10 Key Hurdles That CMOs Must Overcome In 2025 And Beyond via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Right now, CMOs are navigating a fast-moving environment, marked by economic pressures, new technologies, and shifting consumer expectations.

The pressure to demonstrate impact while adapting to new platforms, regulations, and expectations has never been greater.

For marketing leaders, this means constantly adjusting strategies to stay competitive and relevant.

To prepare for the marketing equivalent of the Olympic high hurdles, the article below outlines the 10 key hurdles that CMOs must overcome in 2025 and beyond.

1. Demonstrating Return On Marketing Investment (ROMI) Amidst Economic Uncertainty

Economic volatility and tighter marketing budgets are forcing CMOs to do more with less.

Although most are asked to show the return on investment of marketing expenditures, the right metric to use is return on marketing investment (ROMI).

While both are measures of profitability, ROI measures money that is “tied up” in plants and inventories (which are capital expenditures or CAPEX), while ROMI measures money spent on marketing in the current quarter (which are operational expenditures or OPEX).

The formula for calculating ROMI is:

(Incremental Revenue from Marketing × Contribution Margin – Marketing Spend) / Marketing Spend = ROMI

For example, Amazon reportedly paid MrBeast $100 million to produce the first season of his reality show “Beast Games.”

MrBeast says he’s lost “tens of millions” producing the show. But how does Amazon’s CMO, Julia White, calculate the ROMI for “Beast Games,” which launched in November 2024?

Let’s say the estimated lifetime value of an Amazon Prime member is around $2,000, and a scientific wild-ass guess (SWAG) for the paid membership program’s contribution margin is about 12.5%.

So, “Beast Games” needs to generate roughly $2 billion in incremental revenue for Amazon Prime to get a ROMI of 1.5.

Here’s how to calculate that:

[$2 billion × 12.5% – $100 million] / $100 million = 1.5

That means “Beast Games” needs to generate a million new Amazon Prime members for the paid membership program to get $1.50 in profit for every $1.00 it spends on MrBeast.

2. Adapting To Google’s AI Overviews And Other SERP Features

CMOs should read Kevin Indig’s article, “The First-Ever UX Study Of Google’s AI Overviews: The Data We’ve All Been Waiting For,” which paints the most significant new picture of how people use Google that I’ve seen since Gord Hotchkiss, the former CEO of Enquiro, produced his first search engine user eye tracking study back in 2007.

Indig’s groundbreaking usability study, which was conducted with Eric van Buskirk and his team, analyzed how 70 users interact with Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs), involving nearly 400 AIO encounters. The findings reveal that AIOs significantly reduce outbound clicks: desktop click-through rates (CTR) can fall by two-thirds, and mobile CTR by almost half.

Most users (70%) only read the top third of an AIO, with a median scroll depth of 30%. Trust in AIOs correlates with scroll depth. Younger mobile users (25-34) are more likely to accept AIOs as final answers (50% of queries).

Brand authority is now the primary decision filter, followed by relevance.

When users do click out after viewing an AIO, about a third of that traffic goes to community forums like Reddit and videos on YouTube.

The study concludes that search is shifting from a “click economy” to a “visibility economy,” where being cited high in an AIO is crucial, as users treat AIOs like quickly scanned fact sheets.

CMOs should also watch the IMHO interview with Indig that Search Engine Journal’s Shelley Walsh recorded about his research.

3. Meeting Evolving Customer Expectations Across Their Omnichannel Journeys

CMOs also face the challenge of addressing changing customer interests throughout their multichannel journeys.

To overcome this high hurdle, a recent SparkToro article said that true audience research needs to go beyond basic demographics or keywords.

This requires delving into what genuinely interests consumers, the specific language they use, their motivations, and potential barriers to action.

Understanding where they spend their time online and which information sources they trust is also crucial.

For example, Jeff Baker and his partners created Beach Commute, a startup aimed at the “location-independent” community.

Their primary challenge was identifying the correct terminology and phrases used by professionals seeking a location-independent lifestyle, since their target audience is still developing and lacks standardized language.

