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Marketers ‘must focus’ on transcending disruption in 2025
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With increased pressure to deliver growth and support cross-functional work, Gartner has identified three priorities for CMOs to deliver marketing excellence in 2025, namely Transcending Disruption, Elevating Enterprise Impact and Maximising Marketing Yield.

“Marketing faces extraordinary expectations heading into 2025, and CMOs cannot risk incremental change when the enterprise expects transformative results,” said Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and the Chief of Research for the Gartner Marketing Practice. “A sharp focus on marketing excellence is key. By applying the resources CMOs have with ever greater vision and discipline, they will earn the confidence of the business to expand their leadership and stewardship of resources.”

In a survey of 395 CMOs conducted in February and March 2024, respondents said they devote almost 40% of their budget to activities focused on change and transformation. The problem is that constant disruption diverts attention from long-term goals. CMOs must identify where tactical thinking has replaced strategic discipline and dedicate resources to ongoing strategy management, such as staff time, training and tools.

“A strategy management capability is a self-funding investment. While managing strategy is a core part of the CMO role, it cannot happen without a supporting organizational capability,” said McIntyre.

Gartner asserts that many CMOs are not fulfilling their growth potential – both in terms of delivering business results and maximizing their leadership effectiveness. In a survey of 125 CEOs and CFOs conducted in August and September 2024, executive leaders reported that only 14% of CMOs are effective at market shaping, or influencing market dynamics by identifying and fulfilling unmet customer needs. Companies where CMOs are effective at market shaping are 2.6 times more likely to exceed revenue and profit goals.

Market shaping CMOs distinguish themselves from C-suite colleagues with their exceptional skill-level in data-based decision making, strategy management and market knowledge. These skills help CMOs make meaning from data and convert trends into visionary strategies.

“This is a different skill set than merely understanding or empathizing with the customer,” said Sharon Cantor Ceurvorst, Vice President, Research in the Gartner Marketing Practice. “With customer data increasingly available to all functions, the CMO edge lies in knowing how to synthesize insight from an array of different sources to find opportunities for differentiation.”

With customer understanding being a significant driver of marketing-led growth, CMOs should be concerned that many customers feel misunderstood by brands. In a survey of over 6,000 U.S. consumers conducted in July and August 2024, 58% reported that the companies trying to sell them something don’t have a good understanding of their needs and preferences. The consequence is that many marketing campaigns underperform, wasting budgets, resources and opportunity.

“What’s perplexing about this is that marketing has never had more access to data, or more technology tasked with building customer understanding and targeting messages. Right now, technology-driven customer engagement is at an inflection point,” said McIntyre. “The vast majority of marketing teams are accelerating AI initiatives; 95% of CMOs in 2024 reported that GenAI investments are a priority.”

Gartner says CMOs must avoid the pitfalls of AI-driven excess and prioritize customer journey investments with the greatest economic return. A data- and hypothesis-led approach will help rebuild emotional connections with customers who are feeling misunderstood and drive a mutually productive growth engine.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

Are podcasts the key to reaching Gen Z and Millennials?
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Podcasts have emerged as a powerful medium for brand discovery, overtaking traditional platforms — especially amongst younger audiences, according to new data from research platform GWI’s Connecting the Dots report.

The shift highlights a growing opportunity for brands to tap into this trend to reach their key audiences. Since 2021, brand discovery through podcasts has accelerated, particularly with Gen Z listeners, who are increasingly tuning into podcasts over other media.

And it’s not just brand awareness that has increased. Almost as many Americans get their news from podcasts (21%) as newspapers (24%) — a shift driven primarily by Millennials and Gen Z listeners, of which one in four say they enjoy listening to podcasts.

The recent US election also highlighted the importance of podcasts to American listeners, with 14% of Americans noting podcasts as a source of information on US politics, and 5% noting it as one of the most trustworthy sources.

With podcast investment on the rise through high-profile deals — like the recent acquisition of Call Her Daddy by SiriusXM for $125 million — they are positioned as a lucrative investment for brands wanting to connect with younger consumers, who are spending more time with podcasts than ever before.

However, as with all channels, brands must be mindful of ad fatigue — especially among younger listeners, of which one in five say they’ll tend to skip ads, compared to just 15% of Gen X and Baby Boomers.

In fact, consumers have made it clear that the format of an ad is a deciding factor in skipping it or switching off entirely. 17% of listeners have a preference for ads integrated into the episode, in the host’s style — making it crucial for brands to tailor engaging and relevant advertisements.

