Amid massive flux, small, incremental moves backed by evidence but made quickly are out-pointing tactical shifts, says Atomic 212°’s Ashleigh Carter. But client-agency relationships and service models must also quickly shift, along with KPIs.
CMOs are being tested on every front as we enter the second half of 2025. The unpredictability of today’s market is relentless. Budgets rise, then fall, only to shift again with changing targets and revised business priorities. Global volatility continues to create a backdrop of economic uncertainty, compounded by internal resourcing challenges and budget pauses.
Despite the turbulence, the mandate is clear: think bigger, move faster, and find new pathways to growth. Beneath the surface, the pace hasn’t slowed, but accelerated. Over the past six months, we’ve seen a decisive shift where clients are reassessing how they plan, operate and define success. Quick learning cycles are favoured, complexity is being stripped back and there’s a renewed focus on clarity. In turn, our client partnerships must evolve too.
Measured moves, meaningful results
The need for measurable effectiveness remains constant. What’s changed is the appetite for scale without certainty. CMOs today want proof before expansion, a clearer line of sight on what’s moving the needle. This has unlocked opportunities to simplify, test, and build incrementality with intent.
In a market where consumer behaviour is fragmented and the path to purchase more complex, small, deliberate moves – each backed by evidence – are proving more compelling than bold tactical shifts. We’re responding by embedding rigorous test-and-learn frameworks into every plan, tightly aligned with overarching media and flighting strategies. And, as always, measurement sets the foundation.
The re-marriage of brand and demand
For years now, bottom-of-the-funnel performance has dominated, often at the expense of long-term brand growth. While most marketers recognise the value of brand building, in practice it’s still deprioritised when pressures mount.
That’s changing. We’re now having richer, more detailed conversations with clients around the interplay between brand and demand, and how both can drive new customer acquisition. By aligning strategies and KPIs across the entire funnel, we’re helping clients move beyond trade-offs to holistic growth plans.
This unlocks smarter investment decisions, by understanding where minimum thresholds of brand support are needed to fuel downstream performance. It also recognises the compounding value that brand equity delivers to conversion efficiency.
Right-sized partnerships
CMOs are rethinking their agency partnerships given the growth of AI, ongoing budget scrutiny and increased demand for agility. According to Marketing Dive, 39 per cent of CMOs expect to streamline their rosters in the year ahead.
We’re seeing this play out with a shift away from siloed services and towards faster, flatter, more focused operating models and partnerships designed around outcomes over outputs. To meet this, we’re evolving our own structure: shaping agile, cross-functional teams that flex to meet client needs and embedding shared capabilities like automation, data and measurement across the business.
It’s also about rethinking how we develop talent and build out new skillsets in our teams to ensure we’re future-fit and ready to respond with speed and substance.
As CMOs continue to be tested this year and beyond, they will continue to push for impact from media activity – they need proof that their investment is building resilient brands and delivering measurable performance. The best response is a client service model that is rigorous and responsive. One that unifies brand and demand, prioritises evidence over assumption and is built to flex with the change the next six months and the years ahead will bring.
Article originally published on Mi3.
