Merkle Research Shows Organisations are Launching New Experiences in the Pursuit of Business Growth
Today, Merkle, dentsu's leading customer experience (CX) transformation consultancy, released the latest instalment from dentsu’s annual CMO Navigator Report, focusing on Customer Experience (CX) insights. The report reveals that CMOs are concentrating on maximising existing capabilities while optimistically planning to invest more in digital transformation and experiences in 2025.
More than half (51%) of CMOs are looking to new strategies to navigate forward, leveraging new digital capabilities and emerging customer behaviours. To expand target audiences and cut through digital noise, 63% of organisations are launching new experiences, highlighting the growing trend of CMOs prioritising CX.
"The dynamic and competitive landscape of 2024 has emboldened CMOs to discard traditional playbooks and invest more in innovation and consumer experiences," said Holden Bale, global head of experience and commerce, Merkle. "As CMOs navigate the complexities of digital transformation, our aim is to empower them with the insights needed to drive meaningful engagement and growth. We look forward to continuing to work with CMOs globally to enhance the customer experience."
The study found a few major themes, including:
Refocusing CX Strategies to Accelerate Growth
Despite the vast opportunities presented by new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the report indicates that CMOs feel unsteady about their digital maturity, hindered more by organisational constraints than technology. Six in ten (63%) of CMOs feel their organisations still have work to do when it comes to orchestration across marketing, media, and CX. As such, CMOs are looking to extract more value out of existing capabilities and are making very targeted investments when it comes to technology, partners, and growth strategy. Yet only 25% of CMOs are investing heavily in digital transformation efforts or completely overhauling their tech stacks, indicating a need for technologies that maximise data utilisation.
Future Differentiation Through the Power of CX
As CMOs transform existing processes and data, they remain optimistic about the future of technology and the economy. An overwhelming majority (89%) of CMOs expect marketing budget increases next year, which will support further AI adoption and more impactful customer experiences. CMOs recognize the impact these future transformations will have on their businesses, with nearly two out of three (59%) expecting half or more of their future revenue to come from offerings not yet in their portfolios. This hopeful outlook will guide CMOs as they develop their 2025 strategies and investment decisions.
The Emergence of the “Perceptive CMO”
Study findings uncovered a new breed of global CMO that is more aligned with consumers when it comes to how our lives will look 5 to 10 years from now. When comparing CMOs’ survey responses to consumers’, this subset of 18% of CMOs has greater alignment with consumers’ visions of a transformed future. This belief in future digital transformation makes “Perceptive CMOs” more proactive when it comes to taking CX capabilities to the next stage, leading them to invest more in innovation, CX, and business transformation than their peers.
This report is part of dentsu’s third annual CMO Navigator research series, which aims to help leaders understand the business climate that stakeholders in various sectors and regions are navigating. This series is the first expansion of the survey to a global level (previously focused on North America), administered by B2B International in August 2024 to global C-Suite marketing executives, covering 13 countries and reaching more than 1,900 CMOs. The 2024 report introduces custom studies by practice area, including this CX Navigator edition. Dentsu Creative’s CMO Survey launched earlier this year, and a Media-focused edition is forthcoming, each providing tailored insights by practice area.
Download the full CX Navigator report here.