Although most listeners dedicate less than an hour a day to podcasts (42%), the growing listenership is a clear opportunity for brands to align with their audiences interests through tailored, host-led ads that seamlessly blend into the show’s content.

Commenting on these findings, Bridget Evans, Global Director of Business Brand Marketing at Spotify, said: “Gen Z’s love for podcasts extends offline, with 37% attending live podcast events, deepening their relationships with trusted hosts and communities.

“This means podcasts are now a 360-degree amplification opportunity for brands. Spotify’s ecosystem — from live events to social and audience targeting via Spotify Audience Network and more — lets brands reach these highly-engaged audiences and forge authentic connections across multiple touchpoints.”

Matt Smith, Trends Analyst at GWI adds: “Unlike traditional media, podcasts provide a unique opportunity for brands to reach listeners in an environment where ads can feel like a part of the experience. Younger generations value a deeper personal connection to content and are drawn to hosts that they find relatable, so podcasts are a powerful option for targeting these audiences in an engaging way.

“As podcast popularity continues to grow, brands that adopt a well-thought out and aligned approach to podcast advertising can create more memorable touchpoints with audiences that can’t be replicated via other channels.”

Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash

Bricks-and-mortar ‘retail revival’ being driven by Gen Z and Millennials
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Despite frequent digital-first and social media dependent stereotyping, Gen Z and Millennial shoppers are the most frequent visitors to UK retail stores, helping drive the physical ‘retail revival’ in 2024.

That’s according to the latest research from RetailNext, which polled over 1,000 UK shoppers by RetailNext to show that while 40% of UK consumers now visit non-food stores once a week, 46% of Millennials make weekly trips to stores (+6 percentage points compared to the average UK shopper).

When it comes to fashion, younger Gen Zs were also the most frequent in-store shoppers, with the demographic more than twice as likely as the average UK consumer to head into apparel stores every week (28% vs 13%). And, despite Gen Z spending an estimated two hours every day on TikTok, a social media habit that often earns them the stereotype of being wedded to social commerce, two thirds (66%) of Gen Z, a demographic tipped to spend £1.2billion on fashion in the next 6months, prefer to use the store to discover fashion trends and products, according to a recent UNiDAYS report.

Similarly, for Health & Beauty, Gen Z were also x1.7 times more likely to visit stores weekly (34% vs 20% of average shoppers), while the proportion of Millennials taking trips to Health & Beauty shops each week is now +5 percent higher than the average UK consumer (25% vs 20%).  And with the trend for younger shoppers showing a growing preference for physical retail, increasingly online retailers, such as Gymshark, Trinny London and THG’s Lookfantastic, are looking to invest in bricks-and-mortar store networks.

“All too often assumed as being solely creatures of social commerce, younger consumer cohorts are embracing physical retail,” said Gary Whittemore, Head of Sales EMEA & APAC at RetailNext. “Whether that’s through a desire to reduce screentime, seeking more authentic shopping experiences or human interaction away from digital enclaves, or connecting and engaging with the brands they love IRL (in real life), we’re seeing rafts of younger shoppers leading the store revival both here in the UK and over in the U.S., choosing the store as their channel of choice.”

Outside of younger shopping cohorts, UK consumers as a whole are also signalling wider support for UK High Street retailers, echoing recent calls by retail leaders, including executives from M&S, Primark, Ikea and Tesco,who wrote to Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget demanding more relief for the sector through business rates reform.

Seven in ten (71%) consumers polled by RetailNext wanted to see retailers better supported in the Autumn Statement, with three quarters (75%) of UK consumers wanting the Government to do more specifically to support High Street retailers.  A further 70% believe bricks-and-mortar retail businesses should be given rates cuts to level the playing field between online competition.

“For many years now, we’ve heard death knell after death knell sounding the impending doom of the High Street,” Whittemore added.  “But the reality is physical retail remains an important and compelling component in omnichannel buying journeys, prompting strong support for the High Street amongst shoppers, which is why we continue to see many pureplays actively investing in growing their physical retail offerings.”

Many retailers struggle to leverage AI to drive meaningful business outcomes, says research
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Despite UK retailers quickly adopting artificial intelligence (AI), many are yet to move past leveraging it to automate simple everyday tasks, meaning they are yet to extract the full value of the technology.

That’s according to research from Wunderkind, which polled over 100 senior retail executives for its 2024 CMO State of the Union Report, which indicates that almost all (97%) of retail teams are implementing AI in their operations in some way.

Leveraging AI for data collection was the most adopted AI used by UK retailers (73%), followed by optimising marketingdesign (72%) and marketing deployment, which includes reaching and engaging customers (58%).

