Why Marketers Need Creative Partners More Than Ever

Did you know that most chief marketing officers (CMOs) believe modern brands should be built in collaboration with other brands, platforms and creators? 

Our latest Dentsu Creative CMO Report – a global survey of 950 CMOs – highlights a growing belief in creative innovation as a means to drive brand and business growth. As usual, it tells some interesting tales about the mood of today's marketers. 

It’s refreshing to see that the majority (83 per cent) of CMOs continue to believe that business transformation can be delivered through the use of powerful creative ideas and that 81 per cent see creativity as being more vital within their businesses than ever. That is particularly true among marketers in the food and beverage, personal and household care and pharmaceutical sectors. 

Most CMOs (61 per cent) also say that the power of emotion within their communications is the key lever to drive change, notably crediting Generative Artificial Intelligence with the ability to create content eliciting an emotional response. Last year, 67 per cent of CMOs doubted Gen AI could achieve this, now dropping to under half (49 per cent) though the pace of change and application of AI remains a continued challenge.

Unsurprisingly, marketing leaders are looking for support in accessing new routes to brand and business growth, with technology often representing the enabler. So much so that the majority (77 per cent) said they are looking to training AI to analyse and understand their values, look and feel to generate content that is consistent and safe. 

The challenge of connecting with culture is recognised by 74 per cent of marketers as they struggle to relay their brand stories through entertainment or experience. This, of course, becomes increasingly important at a time when traditional broadcast media is in decline, with 77 per cent of CMOs calling out its declining relevance and GDPR regulation continues to place limits on personalised marketing.

This is partially due to the rise of the Creator Economy as brands find new ways to forge meaningful connections, though they must relinquish control to their creators to protect credibility and authenticity of the content.

And with 88 per cent of marketers saying that it is of growing importance to them that their brands remain culturally relevant, creators are seen as a powerful way to build connection. Knowing this, it was perhaps surprising that nearly three-quarters of CMOS (74 per cent) also admitted to not knowing how to maintain meaningful connections with culture.

At Dentsu, we recognise brands are built in the hands of audiences, communities and fandoms. Only by investing in trusted voices on your audiences’ terms can you build a sustainable followership as we have seen with Oreo’s where our organic work has been outperforming our competitors’ paid efforts and Kellanova where we have brought nano influencers like Sophie Radcliffe to fame through in-person brand experiences.

This is also evidenced by the range of methods marketers said they had invested in, led by branded content (44 per cent), followed by influencer partnerships (37 per cent) and user generated content campaigns (33 per cent) as the top three methods of 11 that were outlined in the report. 

The increasingly fractional media ecosystem has led to confusion and a lot of marketing investment is being spent on testing new ways of reaching audiences. Curiously, podcasting has now caught up with publishing and long-form content (27 per cent) as areas of investment, despite still feeling like a new channel. 

At Dentsu Creative, our commitment is to building brands for what’s next. What’s next for culture, for attention and for brand trust, all of which rely on the ability to build brands through influence, experience and partnership over broadcast advertising alone?

This year’s CMO study is a reminder that agency partners remain vital to the success of brand marketing and growth and that collaboration has to start with creativity in its purest form, with ideas born from culture, commerce and community, ideas that can and must now live everywhere.

The Dentsu Creative 2024 CMO Report can be downloaded here.

Jessica Tamsedge is the UK CEO of Dentsu Creative