Reflection on your time in Cannes

Headline: A creative and memorable statement to sum up your CMO Accelerator experience.

Themes: Select 1-3 big themes from across the sessions that resonated.

Three moments, people or ideas that shifted my thinking.

Putting inspiration into action

Three personal commitments to make an impact. Commit to yourself to do these 3 things – no matter what!

What new expectations will I set for my agency/partners?

What will I ask of my leadership to unlock greater impact?

How will I share and embed these learnings and with whom?

How do you want to be remembered as a leader?

Jim Stengel, former CMO of P&G and host of The CMO Podcast, stepped out of his usual role of host of the CMO Accelerator to speak candidly about legacy. Drawing from his own journey and the emotional process of being nominated for the AAF Hall of Fame, Stengel invited the 2025 CMO Accelerator class to consider the long game of leadership — and what defines a meaningful career.

A living legacy Stengel opened by sharing the weight and weirdness of legacy. “It’s tied to mortality,” he said. “It’s hard to talk about because it feels self-centered.” But stepping into the process of applying for the AAF Hall of Fame made him stop and look back. The 20+ letters of support he received didn’t focus on commercial results — not the $85 billion revenue growth at P&G, not the awards or the launches. Instead, they reflected back how he made people feel.

"There was nothing in those letters about market share or brand growth. It was all about kindness, inspiration, belief."

That insight led him to distill seven leadership lessons, based not on his self-perception — but on what others saw and valued in him over time. Each was illustrated with stories and quotes from the people who had written letters on his behalf.

Seven leadership lessons

Stengel distilled the reflections into seven enduring leadership principles – lessons every senior marketer should consider, not just in moments of career transition, but throughout the journey:

1. Lead with kindness and caring. You can set high expectations without being harsh. Even hard decisions — layoffs, agency splits, tough feedback — can be done with empathy.

2. Elevate and inspire others to do amazing things. The best leaders elevate those around them. Your legacy lives in what your teams achieve, not just what you do personally.

3. Have a strong point of view of what matters in business. People notice where you spend time, what you ask about, and what you fight for. Make your values visible.

4. You will be remembered for bold actions that embody your point of view. Symbolic acts matter. One of Stengel’s first acts as CMO was to spend a week with the Walmart P&G team to visibly elevate retailer teams as tier one marketers. People watch everything we do.

5. Leave things better than you found them. This applies to teams, agencies, categories and brands. It’s a stewardship mindset: build equity, don’t just extract it.

6. When you help others, you simultaneously help yourself. Mentorship is a cycle. Stengel spoke about the unintended power of mentorship – how opening doors for others often reopens your own.

7. Place equal importance on what you achieve and how you achieve it. Outcomes matter, but Stengel stressed that at P&G, “assholes didn’t get promoted”. How you lead – the culture you create, the tone you set – is what people talk about years later.

Stengel ended the session with a simple two-part exercise:

• Write down 2–3 lessons you hope others would say about you in 20 years.
• Ask yourself: Are you living those lessons today?

It was a powerful moment of stillness amidst the Cannes noise. A space for self-reflection, humility, and intentional leadership.

Tor Myhren, Apple’s VP of Marketing Communications, shared a rare look inside the creative principles that have shaped one of the world’s most valuable brands. In conversation with Jim Stengel, Myhren reflected on his own leadership evolution, Apple’s exacting creative culture, and the enduring importance of courageous, product-led marketing.

Over nine years at Apple, Myhren has overseen a transformation in how the brand tells its stories, modernised its marketing capabilities, and rebalanced the relationship between its Cupertino headquarters and global markets. Through it all, he’s maintained a simple philosophy: the work always wins.

Myhren spoke with honesty about the challenges of moving from leading at Grey to being immersed in a fundamentally different company culture. Rarely first to market, Apple aims to deliver the best, most emotionally resonant work when the moment is right. The key skill he learned was “Patience. I had none in New York. I mean, we just plowed through everything, part of our brand was to take chances and do things fast and, you know, get press good and bad… But coming in and really sitting back, letting some things play out. It really pays off at Apple.”