This made it difficult to connect with potential users through traditional keyword research, since search terms were varied and intent was often unclear.

For example, “work and travel” often led to individuals seeking work-exchange programs rather than career-focused remote work.

Beach Commute used SparkToro to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior and search intent.

By comparing potential homepage keyword targets like “become a digital nomad” and “make money while traveling,” SparkToro revealed distinct audience motivations.

The “digital nomad” audience was more interested in aspirational travel and advice, aligning better with Beach Commute’s offerings.

In contrast, the “money and travel” group focused on entrepreneurial “hacks.” This data allowed Beach Commute to refine its keyword strategy and effectively target the right audience.

4. Balancing Artificial Intelligence (AI) And Human Creativity

CMOs are also tasked with strategically integrating AI to enhance marketing effectiveness, drive efficiency, and enable hyper-personalization. But how do their teams balance AI capabilities with human creativity?

For over a quarter-century, the PODS container has served as a mobile advertisement across American streets, acting as a constant reminder of the brand.

In a recent initiative, Tombras, the creative agency for PODS, collaborated with Google Gemini to transform one of its containers into the “World’s Smartest Billboard.”

This innovative billboard was designed to be aware of its surroundings, capable of identifying its precise location, the current time, prevailing traffic conditions, weather patterns, and even subway delays.

Leveraging this data, the smart billboard could generate and display highly specific and relevant messages for each neighborhood it was in, all in real-time.

As part of an ambitious demonstration, the team undertook the challenge of taking this intelligent billboard to every single neighborhood in New York City within a tight 29-hour timeframe.

This feat, considered humanly impossible, was achieved through the combined efforts of human creativity and AI.

The creative team worked closely with Google Gemini to ensure the AI could replicate the company’s distinct tone and content style on a massive scale.

This collaboration resulted in the creation and instant display of over 6,000 hyper-local, real-time ads on the PODS container.

The project highlights the remarkable outcomes that can be achieved when creative professionals, advanced multimodal AI, and a moving company join forces.

5. Aligning Marketing Strategies With Overall Business Objectives

CMOs are increasingly expected to drive business growth, necessitating a close alignment of marketing strategies with overall company goals like revenue generation and market expansion.

It requires CMOs to demonstrate marketing’s financial contribution and, as Avinash Kaushik advises, refine their use of dashboards and scorecards.

In an Occam’s Razor article, Kaushik highlights that CMOs often track non-essential metrics, leading to data overload.

To counter this, he proposes categorizing data into key performance indicators (KPIs), diagnostic metrics, and influencing variables. This framework helps focus senior leadership on critical business impacts, particularly profits, while allowing teams to manage tactical optimizations separately.

This strategic approach to data aims to clarify what truly matters for achieving business objectives, distinguishing between strategic measures and in-flight tactical adjustments.

Despite its apparent simplicity, Kaushik notes that many marketing teams struggle with this differentiation, prompting him to outline distinct characteristics for each category across eleven factors.

For example, Hilton and Dentsu Americas collaborated on the “For The Stay” campaign, using video as a central element of their marketing efforts.

A key question they sought to answer, according to Hilton’s Rebecca Panico, was how to effectively tailor creative content to specific audiences.

By doing so, they achieved substantial growth in brand awareness, customer consideration, purchase intent, and booking conversions, demonstrating the effectiveness of their strategy in a changing travel market.

6. Effective Content Creation, Scaling, And Differentiation

In an increasingly crowded digital space, producing high-quality, engaging, and differentiated content consistently is a major hurdle, especially with limited resources.

With the rise of AI-generated content, the emphasis on authentic, human-crafted storytelling and unique brand messaging becomes even more critical to stand out.

To surmount this hurdle, CMOs should start by reading AI & Creators: The future of Tech and Creativity, which provides an in-depth exploration of the current and future effects of generative AI on creator businesses.

To support this, YouTube conducted its largest global survey to date, examining how creators around the world are integrating Gen AI into their work.

