Slide deck for Chris Daly & James Delves presentation from CIM's event at Henley Business School on 18th October 2023.

1. The Marketing Landscape:
Key Challenges and Opportunities for Marketing Leaders
Chris Daly, CEO of CIM
James Delves, Head of PR, Content & Community

2. CIM key facts

3. State of the Sector
The state of the sector

4. • CIM interviewed 75 of the world’s leading marketers.
• Each respondent featured in the survey was a CMO, marketing director,
or the head of a leading agency.
• The study included key European brands such as: Deutsche Bank, L’Oreal
and Decathlon, as well as leading agencies from across the world.
• The result?
Vital insights into what leading marketers in the industry are thinking
and a view from the top on where the sector is heading.
CIM’s CMO75

5. Confidence in marketing and the global economy
Growth in the global economy continues to be hampered by the long-
lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a
cost of living crisis. How has the marketing sector responded to these
challenges?
• 53% of CMOs believe the marketing industry is in a stronger state than five
years ago.
• International CMOs are more optimistic about their respective economies
with an average score of 62 out of 100.
• When broken down by sector, agency marketers are more optimistic, closely
followed by in-house marketers who are still relatively upbeat (scoring 45 out
of 100).

6. External Issues facing CMOs
Top concerns:
1. Cost of living crisis – Reduced consumer spending power
2. Changing consumer behaviour – Brands need to remain agile
3. Attracting and retaining customers – Differentiation remains key
4. Increasing relevance – Relating to customers in a crowded space
5. Humanitarian crisis in Ukraine – Continued impact on global markets
Volatility in global markets has led to a raft of challenges facing
marketing leaders when conducting day to day operations.

7. Internal Issues facing CMOs
Top concerns:
1. Skills Shortages – A lack of talent in teams
2. Recruitment – Inability to attract the skills needed to drive growth
3. Retention – The risk of losing key skilled staff
4. Finances – Whilst many have seen or expect growth, uncertainty remains
5. Hybrid working – adapting to new working practices
A challenging operating environment has led to a tough market
for employers.

8. Consumers expect ethics & purpose in marketing
• The public expect marketers to act ethically and be across key societal
issues.
• Marketers want to be and are acting as a force for good, with the majority
calling for increased regulation on products that have a harmful impact on
the environment or are unhealthy. They also want to see tighter regulations
on social media platforms to protect consumers.
• There is a critical tension between business objectives and ethical drivers,
with six in ten marketers (60%) claiming their company or clients find it
tricky to achieve their sustainability commitments without compromising
on commercial needs.
Consumers are increasingly expecting brands to be guided
by a purpose and to act in a responsible and ethical way.

9. More regulation is on the way
Marketers will increasingly have to understand regulation to operate
in the market.
Our CMO75 study found that CMOs welcomed greater regulation with
33% indicating they believe the current regulation of the marketing
sector is inadequate in protecting consumers from potential harms.
Key UK legislation:
• Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
• Consumer Duty (CMA)
• The Food (Promotion and Placement) Regulations
Key European legislation:
• The AI Act
• Impact of Digital Markets Act

10. The global marketing challenges

11. MarTech, AI and data
Technology continues to move at pace and the skills gap increases.
The latest Digital Benchmark Report in association with CIM revealed:
• Digital skills have seen positive growth over the last two years
• Social media, Email, SEO, Lead Generation & Ecommerce have all seen reasonable
improvements in skills levels over the last two years
• Although we have seen improvements in Analytics & Data from 29% in 2021 through
to 31% in 2023, this is still much lower than the previously recorded peak of 35%
• Digital skills are more aligned with seniority, but there is still a problem in senior roles
• Confidence levels outstrip ability across the majority of digital marketing disciplines

12. Purpose and responsible marketing
• Marketing has been a big part of the problem
• Marketing now has a significant role to play and become ‘a force for for good’,
helping to:
• Shape new behaviours (social marketing/cause marketing)
• Create new ways of working/thinking and ideating new products(championing
the circular economy)
• Use our voice to reach, to educate and to inspire hope (behavioural change)
• Get back to the heart of what marketing is – rethinking our approach with a
more responsible lens
• Deliver what the customer, employees and society want
• Shift the conversation around growth
Business is seen as the catalyst in driving change and navigating the
high-profile societal issues we face.

13. The role of professional bodies in the way
we live, learn and work
• Three forces have been reshaping the way we live, learn and work –
globalisation, virtualisation and digitisation.
• All three are affecting the education landscape, reducing the gap between
developing and developed nations with professional bodies playing a key
role.
• The global workforce is changing as are the skills and qualifications required
by students and educational institutions.
• Would a global framework for marketing qualifications empower marketers
the world over?
• If this could potentially lead to global learning league tables and other forms
of measurement, could this drive global standards?
• With better insight could learning institutions plan more effectively for the
future enabling them to better evolve their technology platforms and have
better conversations with students at a local and international level?

14. Marketing’s role in economic recovery
Our global research indicates that the marketing industry needs to be ready to:
• Position marketing to lead the economic recovery.
• Drive a more sustainable future demonstrating the value marketing can deliver
across people, planet and society.
• Ensure marketing teams adapt to changes in technology, data and market trends.
• Motivate, retain and effectively manage people, while developing the right skills to
build more effective teams. Work towards having greater representation from
diverse communities within teams.
• Clearly demonstrate the value of marketing investment vs. expenditure.
Views from the front line:
• "As business transforms to become more digital, it is critical that marketing skills
keep up with the changing requirements to ensure we fully benefit from new uses
of data and technologies such as artificial intelligence" – Simon Edward, IBM

15. • Speaking to 75 of the world’s top CMOs found that building teams is becoming harder
with the skills gap impacting productivity:
• State of our sector: 73% of CMOs of marketing departments and agencies
are concerned about skills shortages.
• Multiple-issues: As well as dealing with skills shortages, 72% are concerned about
recruitment, and 61% about staff retention.
In-house vs agency:
• In-house marketers are more concerned about the skills shortages (78%) compared to
agencies (65%)
• Despite this, agencies are struggling more with recruitment (81%) than in-house
marketing teams (67%).
Prioritisation:
• In response to these changing market conditions, CMOs are focusing training in:
• Data analysis,
• Digital marketing and
• Management skills
The marketing team is changing

16. • It’s not just CIM who are seeing the marketing skills gap to a major issue
global recruitment organisations like Hays Recruitment have reported:
• Skills gap: 77% of employers don’t have access to the right skills
• 93% of employers experienced skill shortages in the last 12 months, up from
80% last year.
• 52% of employees feel morale is being impacted by skills shortages
• Building teams: 73% are currently recruiting, but many are struggling to find
suitable people.
• Working practices: 78% of marketers believe it positively impacts the success
of an organisation.
• D&I: Organisations are now drawing from a wide talent pool
Recruitment

17. Thank you