A welcome from
Marta Cyhan-Bowles
We’ve recently had an incredible opportunity to speak directly with chief marketing officers (CMOs) across industries about the challenges shaping their world. What struck me most is how universal these challenges are—whether it’s navigating fragmented data, proving return on investment (ROI) under tighter budgets, or integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in ways that deliver real business value.
Despite the complexities, one theme stood out: resilience. CMOs are drawing on creativity and business acumen to solve problems that have no easy answers. They’re balancing short-term performance with long-term brand building, finding clarity in a sea of data, and leading their organizations through disruption with confidence and purpose.
This year’s CMO Outlook: Guide to 2026 reflects those conversations and the survey feedback from other senior marketing leaders across the globe. It offers insights into the contradictions they’re grappling with and provides actionable strategies to turn these challenges into opportunities.
As you read, I hope you find inspiration and practical guidance to help you lead with confidence in the year ahead.
Chief Communications Officer & Head of Global Marketing COE, NIQ
Marta Cyhan-Bowles is Chief Communications Officer & Head of Global Marketing COE at NIQ. A proven marketing and communications leader, Marta specializes in guiding teams toward long-term customer success through data-driven rigor and a personal bias for innovative campaigns that captivate, engage, and ultimately drive measurable growth. As head of the Global Marketing COE, she leads the charge in unifying the global team at NIQ across communication and thought leadership efforts to unlock transformational value for C-suite leaders across the retail and manufacturing sectors.
Table of Contents
- The crossroads
- When brand value meets growth pressure
- The insights imperative
- The ROI reckoning
- From buzzword to business value: AI and its marketing mandate
- Charting the course ahead
Read the full report now.
The crossroads
If the last decade has been defined by disruption, 2025 has only deepened the trend. CMOs are contending with a fresh wave of uncertainty, punctuated by shifting trade policies, geopolitical unrest, and the looming threat of an economic slowdown—driving them to recalibrate strategies in real time.
Consumers have also adapted to a “new normal” once again, with caution becoming the default. Shoppers are more selective and demanding of brands as they seek to maximize their budgets while anticipating the next disruption. This shift has placed sustained pressure on organizations to create a precise balance of value, trust, and quality. Marketing leaders find themselves at the center of this equation, tasked with delivering results in an environment in which expectations are high and resources are tight.
“Gone are the days where allocation of budget is based on judgment. It’s much more fact-based, and every single dollar is interrogated much more than it ever used to be.”
—Mark Cooper, Global SVP, Marketing Operations and Portfolio Management, Coty
Every marketing dollar is now under the microscope. With organizations seeking cost reductions and marketing budgets often in the crosshairs for cuts, CMOs are in the critical position of demonstrating their strategic value in driving awareness and growth while delivering lasting brand loyalty. They must do more than spend wisely; they must prove impact.
The pressure is palpable: 74% of CMOs say they’re under more scrutiny to prove marketing ROI. Yet at the same time, only 34% say they must work harder than other business functions to secure budget, and only 38% feel their brand is more affected by today’s economic environment than their competitors—suggesting a shared understanding that the present challenges are universal.
Further complicating the picture is an explosion of data: With more information at their fingertips than ever before—and the expanding mix of off-platform (social, programmatic) and on-platform (retail media networks, or RMNs) channels adding to the complexity—marketing leaders are tasked with integrating fragmented data sources into a singular, actionable view that delivers cross-functional value and optimizes investments toward the channels that perform best.
Are they rising to the challenge?
Data, decisions, and the drive for ROI
To answer that question, NIQ surveyed more than 250 CMOs and senior marketing decision-makers from influential companies across regions, industries, and organizational sizes—gaining insight into how they’re:
- adapting to consumer behavioral shifts
- navigating performance measurement and marketing return on investment (ROI)/return on ad spend (ROAS)
- managing increasingly complex channel ecosystems with leaner teams
- evaluating AI integration to drive more efficiencies
Drawing on insights from survey responses and qualitative interviews, we found that marketing leaders are navigating a landscape full of contradictions.
- CMOs are confident but have little margin for error. Despite headwinds, CMOs say they are optimistic about growth. But with pervasive budget reductions, their confidence is tempered by a mandate from peers and senior leaders to make every dollar count—and to prove that they delivered. This has resulted in a strong push toward digital, but omnichannel is also a must.
- CMOs have no shortage of data but lack full connectivity. The proliferation of media channels has created unprecedented opportunities to engage with consumers, but walled gardens, privacy regulations, and disconnected platforms have exacerbated data fragmentation—the primary barrier CMOs attribute to keeping them from maximizing the potential of insights and translating it to teams, colleagues, and senior leadership.
- CMOs are confronting a growing tension: Defend and grow brand position or seek the most efficient conversion. With consumers demanding more value and private label pressure increasing, it has never been more important for brands to defend their premium position. Yet there is growing pressure for CMOs to allocate their budgets to the bottom of the funnel, risking long-term brand equity.
- CMOs must prove they’re AI innovators—when the technology has been in their stacks for years. AI has long been quietly powering marketing optimization, targeting, and automation. But CMOs are now under increased pressure to demonstrate usage and impact. The next frontier isn’t AI adoption per se; it’s making strategic investments in AI that augment their current marketing tech stack, accelerate insights, and directly connect to ROI.