Then, CMOs should read  Your Brandcast 2025 recap: Culture, creators, and commerce.

At the event, YouTube celebrated its 20th anniversary, highlighting its evolution as a dominant media platform and “the new TV.”

Brandcast 2025 also emphasized the growing impact of creators on culture and commerce, noting that 81% of U.S. viewers use creator content for product discovery, and YouTube ads deliver a 4.5X higher return on ad spend than other streaming TV.

YouTube also unveiled new advertising innovations for Connected TV (CTV). These include Cultural Moments Sponsorships for major events, and “Peak Points” powered by Google AI to place ads during peak audience engagement.

Additionally, new immersive Masthead ads and Shoppable CTV features aim to drive awareness and action directly from the living room, connecting creators, fans, and brands across all viewing experiences.

7. Building And Maintaining Brand Trust And Authenticity

In today’s climate of consumer skepticism and the prevalence of cancel culture, maintaining brand trust and authenticity has become increasingly difficult.

CMOs must ensure that brand messaging remains consistent, transparent, and aligned with a company’s core values and behaviors.

For example, Kantar’s May 2025 Monthly Trends Report says transparency, particularly around data usage, can offer a competitive edge in a world marked by extreme disruption and uncertainty.

This volatile environment is not entirely new. For years, critiques of globalized commerce and culture have been gaining momentum from both ends of the political spectrum: the left condemns cultural imperialism, while right-wing populism has grown since the Great Recession.

These long-standing tensions have intensified recently, with inflation, COVID-19, climate change, and war disrupting the marketplace. Tariff threats have added further strain, placing American brands under heightened scrutiny.

Historically, brands functioned within a relatively stable ecosystem of supply chains, digital media, and retail consolidation, largely removed from political turmoil.

Today, however, they find themselves entangled in it, struggling to preserve brand equity and market share.

Kantar research highlights a rise in anti-American sentiment due to tariffs, yet paradoxically shows American brands are stronger and more valuable than ever.

Despite this resilience, future stability is uncertain. The challenge for brands is not merely survival but sustained growth, which is becoming increasingly rare.

To thrive, CMOs must resist the temptation to retreat under pressure and instead focus on consistently adding consumer value – offering more reasons to engage, not fewer.

8. Navigating Data Privacy And Governance In A Post-Cookie World

With the decline of third-party cookies and the strengthening of data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, CMOs face the critical challenge of ethically managing customer data.

This involves prioritizing the collection of first-party and zero-party data, ensuring transparency in data usage, and investing in secure platforms to build and maintain customer trust.

How do CMOs overcome this high hurdle while outrunning their competitors? They should start by reading  Google Analytics Adds New Features For Privacy-Era Tracking.

Google has updated Google Analytics to improve data accuracy and help marketers identify issues faster, adapting to evolving privacy rules.

Key enhancements include “Aggregate Identifiers” to prevent misattribution of paid traffic when Google Click Identifiers (GCLID) are unavailable, and “Smart Fallback Methods” using UTM tags as a backup.

CMOs should then read, “Where Are The Missing Data Holes In GA4 That Brands Need?”

This article highlights that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data, while useful, often misses crucial information about initial user acquisition, like how users first discover a brand.

SEO professionals should use audience research and surveys to understand these “missing bullet holes” and verify their GA4 interpretations.

9. Attracting, Retaining, And Upskilling Marketing Talent

The shift to hybrid work environments and the rapid evolution of marketing technologies necessitate innovative approaches to talent management.

CMOs face the challenge of attracting, retaining, and developing top marketing talent with the right skills, particularly in areas like AI, data analytics, and digital transformation.

Fostering a formidable team culture and providing continuous learning opportunities are the keys to avoiding tripping over this hurdle.

But CMOs should also read “I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking.”

According to Aneesh Raman, the chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, AI increasingly threatens entry-level jobs, traditionally crucial for young workers to gain experience.

This mirrors past manufacturing declines, now impacting office roles in tech, law, and customer service, where AI automates basic tasks.