However, whilst AI adoption within retail is being undertaken at pace, currently much of its deployment has focused on automating day-to-day manual and time-intensive jobs.  While this may help retailers save time and allow them to run their operations more efficiently, it’s not necessarily using AI to its greatest potential, Wunderkind suggests, especially when it comes to retailers making the most out of their data or delivering the insights needed to drive marketing and customer engagement performance.

Wunderkind’s poll suggests that currently less than two fifths (38%) of retailers are using AI to power advanced segmentation and personalisation, while 17% said their biggest challenge in deploying AI was navigating the technology’s use within their organisations.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, International GM of Wunderkind, said:  “AI has rapidly reached a tipping point, achieving mass adoption, though for retailers its applications remain largely limited to a narrow, mostly generative, set of use cases.  And, whilst most retailers are commonly using the tech to assist with simple everyday tasks, many haven’t yet reached the point where the technology starts to deliver meaningful outcomes.”

“To achieve this transformation, retailers need to focus on enhancing the quality of data their AI systems consume, enabling the generation of valuable insights that can lead to meaningful results.  Often, this will require collaboration with third-party AI providers, who have access to vast amounts of data from trillions of digital interactions, helping optimise processes, improve performance, and ultimately deliver a solid return on investment.” he added.

Research indicates online retailers can use chatbots to manipulate ratings
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When consumers use chatbots to submit online reviews they tend to give higher ratings but provide less detailed feedback, according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

Researchers Dr Dimitrios Tsekouras, Dominik Gutt (RSM) and Dr Irina Heimbach from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, found that low-quality sellers could abuse chatbots to boost their ratings and disguise the low quality of their products.

This study highlights potential risks for online retail platforms like Amazon. Dr. Dimitrios Tsekouras, a lead researcher at RSM, said: “While online reviews are crucial for informed consumer decisions, reliance on chatbots may lead to misleading ratings that do not accurately reflect product quality The research indicates that chatbot interactions, especially those with humanlike characteristics, enhance user enjoyment but compromise the depth of reviews.”

It turns out that the way companies collect reviews, and in particular the humanlike characteristics of the chatbots that collect the reviews, have an effect on what consumers say. The findings call for policymakers to consider regulations regarding chatbot usage for review solicitation to ensure transparency and maintain the integrity of online marketplaces.

The researchers conducted a series of online experiments and a field experiment. In the online experiments, participants watched a short movie for which they later provided an online review, either through a chatbot with moderate or highly humanlike characteristics, or through a conventional review form. In the field experiment, they collected course evaluations for a university class either through a chatbot or through a conventional form.

Their research, The robo bias in conversational reviews: How the solicitation medium anthropomorphism affects product rating valence and review helpfulness has been published in the Journal of the Academy of MarketingScience.

Study: Half of UK Gen Zs are abandoning brands due to ‘boredom’
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Almost half of UK Gen Zers (46%) and 29% of other generations have abandoned a brand they were once loyal to because they grew ‘bored’ of them.

That’s according to SAP Emarsys’ new annual Customer Loyalty Index (CLI), which calls on data from over 2,000 UK consumers about their marketing preferences.

SAP Emarsys survey reveals that the key to standing out in the long term lies in more personalised marketing, more relevant content, and offering unique perspectives tailored to individual interests. According to the data, younger consumers are particularly drawn to innovative marketing.

Specifically, 30% of Gen Z, compared to 23% of all demographics, have tried a new brand because of its ‘creative marketing.’ Additionally, over a quarter of Gen Z (31%) are enticed by brands that use ‘cool’ content or imagery, versus 21% of other age groups. Meanwhile, 28% of Gen Z, compared to 17% of other demographics, seek out brands that deliver ‘memorable experiences.’

To deliver on this, marketers are increasingly turning to AI to foster long-term loyalty and reach new audiences. According to SAP Emarsys’s research, two-thirds (66%) of marketers agree that AI will be crucial for boosting customer engagement in 2024, and half (50%) have already experienced a rise in engagement after implementing AI-powered personalisation. AI enables brands to stay competitive by quickly adapting to changing customer expectations.

Sara Richter, CMO at SAP Emarsys, said: “It’s clear that consumers today, not just Gen Z, expect more than ‘business-as-usual’—they want meaningful and memorable experiences. The key to delivering that is personalisation for every customer. AI is the only practical solution for providing genuine one-to-one interactions at scale, across every channel, and at the right moment. Brands that embrace AI-powered personalisation are far better equipped to keep customers engaged, especially when attention spans are short, and demands are high.