Reflecting this measured approach, Apple resists following trends. “If it’s a trend, you’re too late — and it’s not yours,” Myhren said. Every Apple campaign begins with a clear product insight, ensuring the final idea is inseparable from the brand. “You win when you can’t disassociate the thing from the product.”

The work always wins

Moving from agency to Apple, Myhren explained, “I had to change a lot. At Grey I was the boss, every single decision I could make. At Apple it’s a really complex matrix no matter what you’re doing… You lead by influence. And at Apple there are a thousand nos for every yes. The culture is so strong and it’s a culture of debate.”

In that environment, he explained, courage is the most important quality a marketing leader can possess. “You don’t win through politics. You win through great work. The courage to stand up for ideas, fight for them, believe in them — that’s vital to earning respect.”

Importantly, Myhren stressed that Apple’s famously demanding culture can’t be reshaped for individuals — it either wears your ego down, or you adapt. “At Apple, it’s not about the individual. It’s about the logo.”

Structuring for consistency and trust

When Myhren arrived at Apple, the company was known for its rigorous product-led advertising: crisp visuals and clean white backgrounds. But he sensed much of it was on the brink of becoming dated.

“One of the big things was recognising that,” he explained. “Part of our job as marketers is to make people feel something”. He modernised the team’s storytelling approach and built new in-house advertising capabilities.

Apple organises its creative work by product line. Myhren dismissed the idea of “jump balls” between in-house and agency teams. “That’s a disaster,” he said. Instead, both sides know from the start of the year which projects they’ll handle, creating trust and clarity of responsibility.

Trust also underpins Apple’s 28-year relationship with Media Arts Lab, “It’s easy to be heavy-handed, but you have to trust people to figure it out”.

Elevating regional relevance

A key structural shift during Myhren’s tenure was decentralising Apple’s marketing work. “When I joined, everything was made in Cupertino. Now, some of our best work comes from China, Japan, and South America.” The need for local insights was actioned when a customer email pointed out that none of Apple’s Mumbai billboards reflected the diversity of the city. That moment catalysed investment in regional creative teams, a move Myhren says has elevated Apple’s global work by embedding cultural nuance and authenticity.

The best work

Myhren highlighted ‘Shot on iPhone’ as some of the work he was most proud of, especially how it’s evolved over time, “It’s such a creative platform for people to play with. It gives back a little bit as well as it's great for the brand.” Myhren also spoke about the move to advertise Apple’s privacy tools, “I'm really proud of the riskiest thing that I've done in my time at Apple. We began to market privacy, which we were very nervous about, and we kind of introduced the concept to the world, you know, privacy and technology, and it's been really, really fruitful and successful.”

Another key area of creativity was in Apple’s powerful use of music. With campaigns running in 40+ countries, music replaces dialogue as the emotional vehicle, “It always has to feel Apple.”

AI as a creative amplifier

AI had been a key theme of Myhren’s keynote at Cannes Lions and he repeated his position on the technology - “You drive, AI rides shotgun” and emphasised, “It’s up to us as an industry to decide. Do we lead, or do we get driven?” Overall Myhren’s take was optimistic “AI is going to make everything creatively better—if we learn how to use it right.”

Powerful advice from Natalia Ball, Global Chief Growth Officer, Mars Pet Nutrition set the tone for a candid conversation around redefining leadership on your own terms. Alongside Ball, E.L.F. CMO Kory Marchisotto and Nabil Nasser, Global Head, Heineken Brand, explored how senior marketers can balance steering complex organisations while maintaining personal integrity.

At the heart of the discussion was a shared recognition of the competing pressures CMOs must navigate daily. Consistency versus novelty emerged as a recurring theme – marketers often tire of their own campaigns long before consumers do. As Nabil Nasser noted, it takes discipline to resist reinventing for the sake of change and instead focus on building long-term brand equity through memory structures. He also acknowledged that the system is stacked against marketers, “We know that we should be consistent but there are barriers to us – some are cultural and some are organisational. Sometimes we want to justify what we do, and we think that by producing more work, we are adding more value. But it doesn't matter. What matters is the results.”

