A corporate tale as old as time – until marketers changed the ending

TL;DR: Marketing unlocks greater impact when it translates its metrics into business outcomes that CEOs can champion. Download our translation guide to start bridging the gap. How marketers can close the translation gap and turn the CEO into a multiplier of their work

Every marketer knows the moment.

You’re in the boardroom, walking through a plan you know will move the needle, when the conversation turns – again – to questions of proof. Why brand? Why now? Why can’t we measure it this quarter? And once again, you find yourself translating the long-term value of marketing into terms that feel immediately defensible.

It’s a dynamic that plays out across organizations so often that it’s easy to accept it as inevitable. But it’s worth asking: what if it isn’t?

What if, instead of trying to win the argument for marketing, we focused on a different goal altogether: making the CEO and CFO not just understand marketing, but actively champion it?

A misalignment hiding in plain sight

The data tells a consistent story: despite good intentions, marketing and the C-suite are not truly aligned. McKinsey’s 2023 CMO growth research found that 90 per cent of CEOs believe marketing’s role is clearly defined, while only 50 per cent of CMOs agree.

That gap widens further when it comes to modern marketing. In a follow-on 2024 study, 64 per cent of CEOs said they feel comfortable with modern marketing, yet only 31 per cent of CMOs agree.

These aren’t minor perception differences. They point to a structural disconnect in how marketing’s role is understood, valued and operationalized at the executive level.

The problem isn’t capability. It’s translation.

Marketing today is more sophisticated than ever. Data, platforms and performance measurement have transformed the discipline. And yet, marketing’s influence at the executive table has not kept pace.

Marketing continues to describe impact in its own terms: awareness, engagement, brand equity. Meanwhile, CEOs and CFOs are focused on growth, capital allocation and risk. Without a clear bridge between those perspectives, even strong marketing performance can feel disconnected from enterprise priorities.

CEOs aren’t skeptical of marketing – they’re skeptical of uncertainty

It’s worth remembering that only 10 per cent of CEOs have prior marketing experience. Their perspective is shaped more by finance, operations and strategy than by brand building.

CEOs are accountable for enterprise-wide performance. Their decisions must be predictable, defensible and tied to financial outcomes. From that vantage point, marketing can feel opaque; not because it lacks value, but because the path from activity to outcome isn’t always clear.

This tension is especially pronounced in conversations about brand investment. Marketing sees long-term growth; the CEO sees variables that are harder to quantify. Bridging that gap requires more than stronger advocacy. It requires reframing marketing’s contribution in terms the business can act on.

From barrier to multiplier

One of the most important mindset shifts for modern marketers is this: the CEO is not the barrier to marketing’s success. They are its greatest potential multiplier.

Research from McKinsey and Deloitte shows that organizations with strong CEO-CMO collaboration (and where marketing is positioned at the centre of growth) consistently outperform their peers.

When marketing is embedded in strategy, its impact compounds. Customer insight informs decisions earlier. Brand shapes priorities. Growth becomes more coordinated across functions. Marketing is positioned, and can operate, as a driver of the business.

How to make it happen: from marketing function to enterprise discipline

For marketing leaders, this shift has three clear implications.

• The role must expand beyond functional expertise. According to McKinsey, only about 50 per cent of CMOs are consistently involved in strategic planning. CMOs need to contribute directly to enterprise strategy by connecting customer insight, market dynamics and financial outcomes, and by thinking in terms of profit and loss.
• Marketing must learn to speak the language of the business. One of the most persistent barriers to credibility isn’t a lack of performance. It’s a lack of translation. For a CEO or CFO, awareness is not the endpoint – it’s a proxy for future demand. Consideration signals conversion potential. Loyalty is not just a relationship metric, but an indicator of lifetime value and revenue stability.

To help bridge this gap, we’ve developed a translation guide that connects common marketing metrics directly to financial outcomes – from revenue upside and pricing power to margin and cash flow stability.

Download guide

The point is not to replace marketing metrics. It’s to contextualize them, ensuring that every data point ladders up to a business implication. Because when marketing speaks only in its own terms, it risks being seen as a cost centre. When it speaks in the language of growth, risk and return, it becomes a driver of enterprise value.

• Marketing must operate as a leadership capability. The most powerful brands are not built at the edges of the organization; they are shaped at the centre, where strategy, culture and investment intersect. At its best, brand is not something marketing owns in isolation. It is a shared lens for the C-suite, aligning functions that might otherwise operate with competing priorities. An aligned brand ensures that growth is not just pursued, but pursued cohesively.

A new question for marketers

Many senior marketers have asked whether the CEO understands marketing; it may be time to invert the question.

Do we fully understand how the CEO defines success? Are we framing our work in terms of enterprise value – and translating customer insight into something the business is compelled to act on?

Because when that shift happens, the dynamic changes. Conversations become more aligned, decisions more grounded, and brand – when treated as an enterprise anchor – begins to unify culture, capital and customer experience.

And in that environment, the CEO doesn’t need to be convinced. They become a multiplier – championing marketing not because they’ve been persuaded, but because it’s become essential to how the business operates and grows.

Sources:

• Deloitte, CMO research (2021)
• Gartner, CMO research (2025)
• McKinsey & Company, CMO Growth research (2023, 2024, 2025)

Authors: Cameron Stark, Co-founder and Head of Strategy and Growth, Hard Work Club Hilary Windrem, Head of Marketing, GreenShield Health