South Africa, Jan. 15 -- The elite executive affinity network of some 20,000 global marketing leaders controlling nearly $1tr of annual spend, emphasises that CMOs today are no longer expected to simply build brands.

The modern CMO

"The modern CMO is tasked with applying insights to business problems, validating decisions with data, orchestrating seamless customer experiences, and embedding customer-centricity across the enterprise," notes CMO Council founder and executive director Donovan Neale-May.

This is underscored by the staggering growth and digitisation of the Connected Economy between 2001 and 2025.

Global marketing spend is projected to reach $1.3tr (Warc) by 2026, with roughly 75% allocated to digital advertising.

There ar...