What Boots’ Pete Markey Thinks Are The Priorities for CMOs This Year

I find myself in a situation that I could never have imagined when I entered the industry as a junior marketer back in 1990 something.

As chief marketing officer (CMO) of one of the UK’s best known retailers, chair of the Advertising Association’s (AA) Front Foot Network and president of ISBA I’m uniquely privileged in being able to share perspectives, concerns and hopes with leaders from all sides of the industry, many of whom are here today. My work with ISBA and the AA has also had the much needed benefit of being incredibly helpful for me in my role as CMO of Boots.

In December last year that’s exactly what I did when, with fellow members of ISBA’s Council, our Executive Committee and Advisory Council we looked ahead to 2025 and shared views on the challenges and opportunities ISBA should most urgently address. So, I thought it would be useful to share some of the most significant issues we discussed.

It will come as no surprise that cross media measurement remains a shared key priority. At Boots our support for [cross-media measurement platform] Origin as it moves from Beta trials to a live product will continue.

Retail media is also still high on the agenda of many CMO’s. The integration of retail media with traditional media is reshaping media supply chains, creating new opportunities and challenges for advertisers and media owners alike.

But this year you are going to be hearing a new term a lot more, Commerce Media. Organisations outside of the retail sector are seeing the potential of their own first-party data in helping brand growth. Expect to see sectors like travel and finance offering new ways for advertisers to reach consumers.

Responsible marketing remains another important objective.

Meeting the challenge of making all advertising accessible to all is complex but vitally important. The work of the Ad Accessibility Alliance and their new resource hub is a big step forward but there is still much more work to be done.

Alongside this, marketers need guidance on ensuring they are making responsible choices with their media buying decisions. ISBA will soon publish its first Responsible Media Framework, and I expect to see this being expanded and developed to meet marketers needs.

And as you all know by now, despite Gen AI not even being on most CMO’s radar 12 months ago, today it is impossible to ignore.

As ever, there’s a lot for marketers to think about right now, but our roles remain to meet consumers where they are with campaigns that engage, amaze and entertain while applying the expectations they have for our brands and products too.

This piece has been adapted from Pete Markey's address to this year's delegates at Lead.