Data shows rising unemployment for recent graduates, with Gen Z being particularly pessimistic about their futures.

While AI will also create new jobs, and executives still value fresh perspectives, the loss of entry-level positions can significantly hinder early career development and exacerbate inequality.

To address this, the essay proposes reimagining entry-level work. This includes training workers in AI-relevant skills and redesigning jobs to offer higher-level tasks, leveraging AI as a tool for growth and adaptability rather than mere automation.

10. Fostering Cross-Functional Collaboration

Finally, marketing can no longer operate in a silo. Effective CMOs must champion cross-functional collaboration to ensure cohesive strategies and a unified customer experience.

This may be the hardest obstacle to overcome because it requires CMOs to unlearn what they have learned about the marketing department organization.

The most common organizational structure for marketing departments is called “functional” – because it puts distinct functions into different departments. But this creates dysfunctional silos with limited flexibility to adapt quickly or effectively to changes in market demand.

What’s the alternative? CMOs can organize their marketing teams by market segments, target audiences, or groups of people with specific interests, intents, and demographics.

This customer-centric organizational structure ensures that all their marketing teams are focused on putting customer needs and interests first in every interaction with the brand.

It also improves the likelihood that each team will understand their customers’ needs, concerns, and desires, and tailor marketing efforts to deliver value and exceptional experiences.

Now, I realize that most marketers mistakenly believe “reorgs” are bad, but reorganizations are infinitely less terrible than “layoffs.”

I also realize that most agencies dread “reorgs” because these often trigger “agency reviews.” But agencies should focus on delivering value, rather than simply providing services, to stand out and achieve long-term success.

This means moving beyond traditional service models and offering solutions that directly address client business needs and lead to measurable results.

Summary

To successfully navigate these 10 key hurdles, CMOs must become master jugglers, balancing technology with creativity, short-term performance with long-term brand building, and data-driven insights with authentic customer connections.

By addressing these critical hurdles, from adapting to AI-powered search to building consumer trust in a privacy-first world, marketing leaders can future-proof their organizations and drive meaningful growth.

Marketing is more complex than ever, but there is plenty of opportunity if you can move quickly, think strategically, and lead cross-functional teams with clarity and purpose.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Elnur/Shutterstock

B2B Brand: Why It Matters More Than You Think

This excerpt is from B2B Marketing Fundamentals by Kate Mackie ^©️2025 and is reproduced and adapted with permission from Kogan Page Ltd.

Building a consistent brand is increasingly important in B2B.

With so few buyers in the market at any one time, plus a growing number of people in the buying group, you need to build memorable brand signals that can be a shortcut in your buyer’s memory to what it is that makes you distinct.

This individual brand story will then be associated in their minds with your branded assets, freeing up space in communications for you to share deeper messages, e.g., specific product and service details.

It all starts with defining your brand story. What is it that makes you distinct?

This then needs to carry through all marketing communications, bringing your brand to life.

Purpose

The purpose of a company is its reason for being: What it is that it does every day and what it aims to do across all stakeholder groups it serves.

It should be a statement that resonates with all employees and is the focus of how you deliver your products and services. It is a key part of the culture of the business and needs to be reflected in your brand, marketing, and communications.

It is also at the core of how you drive relevancy to the communities you operate within.

A business or brand purpose that resonates with your employees can be built into their own personal purpose. This alignment gives an even greater sense of belonging to those that work for the business.

There is a traditional Japanese concept, thought to have been first coined in the 7th century, called Ikigai, that is a framework used to enable individuals to find and build a sense of purpose.

It can also be translated to businesses, firms, and organizations, helping you fathom your north star.

Working this through will enable you to think about what it is that drives you and your audiences, aligns to your profession, and makes you money.

The overlap between passion, mission, profession, and vocation is where you need to focus as you develop your own unique purpose that gets to the heart of your own unique value proposition.

