A CMO tip: streamline the to-do list to get more done
There is an epidemic of wishful thinking in industry today: objectives that are too lofty, priority lists that are overwhelming and bottomless project lists are the norm. Wall Street has lofty expectations and company leadership often demands more than their organizations have the capacity to deliver. And they certainly often demand more than their organizations […]
P&G’s 10 Commandments of Leadership, Early 1980’s
I was cleaning out some old files and came across a fantastic one-page document: The Ten Commandments of Leadership. It was from the early 1980’s, early in my tenure at Procter & Gamble. I don’t remember anything regarding who wrote it or the intended purpose… but boy has it aged well! This probably shouldn’t come […]
How to be a great CMO
A few months ago I wrote about SpencerStuart’s latest annual CMO Tenure Study. The report highlighted a continued decline in average CMO tenure, with average tenure declining to its lowest point since 2009. Median tenure had plummeted to 25.5 months, the lowest on record. Being a CMO is a tough, tough job. Frankly, it has […]
CMO checklist: before you run an agency review
The best work often comes from a long-standing client-agency relationship. The agency team has a deep understanding of the client’s business and brand, keeps a close eye on competition and knows which levers to pull to help their client succeed. This basic principle holds true for client-agency relationships of all types, from creative, media and […]
Better clients get better agency work: the checklist
Good clients get good work. We’ve been repeating that phrase for close to thirty years. We’ve seen it in action during our consulting engagements with hundreds of clients of all sizes and shapes. We’ve seen it in the results of the hundreds of annual 360 reviews we’ve conducted (clients and agencies evaluating each other) in […]
An update for CMOs on the US agency landscape
The holding companies have come roaring back from the pandemic, reporting strong year over year organic growth. WPP just reported +12% year over year organic growth for 2021. Publicis, Omnicom, Interpublic and Dentsu each reported year over year organic growth exceeding +10%. In a big industry, that is a great deal of added revenue! All […]
5 Questions CMOs should be asking their agencies
The economy is robust. CMOs everywhere remain as busy as ever. There is as much stress on growth and results as ever. Agencies are expected to produce more with less. The unique bond between senior marketer and agency remains one of the keys to success! Great agency relationships can help make a career, a hit […]
The Easiest Skill to Learn with the Highest Return
What one skill can everyone master that has high returns, is easy to implement and can require zero investment other than a little bit of your time? We recently held another Mercer Island Group strategic insight training workshop. Strategists and agency execs from all over attended. They worked on some real world, real client challenges […]
How to watch Super Bowl ads like a CMO
The world’s annual football and advertising celebration is just days away! Globally around 150 million people will watch the Super Bowl. Roughly 100 million people in the US alone will watch! The event is one of the world’s weirdest annual affairs including the spectacle of the game, the personalities involved, big ticket half-time performers and […]
CMO tips to get ahead of 2022 agency cost inflation
Agency costs are escalating rapidly. There are a number of reasons for this including a labor shortage, intense competition for the same people from a number of other industries (consulting, tech, clients), the great resignation, increased training needs, increased operating and technology costs and overall inflation. We are seeing and hearing about double digit cost […]