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Research points to 5.3% growth in ‘back to school’ online shopping
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Back To School, an increasingly important trading period for UK retailers, delivered a welcome boost to online retail revenues, according to the latest data from Wunderkind.

Original data from Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse, which analysed over 55.4million customer journeys during the start-of-school shopping season during 2024 and 2023, showed that web revenues for Back To School 2024 rose +5.3% year-on-year, delivering a welcome uplift in retail sales.

With Mintel estimating that UK consumer spending on Back To School items surpassed £1335millionlast year, the start-of-term trading period is now an increasingly important part of the retail trading calendar.  Kantar’s latest figures show Back To School helped drive an increase in grocery spending at the end of last month, with sales of lunchbox snacks, including yoghurts, fruits and cereal bars rising +14% year-on-year in the last week of August.  Meanwhile, other retailers including M&S, which froze pricing on school uniforms for the fourth year in a row and offered additional second-hand lines to keep prices low, and Asda, which reported an 88% increase in sales at the start of its Back To School campaign, vied for start-of-term share of wallet.

Wunderkind’s data showed that Thursday 29 August was the biggest revenue-generating day of the 2024 Back To School season, when online sales rose +46% on the daily average for the period (26 Aug – 08 Sep), as parents surged to make pre-term purchases.  Monday 02 September, the first day of the school year for many, saw the highest converting day of Back To School, with web conversions up +10% on the daily average, as final start-of-term spending and last-minute purchases were made.

As well as the opportunity to grow sales, the event also provides retailers with a timely opportunity to engage existing shoppers and acquire new customers ahead of the all-important Golden Quarter, delivering future engagement opportunities to win share of wallet during Peak Trading, Wunderkind suggests.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, International GM of Wunderkind, emphasised the strategic importance of the Back To School period, commented:  “In addition to being a profitable sales window on its own, Back To School serves as a critical precursor to the Golden Quarter, positioning brands for a successful peak season.  Retailers that perform well during Back To School typically carry that momentum into strong Black Friday and Christmas campaigns, as they benefit from acquiring new customers and capturing valuable first-party data for use in Q4.”

Light-Wilkinson also highlighted the growing challenges in paid third-party channels, noting: “As platforms like social media, search, and display become more competitive and costly, brands must focus on optimising their owned channels.  By building first-party data, retailers can drive more cost-efficient conversions and deliver personalised, one-to-one experiences during pivotal trading periods.”

Euro 2024 broke $500m sponsorship barrier
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The 2024 edition of the UEFA European Championships saw sponsorship deals from a total of 25 brands, with the largest deal in terms of annual value being with adidas, according to new analysis.

Alongside Sportradar, Coca-Cola’s deal ranks joint second in terms of the largest sponsorship deals. Overall, the 2024 UEFA European Championships generated sponsorship revenue of $535.25 million, says GlobalData.

Its latest report “Post Event Analysis – UEFA European Championships 2024,” reveals that the largest media value deal for the 2024 European Champions was with Deutsche Telecom. The tournament had a total attendance of around 2.68 million.

Olivia Snooks, Associate Sport Analyst at GlobalData comments: “Many of the partnerships, including adidas and Sportradar, have agreed deals with UEFA; therefore, the partnerships go beyond just the European Championships. Adidas took over from Nike as the official ball supplier to all UEFA competitions in 2000. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, has only a one-year partnership, serving as a global partner for the 2024 edition of the tournament.”  

The UEFA Euro 2024 final was watched by a peak audience of 24.2 million across ITV and BBC in the UK, with an average of 22.3 million watching the match. ITV posted its highest viewing share for a final since records began. The BBC’s coverage, in fact, beat ITV’s coverage of the final in terms of peak viewership. England’s Euro 2024 semi-final victory over the Netherlands was watched by a peak audience of 20.3 million on ITV, which prior to the final was the most-watched television program of the year.

Snooks continues: “As the European Championships are one of the UK’s “crown jewel” sporting events, along with other competitions, such as the Olympics, they are required by law to be shown on free-to-air channels. This year’s Euros set records for TV audiences in the countries of the participating teams, as the 2024 Euros increased to 24 competing nations.”

Approximately 65,000 fans attended the 2024 Euros final between England and Spain. Unsurprisingly, tickets for the final were the most expensive out of all of the matches. Ticket prices ranged from $107.26 (£83) to $1129.44 (£874). The total number of tickets sold for the quarter-final matches was 218,787, while the total number of tickets sold at the semi-final matches was 112,968.

