Following a whirlwind of industry events, including Cannes Lions, POSSIBLE, and Path to Purchase, one theme has become clear. Marketing is not simply evolving. It’s being pulled in multiple directions, simultaneously unraveling and rebuilding
There is no shortage of conversation. Incrementality is in vogue. Artificial intelligence dominates every session. The CMO role is becoming obsolete. Agencies are announcing layoffs and pivoting narratives. Meanwhile, brands are under pressure to justify budgets, prove impact, and find clarity in the noise.
This is not a lament for the marketing industry. It is a reckoning. And perhaps, a recalibration. It is also an invitation to refocus, not around tools or trends, but around the core decisions that shape business results.
The power once held by the CMO is diminishing. That is not speculation; it is happening in plain sight. Recent reporting by Adweek confirms that more organizations are replacing the CMO title with roles such as chief growth officer or chief customer officer. This is not simply a change in nomenclature. It reflects a shift in expectations.
CMOs are being asked to connect marketing investments directly to the P&L. They are expected to align with CFOs and CEOs, to influence customer-centric growth, and to prove value beyond impressions or brand lifts. According to McKinsey, this moment represents a potential comeback, but only for marketing leaders who embrace accountability and integrate deeply with cross-functional leadership.
The decline of traditional CMO influence is not necessarily a crisis. It is an invitation to evolve. Marketing leaders who are willing to speak the language of business and act as decision architects have the chance to reclaim relevance in a more strategic and impactful way.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It’s optimizing campaigns, generating content, and forecasting outcomes. Yet it is also being used as a scapegoat. I wrote a piece for Advertising Week that exposed how many companies are citing AI as the reason for layoffs, when in reality, they are reacting to deeper inefficiencies.
The truth is that AI, in its current state, cannot replace entire teams or be the justification for laying off 10% of your org. It can enhance efficiency and accelerate decision-making, but it does not create strategy on its own. The organizations that deploy AI successfully will be the ones that have already done the hard work of defining goals, building a causal framework, and ensuring data integrity. Those who rush to adopt AI without those foundations will not see the returns they expect. In fact, those organizations will be chasing a strategy fueled by a shiny new object and will never truly change their foundation.
AI is not a silver bullet. It is a tool. And like any tool, its value depends entirely on how it is used.
Retail media is not surging due to overwhelming performance data. It’s growing because brands have no choice. When Walmart, Amazon, or Kroger control access to the digital shelf, brands follow the money.
This dynamic creates an illusion of success, just like Meta and Google did to the industry with their fancy dashboards and promises of gold at the end of the rainbow. In reality, many marketers are investing out of obligation, not conviction. The opportunity here is to stop treating retail media as a check-the-box tactic and start treating it as a strategic channel. Marketers should demand better data, push for clearer attribution, and challenge assumptions about ROI. A recent study by my organization shows that retail media has a solid ROI, but the execution of this channel is not always profitable. Despite this, it is invested in akin to being the new Google. I am not saying the channel can’t work, I am saying shifting your old Google playbook to Amazon is burning your P&L. I can see the eye rolls while you read this, but math doesn’t lie.
Retail media can be valuable, but only when brands stop approaching it from a place of compliance and start treating it as part of a larger investment strategy.
Agency holding companies are in the midst of structural stress. Between January and June of 2025, their performance has reflected this reality.
WPP has seen a sharp drop in its stock price, compounded by a wave of layoffs affecting over 6,000 employees. GroupM, its media investment arm, is undergoing a major restructuring. Publicis Groupe, by contrast, has posted strong revenues of nearly €14bn in H1, allowing it to edge ahead of WPP. Meanwhile, Omnicom and IPG have announced a historic merger that would create the world’s largest advertising group, with over $25bn in combined revenue and plans to cut costs by $750m annually.
These moves are not evidence of innovation. They are defensive plays. Stock pressure and shrinking margins are forcing agencies to tell louder stories while cutting deeper internally. There is a growing gap between what these firms promise and what they can deliver. Becoming ‘tech-enabled’ requires more than rebranding. It requires structural reinvention.
The truth is that real innovation is coming from smaller, independent players and martech providers. They are faster, more focused, and more aligned with the realities of today’s marketing challenges. They are not trying to preserve the old model. They are building the new one, and I think Wall Street can see through the BS of the legacy noise.
One of the most dangerous patterns from the first half of this year is the tendency of organizations to buy tools without defining strategy. Point solutions are being stacked with the hope that they will somehow lead to clarity. But they rarely do.
This lack of intention leads to confusion. Brands report three different ROI figures from three tools in the same quarter. Planning, measurement, and forecasting functions exist in isolation. Teams are overwhelmed, and decision-making slows down.
The problem is not the availability of tools. The problem is the absence of a unified strategy that defines the outcomes, the decisions required to achieve them, and the systems that support those decisions. Until that changes, no tool, regardless of how advanced, can solve the problem. The flavor of H1 is incrementality tools, a year ago it was MTA, and publisher self-reporting tools that still claim your ROAS is delivering you to the promised land. Build a strategy for your tech stack that unifies the measurement, the plans, and the decision-making. There is so little strategy in the industry right now that people are chasing answers rather than goals that actually move the needle.
Skepticism about the interoperable platform model is understandable. It seems large, ambitious, and difficult to implement. But that skepticism often comes from a reluctance to confront the complexity of the business itself.
Fragmentation creates confusion. When data is siloed and tools do not connect, decisions lack coherence. An interoperable platform does not require abandoning point solutions. It requires aligning them. It requires building an ecosystem where measurement, planning, and forecasting work together, so that teams can speak with one voice, grounded in business outcomes.
The resistance to this model is not about feasibility. It’s about willingness. It demands that organizations make strategic decisions, not just tactical purchases. But for those ready to lead, it offers real clarity and a foundation to scale more intelligently.
The biggest excuse we hear about the lack of adoption for this type of strategy is a lack of resources. The insanity in this excuse is that you keep doing what you have always done, which is live in chaos, live in fear, and continue to spiral with each new economic announcement. The cost of not investing in interoperability will burn cash and shareholder value.
The marketing industry isn’t broken. But it is disoriented. Leaders are responding to economic pressure, consumer volatility, and platform dominance, all at once. It is no surprise that things feel chaotic.
But chaos is not a reason to retreat. It’s a reason to get sharper. To double down on strategic intent. To build systems that support better decisions. To demand more from the tools we use and the partners we trust. And to reconnect marketing with its fundamental role: driving growth through clarity and accountability.
This moment is not about waiting for the dust to settle. It’s about setting a new standard. One in which marketing is measured not by outputs, but by outcomes. Not by activity, but by impact.
The opportunity is real. The only question is who will seize it.