Performance versus personal energy was another key theme. Natalia Ball described how her leadership only truly flourished once she stopped muting her personality and started leading with passion. Kory Marchisotto echoed this, warning that if your calendar doesn’t reflect your values, neither does your life. She described being in a “constant state of peak performance for six years” only after finding a company whose frequency matched her own.

Failure is feedback

Marchisotto argued that setbacks reveal the next “capability-gap” to close, “To quote Billie Jean King, ‘Failure is feedback’. If you’re willing to listen to what it has to tell you and more importantly to put it into action. I never see it as a setback, I see it as a step forward.”

Creativity is a system, not a spark

Natalia Ball explained that elevating creativity at Mars Pet Nutrition required building a more robust creative culture – starting with clear briefs, better training, and internal inspiration-sharing. By treating creativity as a capability, not a coincidence, the team created conditions for stronger, more resonant work.

Boldness still needs science

All three leaders agreed that legacy comes from bold, values-led action, such as E.L.F.’s “So many Dicks” campaign. But boldness also needs to be under-written by rigorous effectiveness planning. Nasser’s decade-long 0.0 beer journey showed that audacious positioning succeeds only when underpinned by R&D (great taste) and behavioural insight (removing social stigma). Pair every “big bet” with a longitudinal learning plan – tracking attitudinal, behavioural and commercial KPIs from day one.

Coca-Cola's remarkable transformation from 53rd to 1st place in creative rankings demonstrates how disciplined creativity can drive brand performance. Islam ElDessouky, Global VP of Creative Strategy & Content, revealed the framework that propelled Coca-Cola to Brand of the Year in 2024 at Cannes Lions - a philosophy he calls "Home Court Advantage".

Drawing inspiration from American sports, ElDessouky positioned creativity not as a luxury but as a strategic discipline that gives brands the edge when competing for consumer attention. "Creativity is a solution. It is not about being fancy. It is not about 'get me Beyonce and Bad Bunny.' That's not creativity. That's laziness," ElDessouky asserted.

The four pillars of creative excellence

Coca-Cola's creative resurgence is built on four interconnected elements that form its team culture:

1. Philosophy: Balancing kindness with rigor ElDessouky leads a global creative team of just 18 people, yet their influence extends across 190+ markets. The secret isn’t scale - it’s culture by design, underpinned by the mantra “Be harsh on the work, kind on the people”. This relentless attitude toward quality coexists with Ted Lasso-style empathy for team members. The balance enables honest critique without damaging relationships.

2. Standards: Consistency as competitive advantage ElDessouky challenged the industry's addiction to constant reinvention: "The real issue with consistency is we get bored… Campaigns are like Tinder—next, next, next." Instead, Coca-Cola embraces platform persistence, shown by the recent revival of "Share a Coke" for Gen Z audiences who hadn't experienced the original campaign. The four standards to keep the team on course are: Stay consistent; Learn; Finish the game; Focus on solutions.

3. Mindset: Team-first approach "We're all wearing the same jersey. We're all team Coca-Cola, whether you're agency, brand, media, or sales," ElDessouky explained. This unified mindset eliminates internal competition and focuses energy on external challenges.

4. Values: Trust, Communication, Courage, Respect, Pride These five values were democratically selected by the team from a list of more than 100. Trust and open communication ranked unanimously as the top two priorities, addressing inefficiencies caused by micromanagement and excessive meetings.

The critical starting point

Perhaps most revealing was ElDessouky's emphasis on problem definition. "One of the big issues is that people are not clear what the problem is. We come and start briefs, programs, discussions, and no one is clear about the problem," he observed. This clarity deficit leads to what he calls the "pray for creativity" approach—sending briefs to agencies and hoping for something cool without strategic direction. For ElDessouky, a good brief “turns tough shots into lay-ups”.

Coca-Cola uses a “three S” test for every brief:

    Does it Solve something?     Is it Simple?     Is it Single-minded?

But briefing isn’t a one-way process. ElDessouky described taking agency partners on delivery truck rides to see the business in motion. In return, agencies coach client teams on creative craft building mutual empathy and respect.

A panel of rising marketing talents from this year’s Brand Marketing Academy shared candid insights about their expectations of leadership, career development, and workplace culture. The session, moderated by Suzanne Tosolini and Douwe Bergsma, revealed significant themes to help inform how CMOs approach talent retention and development strategies for younger marketers.

The discussion highlighted a generation that defies stereotypes - ambitious, purpose-driven, and seeking meaningful connections with leadership. While often characterized as job-hoppers, these marketers made clear they'll stay where they can grow, contribute meaningfully, and receive transparent communication.

What drives next-gen marketing talent?

Learning as currency Continuous development emerged as perhaps the strongest retention factor. As one marketer noted: "When I joined Google, there was this saying that you're now in a jungle gym for learning... you're not forced to climb up step by step, but you have this playground with people who are ready to help you move laterally to try things you haven't done before."

Ownership and trust These marketers crave responsibility and the trust of leadership. "The key is really ownership. Gen Z is the most entrepreneurial generation yet, it's a fact, and so we really want to take ownership over the work that we're doing," shared a brand manager from Choice Hotels, who values being able to present directly to the C-suite.

Transparency and communication The panel consistently emphasised the need for clear, honest communication from leadership. "Communication and transparency on the situation of our careers, or however much you can give to us regarding the situation of the industry and the company, is so important," noted one participant, adding that "it's just as simple as a 15-minute chat."

Meaningful work and impact Purpose drives this generation. One marketer explained: "We need to ensure that we have purpose behind our work and that there is impact being created around it, which personally is what keeps me going through the job."

Psychological safety Creating environments where ideas can flourish without fear was highlighted as crucial: "A psychologically safe space for you to come with good ideas and know that people will react in a constructive way, even if it's not the best idea... that you can bounce off each other in a very safe and fun place."

LVMH’s sponsorship of the Paris Olympics wasn’t just a brand presence, it was a feat of “cultural stewardship.” LVMH integrated itself into the Games’ narrative as a creative partner and co-producer - with each LVMH Maison playing an appropriate role in a powerful and cohesive experience. In this session, Yannick Bolloré, Chairman & CEO, Havas; Augustin Pénicaud, Vice President, Havas Play; and Kristine Drullion, Corporate Brand Strategy & Activation Director, LVMH, shared how they executed the “project of a lifetime” as well as broader insights for brands looking to succeed in culture-led marketing.

Rewriting the rules of sponsorship, LVMH approached the Games as an active contributor, crafting moments of meaning, leveraging constraints as creative catalysts, and focusing on emotional equity over traditional media impressions.

Constraints drive craft

Kristine Drullion described the IOC regulations as “a creative catalyst, not a limitation”. The constraints were considerable, such as no communications outside France (limiting coverage to only 8% of LVMH’s market), being unable to show brands in the field of play, and a very restricted timescale having less than a year from signing the contract to the Games themselves.

These constraints meant LVMH focused on the ceremony to ‘hijack’ an international moment, the lack of overt branding rights forced richer storytelling and a clear positioning from the central LVMH brand allowed each Maison flexibility in how they showed up in the most appropriate way at the Games. The scale and speed of the project also altered internal structures, as Drullion put it, “Big projects reshape organisations. We had to recentralise decision-making for the first time at LVMH because the pace demanded it.”
^{Image courtesy of Havas & LVMH}

Narrative before noise

Facing strict regulations on brand visibility and media coverage, LVMH’s strategy was rooted in storytelling. “We had to make our story travel without us,” Drullion noted. The answer lay in co-creating cultural moments — from Dior couture dressing ceremony performers to Chaumet crafting medals like jewels and embedding Eiffel Tower fragments in the centre.

