear illustration of how uncertainty affects our work, whether we like it or not.

The five core insights from the CMO Barometer are:

1.     Recession, sustainability, and managing uncertainty dominate the agenda for CMOs in 2023. Most of those surveyed listed these same three points when asked about the main themes.

2.     The mega-marketing trend is and remains sustainability. Meanwhile, in the background, two aspects have recently taken centre stage: emotional brand management and content creation.

3.     Even internally, CMOs are getting involved with people and emotions, because more than ever, they are ‘people managers’. Therefore, agile leadership, moderation, and inspiration form part of their daily business.

4.     What will be more important in 2023? Team spirit and team culture. However, the foundations must also be sound. CMOs are predominantly involved with further developing the customer experience and digital transformation.

5.     Thus, just as those surveyed include agility and flexibility in their own agenda, they also demand it in their work with agency partners.

We maintain that although these are not the easiest of times, the world of the CMO is being ‘humanised’, and this is really good news.

* The ‘CMO Barometer’ is an annual study, conducted by the Serviceplan Consulting Group and Facit. It is based on an online survey of marketing managers from companies of every size and sector.

The current results are available here.