Snooks concludes: “The attendance for the 2024 Euro final was considerably lower in terms of percentage compared to other matches at this year’s Euros, with a 92.5% full stadium. However, it is important to mention that many England fans left the stadium in Berlin before the medal ceremony had even begun; therefore, the attendance data for the final might be slightly skewed.”

Photo by Peri Stojnic on Unsplash

Personalised promotions are ‘twice as likely’ to convert UK shoppers
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While discount codes top UK consumers preferred promotions, offers that are personalised and tailored to a specific product a consumer has viewed are almost twice as likely to prompt a sale compared to general ‘range-wide’ discounts, according to a survey of over 1,500 shoppers.

Original research by AI-driven performance marketing solution Wunderkind, published in its 2024 Consumer Insights Report, revealed that demand for personalised promotions remains critical to re-engaging consumers in the online buying journey, with 83% more likely to purchase from brand messages that highlight exact products they have recently browsed.

And, according to the poll, almost half (49%) of UK consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they are offered personalised, product specific discounts for items they had already viewed, compared to a quarter (26%) who would be influenced to buy after receiving general, brand-wide promotions.

While discount codes remained the most effective promotional lever for 54% of UK consumers, the poll highlighted the role of personalisation and product-specific offers in promotional effectiveness.  Over a quarter (27%) would be prompted to convert by reminders or low stock warnings about items they had put in their online shopping baskets, while 22% said they would be persuaded to buy after receiving a ‘back in stock’ message about an item they had previously viewed.  Meanwhile, a further fifth (19%) of shoppers would be influenced by offers on new products promoted to them that were similar to products they had looked at previously.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, International General Manager of Wunderkind, said: “Despite falling inflation, consumers continue to display high-consideration buying behaviours, often taking longer to validate where and when to spend.  In this context, bringing customers back to the products they’ve shown the highest interest and intent towards becomes all the more important.  To do this effectively, retailers need to be able to identify that individual shopper – regardless of device or cookie status – and then retarget them with highly personalised triggered messages, at the right time and via the right channels.”

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Marketing execs ‘unprepared for future of personalisation’
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97% of digital marketing executives report they feel unprepared for this foundational shift in how companies will learn about consumers’ preferences and behaviour, and while 75% of consumers more likely to consider buying products from brands that personalise, 86% of executives believe their ability to run personalised marketing campaigns is inadequate.

That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Optimizely, which includes respondents from 1,000 marketing, eCommerce and IT executives in six markets – the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Australia/New Zealand and Singapore. It comes at a pivotal moment for marketers as Google phases out cookies, AI emerges and regulatory threats grow.

“This report makes clear that brands are ill-prepared to navigate the emerging, generational shifts in the ways they can reach customers,” said Shafqat Islam, CMO at Optimizely. “While executives know that investing in personalisation and experimentation is key to survive in the new reality of digital experiences, they too often feel they don’t have a streamlined, intuitive toolkit to implement effective campaigns at scale. Accessing marketing solutions that create personalised digital platforms without third-party data will be key to thriving in the coming decades.”

Executives broadly agree that personalisation is key to an effective marketing strategy – 62% of respondents increased their personalisation budget since last year. They also recognise the specific benefits of experimentation within these efforts, including its ability to identify mistakes, (40%), allow for data-driven decisions (40%), test strategies before they’re employed (39%), personalise customer experiences (39%), and discover which personalisation strategies work (39%).

However, companies are still widely struggling to implement an effective personalisation strategy

  • Executives implementing real-time personalisation experiences face numerous challenges, including a lack of focused analytics (43%), difficulty scaling personalisation programmes (40%), and difficulty activating experiences in real-time (39%).
    • While 64% have begun implementing real-time personalisation strategies, just 9% have reached full implementation.
    • Many also face process-oriented obstacles: over a third (36%) cite disjointed workflows as a top challenge.
  • Just 26% of executives report having a unified definition of personalisation throughout their organisation.
    • While virtually all executives surveyed with a personalisation strategy are measuring their ROI, no single metric is used by even half of respondents, suggesting a broad uncertainty on how to understand and track success for these efforts.
  • 43% fear an ineffective personalisation campaign will result in reduced future marketing budgets.

Google’s phaseout will leave companies hard-pressed for the data they rely on. To succeed in the upcoming era digital marketing, brands will need to stop relying on third-party data, and instead focus on creative ways to develop campaigns based on data they can discern from consumers directly.

Read the full report here: https://www.optimizely.com/how-digital-leaders-are-thinking-about-personalization/.

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash