Program Details

CMO: The Force Multiplier

Driving financial value through better technology strategy, investment, selection, integration, management and innovation.

Sponsors and Partners:

Sponsors and Partners:

Overview

Today’s increasingly complex, distributed and digitally-driven marketing ecosystem is challenging global marketers to better integrate and manage data, best of breed solutions, creative resources, brand assets and go-to-market functions. Marketing process improvement, efficiency and yield is directly tied to more effective use of budget, automation, processes, front-office partnerships, data, analytics and intelligence that improve content creation, relevancy, delivery, access, control, workflow, agency/partner collaboration, market engagement, sales lead provisioning, as well as campaign measurement and tracking. All of this requires tighter coupling and collaboration between the CMO and his/her peers - CIO, CPO (Procurement), CISO (security), CRO (Sales) and CFO.

To understand the challenges and best practices, the CMO Council will team with KPMG to lead a series of executive interviews and primary research studies around the evolving need of the CMO to more tightly align across the C-Suite and drive towards today’s increasingly complex marketing mandate.

Learn more about all of our research initiatives below.

background

Marketing and Security Collaboration
Navigating Recent Developments through the CMO-CISO Partnership: Strengthening Customer and Employee Experiences in a Dynamic Landscape
 
The extraordinary 60% increase in digital ad revenue observed by the Dutch public broadcaster, Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, after removing tracking cookies from their website, showcases the potential of a cohesive CMO-CISO collaboration. Establishing brand credibility through these partnerships can not only enrich the customer experience but also foster customer loyalty, derive meaningful insights into customer behavior, and elevate employee experiences through the cultivation of a proactively compliant culture.
 
Amid an ever-evolving digital landscape marked by recent developments, such as the impending phasing out of third-party cookies, ever-growing privacy and security concerns, and the GDPR, CISOs can effectively guide CMOs. By working together, they solidify a secure foundation for customer data, facilitate stronger and more reliable customer engagements, and create an optimal environment for both customers and employees.
 
The latest CMO Council research, conducted in partnership with KPMG, delves into redefining the CMO-CISO relationship in the context of these topical developments. The study emphasizes the pivotal role of customer confidence in enhancing customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) and explores:
  1. Opportunities for CMOs and CISOs to forge collaborative efforts in building customer confidence, navigating recent digital marketing changes, and strengthening customer experiences.
  2. Key alignment initiatives and relationship competencies that promote a compliant and customer-centric internal culture amid the evolving landscape.
  3. Strategies to align mutual objectives and yield outstanding outcomes, keeping up with the recent developments in the digital realm for customers and employees alike.
Our analysis will specifically focus on:
  • The impact of a credible brand on customer experience in the context of the phasing out of third-party cookies and other recent changes, subsequently affecting a company's immediate financial health, customer lifetime value, and employee productivity/confidence.
  • Identifying areas with potential for improved alignment, collaboration, and performance enhancement in critical capabilities while staying up-to-date with recent developments in the privacy and security realm. 
  • Formulating solutions to overcome challenges in establishing a flourishing CMO-CISO collaboration that can effectively address and adapt to the dynamic digital landscape, fostering the best experience for both the customer and the employee.
This enlightening initiative is designed to highlight methods organizations can adopt to enhance the CMO-CISO working relationship amidst current developments and seize novel data marketing opportunities. By fostering customer confidence in an ever-changing context, companies can drive significant improvements in customer and employee experiences, ultimately augmenting the overall value of the brand.

 

Research: Survey & Reports

Events and Webinars On Demand

Webinars On Demand

Making MarTech Pay Off

Infographics

Learn

Curated Facts & Stats

Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey suggests marketing leaders are facing pressure to deliver AI-enabled growth, despite a lack of budget increase.

Source: Business Chief

From connecting the C-suite to picking up shifts in culture, the marketer is now absolutely essential for continued relevance, innovation, dynamism and growth.

Source: Campaign

The top challenges CMOs face in 2026 are keeping pace with rapid tech change and AI (55%) and anticipating changing customer behaviors (46%).

Source: Forbes

Marketing leaders need to focus their resources on the right priorities, simplify workflows, and leverage data for actionable intelligence.

Source: Netsuite

Call it “snail mail” if you want, but direct mail is one of the highest performing marketing tools in the toolbox. And there’s new data to prove it.

Source: Chief Marketer

Explore how AI can be used by marketers to achieve different goals — like improving productivity, accurately predicting customer behaviors, driving revenue and retention, and much more.

Source: Insider One

AI presents marketers with a variety of opportunities to personalize customer experiences and to build their technological skills.

Source: Harvard

Discover how leading brands can use AI to connect marketing spend to revenue, improve accountability, and drive measurable growth.

Source: Zeta Global

Our Kantar experts have identified ten trends - some emerging and others more established - and mapped out a point of view for the year ahead, including topics like purchasing agents, synthetic data, AI-native decision making, brand building in the age of algorithms and the rise of micro-communities.

Source: Kantar

Marketing isn’t facing another cycle of change—we’re in the middle of a structural reset in how value gets created. The evidence is everywhere. AI is transforming how people discover, evaluate, and choose brands. Business leaders are asking marketing teams to deliver real, measurable value from AI.

Source: Iterable
GO TO INSIGHT CENTER TO LEARN MORE