What We Learned, Where We Go

By Rochelle Carter-Wilson

Hurca/Shutterstock.com

Nearly 300 CMOs, representing thousands of the world’s top brands and combining more than 50 percent of all global advertising and media spending, gathered to commit to a common agenda for growth and good.

October’s Global CMO Growth Summit was the culmination of months of private working groups featuring Council leadership, facilitated by the ANA and Cannes Lions. These groups developed comprehensive action plans in the four priority areas:

• Society and Sustainability
• Data, Technology, and Measurement
• Brand Experience, Creativity, and Media
• Talent and Marketing Organization

Each plan focuses on specific mandates and outcomes, with built-in accountability to track progress. Each supports globally scalable, conclusive change, sustainable over the long term. The Council anticipates these collective actions represent a one percent improvement in performance, translating into $500 billion in incremental growth across our industry over the next three years.

In the words of one of our presenting co-chairs, “Marketing needs always to be both human-centric and data-driven.”

To that end, attending CMO delegates collectively committed to immediate actions to achieve the following outcomes:

1. Return $10 billion in savings back into working investments that drive growth. This is accomplished by taking specific measures to streamline their digital media supply chains. These actions will reduce financial inefficiency and risk exposure for their brands and consumers.
2. Revolutionize the role of marketing as B4H (Brands for Humans) and create a universal measure for the financial value of a brand that will be globally adopted among both corporations and academia.
3. Establish a robust and reliable, diverse, and inclusive talent pipeline reflecting both the local and marketplace.
4. Derive full performance potential from the massive investments in data and technology by elevating their marketing organizations to reflect best practice-level readiness in company capabilities, culture, and operational agility.
5. Use marketing to promote equality and inclusion to achieve a better world for humanity and more growth and value for business:
• Achieve equal representation in the media and creative supply chain.
• Eliminate systemic investment inequalities in the media and creative supply chain.
• Eliminate bias and racism by accurately portraying all humanity in advertising, content, and media.
• Eliminate hateful and harmful content online.
6. Create an industry-wide solution for cross-platform measurement allowing brands to reach full potential from transparent, efficient, and secure media investments.
7. Overhaul our media ecosystem. Makeover the upfront process, align on KPIs, drive transparency in cross-media measurement, self-regulate commercial load, and ensure diversity, equality, and inclusion on all levels of the ecosystem.

The ANA built a comprehensive roadmap for regenerating global economic and societal growth. In support of the Growth Council’s dedication to accountability in achieving the agenda and its mandates, the Masters Circle launched the following initiatives:

• We are pleased to introduce the CMO Exchange Database, where members have exclusive access to chief marketers promising to make themselves available for peer-to-peer guidance and networking.
• Translating the momentum and focus of the Summit, the #ActionsNotAds news hub and its resource page, regularly updated, provide ‘go-to’ insights, tracking progress to see what CMO delegates are planning, what actions have already been successfully undertaken, and what innovations can be expected in the future.

We turned a moment into a movement. Delegates affirmed their commitments. The work has begun, and we’ll be keeping you updated on our member’s progress.