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- CMOs are hitting a growth wall | The ClickZ Digest
CMOs are hitting a growth wall | The ClickZ Digest
Also, MIND THE GAP—Gen Z isn’t where you think
Zihan Lyu
March 08, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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Hi there!
Highlights from today's newsletter:
📈 Scaling content without scaling costs
💰 CMOs say lack of resources is hurting growth opportunities
🛍️ Key takeaways from eTail West
🚀 The content formula behind 10M+ views
Marketing leadership is moving fast—staying ahead means knowing what matters. That’s why we’re introducing Leadership Lens—a new limited-run section dedicated to the insights and strategies shaping the future for CMOs and marketing leaders.
EDITOR’S PICK
#SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Gen Z doesn’t shop the way you think—and they definitely won’t buy from brands that feel out of touch. With $360 billion in disposable income, they hold serious purchasing power, but brand loyalty is weaker than ever. They don’t browse websites or watch polished ads—they search TikTok, trust Reddit, and expect brands to be part of culture, not just another voice in the noise.
Liquid Death built a cult following through satire. Duolingo and Ryanair went viral by ditching corporate polish for chaos. Meanwhile, brands clinging to traditional marketing are losing relevance fast.
How can brands earn Gen Z’s attention—and keep it? Let’s break it down.
#EVENT INSIGHTS
The Fospha team had an amazing time at eTail West last week, connecting with eCommerce leaders and diving into the biggest challenges and opportunities shaping the industry. Here are the top trends that dominated the conversation.
📈 Brands Are Navigating Rising Ad Costs & Complexity
With CPCs on the rise, brands are doubling down on efficiency—looking for opportunities to optimize their marketing mix and making the most of owned channels like email, SMS, and loyalty programs.
🤖 AI-Driven Personalization Is Scaling Up
AI is transforming customer interactions in real time. Hanky Panky shared how AI powers their acquisition, site experience, and retention efforts—including automating 50% of customer service interactions to free up human agents for high-value customers.
💡 The Halo Effect Is Real
Fospha has long highlighted the impact of TikTok, YouTube, and Meta ads on third-party sales channels like Amazon. At eTail West, Ross Wakeham from TikTok reinforced that this ‘spillover’ effect is a huge measurement opportunity for brands.
For those interested in learning more about the halo effect, Fospha’s latest research is available here. 🔗
#AI CONTENT STRATEGY
 | In the swirling vortex of digital engagement, business leaders face a challenge: attracting executive priming with meaningful content. George Looker, the seasoned helmsman at Contentive and Delfy.ai, advocates for a powerful triad: precision over volume, context, and insightful perspective. |
Effective executive content transcends mere information; it illuminates. Be granularly precise, demonstrating how visionary ideas can be pragmatically applied. Challenge assumptions rather than appeasing them, urges Looker.
As AI reshapes thought leadership, Looker's future gaze is fixed on 'conversational intelligence'—AI's ability to transcend rote data retrieval, inferring nuanced insights, and forging a new era of compelling B2B engagement.
LEADERSHIP LENS
As CMOs and marketing leaders’ approach 2025, they face a complex landscape requiring strategic agility and operational excellence. The most successful CMOs will bridge the gap between strategic planning and execution. Gartner’s recent research highlights the three essential priorities marketing leaders should concentrate on in 2025 to drive successful enterprise growth.
Amidst disruption and transformation pressures, CMOs must prioritize executing their strategic plans. However, many struggle to demonstrate their value to CEOs and CFOs, who may not view marketing as a growth driver.
To overcome this, CMOs should harness marketing's strengths, transforming it into a forward-looking customer insights engine that shapes enterprise strategy and commercialization efforts.
CMOs are feeling the squeeze—not just from budget cuts, but from a lack of the right resources to fuel growth. A new CMO Council report lays it bare: underinvestment is stalling marketing performance, making it harder to run efficient campaigns, scale digital efforts, and fully tap into AI’s potential.
Fixing this means using data to sharpen strategies, identifying untapped revenue streams, and rethinking customer loyalty beyond outdated programs. The real challenge lies in finding the balance between efficiency and innovation without sacrificing momentum.
A recent survey reveals 27% of CMOs are wary of generative AI, particularly over reputational risks and execution hurdles, despite 77% leveraging it for creative processes. Concerns persist around ROI and AI's environmental impact. Broader campaign execution issues indicate that AI is just one aspect of marketing's evolving landscape.
WHAT WE ARE READING
 | AI is transforming creator partnerships by minimizing manual administrative burdens and integrating detailed data-driven insights. Marketing professionals can leverage these advancements to unlock substantial ROI improvements and effectively scale their content strategies. This shift from manual effort to AI-enhanced processes enables more strategic content utilization and distribution. |
 | Structured data markup significantly boosts website visibility and comprehension by search engines, integral for AI adaptation. Prioritizing entities over keywords through schema markup forms a semantic data layer, ensuring brand coherence and adaptability. SEO should go beyond webpages, optimizing web data to construct an impactful content knowledge graph. |
 | Leveraging AI and emotional creative analysis is essential for crafting compelling advertising. While AI efficiently processes data, emotional analysis uncovers deep audience connections. The strategic harmony of these tools produces campaigns that authentically engage, enhancing both emotional resonance and conversion rates. |
Attending SXSW?
WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO
🎙 MOSTLY MARKETING
Emphasizing the crucial role of video content over placement, Matt Wilson's podcast features insights from Robert Weiss, President of MultiVision Digital.
The discussion dissects how to craft effective videos and avoid common business pitfalls in video marketing. It provides strategic insights for enhancing marketing outcomes through well-executed video content.
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