Survey: Top CMOs Remain Concerned About ROI, Big Data and AI

As 2019 rolls on, there are many things at the top of CMOs’ minds. That being said, a new survey has laid out exactly what is keeping CMOs up at night in terms of marketing concerns.

Brand Keys recently published the results of its “Marketing on my Mind” survey, detailing exactly what concerns CMOs today. The company surveyed 588 CMOs and brand managers to gain detailed insight.

“CMOs and brand managers have plenty to keep them up at night,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys. “And, given the start of the new year, we thought we’d see which issues were most responsible for their loss of sleep.”

The majority of CMOs (97 percent) stated that ROI was their top concern. Big data, big tech and big security issues (95 percent) were also concerns, followed by establishing trust between their brand and the consumer (95 percent).

Addressing innovation, AI, technology and marketing automation (92 percent) was also a main concern for CMOs.

AI Remains a Roadblock for Marketers

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been a roadblock for marketers, and previous research indicates that many of them are still hesitant to incorporate it into their strategies.

Econsultancy and Adobe’s “Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2018 Digital Trends” report discovered that 43 percent of top-performing companies have no plans to use AI within the next 12 months. Only 29 percent said they intend to use it, while 28 percent claimed they were already using it.

“The slow adoption could be put down to confusion or lack of knowledge around AI’s applications, amid widespread concerns over the societal impact of automation in general,” wrote the authors of the report.