Brand Positioning

The positioning of your brand in the minds of your audience should reflect how your brand sits alongside your competitors, how and what it delivers for your customer alongside how it operates as a company.

It should be built on what your customers know about you, your products and services, and what they feel when they use or consume them.

An understanding of your position against your competitors is key. Looking at the variables relevant to your company, you can plot your position against your competitors by using an established 2×2 block model.

Plotting out variables that are relevant to your business will help you understand the competition and how they position themselves.

Variables might include price plotted against quality as a starting point – this will help you see the perception of you against your competitors as either low or high quality against low or high price.

You will be able to see if there are any gaps in the market you might be able to own – either through an extension of your product or service portfolio – or the development of new offerings for the market.

You need to ensure that your positioning is true to what you actually deliver as a company. Overclaiming or overpromising will only end up with a mismatched customer experience, which can undermine any trust you might have built.

Brand Promise

The brand promise is key to developing the value proposition. It is the promise to the buyer or customer that is realized when they purchase your products or services.

It is your distinctive differentiator that details your brand position in terms that are relevant to the market, specifically your target audience, and is a key step in developing your messaging and narrative.

Brand Versus Marketing Campaign Messaging

The messaging you create should be aligned to all elements of your brand and able to be used across brand marketing, but it should also be able to be applied to products or services and used as part of campaign assets. These written assets should include credible reasons to believe your claims and your position.

“Reasons to believe” can be a combination of case studies, use cases, data-led intelligence, and other proof points that add credence to the position you are taking in the market.

These insights should be built into your campaigns to back up the execution of the value proposition and should be fundamental to the content used to drive further consideration and purchase of your products and services.

Your brand, product, and campaign messaging should nest like Russian dolls and all align with each other, building throughout to a clear understanding of what each element means to the audience.

The brand messaging should be built for the long term and have durability, whereas your products and services will change more quickly with client and customer feedback.

The messaging and assets for your products and services should therefore be reviewed annually, adding in any new features, benefits, or additional proof points.

Campaign messaging is driven by the current macro context and will likely be themed around short-term delivery targets, so should be reviewed more regularly.

This gives you a useful review time frame that should be built into your impact studies with an ongoing understanding of performance against the targets set for the brand, product, or individual campaign metrics.

Bringing Your Messaging To Life

Communication across your full portfolio needs to be built around the brand promise, which hits at the heart of your business and is aligned to your purpose.

This will give you the best springboard for delivering authentic, creative executions that resonate with your audiences.

As marketers, we need to tell the story, weaving the proof points and case studies into a narrative that drives a desire to buy the products and services, even if the buyers are not in the market now.

This ensures that you continue to build and drive a connected memory for when the buyers are ready to buy and at the category entry point.

Storytelling is recognized as an important facet of the creative skillset – using stories and allegories to engage audiences, build connection, inspire different types of memory, and build links from how you feel to an association with your brand.

Storytelling

Stories resonate so well that a huge proportion of advertising – in both B2C and B2B – follows the pathway of the “three act structure“.

This is a structure used by playwrights and is often attributed to Aristotle but made popular by Syd Field in his 1979 book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting.¹

Think through any adverts you can remember, as it is an often-used concept from B2C, e.g., chewing gum …to much more complex B2B sales.

There are more similarities between B2C and B2B than we acknowledge. Storytelling crosses over and is common to the needs of all audiences.

Brands are as powerful, if not more so, in B2B as your audience is making what often feels like a bigger decision.

If you buy the wrong B2C product, you aren’t putting your livelihood on the line when you make your buying decision.

That is why a strong B2B brand will win every time, as it takes an incredibly confident buyer to look outside the most well-known providers, whose reputations have been built on years of delivery and execution in their specialist fields.

To read the full book, SEJ readers have an exclusive 25% discount code and free shipping to the U.S. and UK. Use promo code SEJ25 at koganpage.com here.

¹ Field, S (1979, Revised Edition 2005) Screenplay: The foundations of screen-writing, Random House Publishing Group, US

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Featured Image: PureSolution/Shutterstock