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The annual CMO Spend Survey from Gartner is available and…well…it’s not pretty. Marketing budgets, as a proportion of company revenue, have fallen from 11% in 2020 to 6.4% in 2021, their lowest point in the history of this survey. 

As well, pure-play digital channels account for 72.2% of the total marketing budget, with CMOs indicating that they’re shifting offline budgets into digital spend and 29% of work that was previously carried out by external agencies has been moved to in-house teams during the last 12 months. 

CMOs have focused in-house efforts on high-value, strategic capabilities such as brand strategy, innovation, and technology. The survey captures a snapshot of marketing’s budget, spending, and strategic priorities. It finds CMOs at a difficult juncture — budgets and resources are constrained, but marketing needs to demonstrate how it can support the enterprise’s growth and transformation ambitions.

It’s kind of depressing news, but at the same time, there are tons of opportunities in here if you’re willing to look at it a bit differently, which is what we are going to discuss on this week’s episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

Resources Included:

• CMO Spend Survey from Gartner
• Spin Sucks Community
• New Yorker Article
• Spin Sucks Blog Post: What Kellogg Can Teach You About Marketing During a Global Pandemic
• Spin Sucks Blog Post: What’s in Store for Communicators for the Rest of 2021

About Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. She is the co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of Inside PR. Full bio