Executions like the Louis Vuitton medal trunks weren’t simply product placement but deep narrative alignment. The group’s central creative platform, Artisan of All Victories, drew a parallel between the unseen craftsmanship behind luxury goods and the sacrifices behind a fleeting sporting triumph. It allowed every LVMH Maison to contribute authentically, while preserving the masterbrand’s exclusive positioning in an event designed for mass inclusivity.

Experience is equity

^{Image courtesy of Havas & LVMH}

At Paris 2024, LVMH demonstrated that in luxury, experience is equity. Beyond formal brand activations, the group turned its vast hospitality programme into a medium for brand values and emotional connection. Hosting over 12,000 guests, each experience was meticulously tailored, from intimate athlete celebrations to bespoke Maison showcases, reinforcing LVMH’s savoir-faire far across a range of luxury touchpoints. Drullion described hospitality as “a form of media in itself… hospitality wasn’t just about entertaining, it was about conveying our values and creating unforgettable moments that spoke to both luxury and emotion.”

Every year the CMO Accelerator offers an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of award-winning work. The team behind Xbox and McCann London’s double Grand Prix-winning campaign, The Everyday Tactician, offered a rare, inside look at how strategy, creativity and effectiveness aligned to produce a campaign that not only captivated fans but also delivered clear business results.

Mel Arrow, Chief Strategy Officer at McCann London and Gurdeep Puri of The Effectiveness Partnership offered more than a case study, they shared a roadmap for marketers to create breakthrough work.

Start with a business truth, not a media ambition

At its core, the brief wasn’t about impressions or awareness. It was about revitalising sales of Football Manager 2024 via Xbox Game Pass – particularly among PC gamers that played Football Manager, a segment that had proven historically hard to convert.

“This wasn’t about out-consoling Sony or Nintendo,” noted Arrow. “The challenge was to increase subscriptions by driving real relevance with an audience loyal to another platform.”

Find the human insight no one else is talking about

Through immersive research in forums and fan communities, the team uncovered a key emotional tension: Football Manager players – despite their obsessive mastery – weren’t taken seriously by the real-world football community. They had expertise, but not recognition.

That unspoken desire became the strategic unlock: reposition Football Manager from a bedroom game to a source of real-world talent.

Trust creatives to deliver the leap

The brief challenged the agency to “make it impossible not to play FM24 on Game Pass.” McCann’s response? Hire a gamer as a real-life analyst for Bromley FC and document their contribution throughout the season. The execution was unexpected, culturally rich and, crucially, made the product central to the story.

“Don’t brief the execution. Brief the belief,” said Arrow. “That’s what gives creatives something powerful to build from.”

Design for effectiveness from the beginning

Puri emphasised that the work was underpinned by a shared framework that linked business outcomes to behavioural metrics and cultural resonance. The Everyday Tactician strategy tracked upstream goals (e.g. revenue and subscription targets), midstream KPIs (e.g. trial, time spent, brand lift) and downstream cultural outcomes (e.g. earned media, community engagement) from the outset.

“Effectiveness isn’t something you write at the end – it’s something you embed at the start,” he explained.

Create change, not just campaigns

By giving one gamer a shot at influencing a professional football team – and documenting the impact – the campaign created real-world consequences. This wasn't a brand saying “we get you”; it was a brand proving it. The results speak for themselves:

• +56% increase in gamers playing Football Manager via a Game Pass subscription
• +33% increase in time spent playing
• +416% rise in campaign-related impressions
• 1.5 billion total campaign impressions

Renault CMO Arnaud Belloni and Publicis Conseil CEO/CCO Marco Venturelli revealed how their "Cars to Work" campaign, which won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2024, formed part of a comprehensive five-year strategy that transformed Renault from a struggling automaker into a leader in France's electric vehicle market.

When Luca de Meo became Renault's CEO five years ago at the height of the pandemic, the company had just posted a record 8-billion Euro loss. His "revolution" plan focused on launching an electric range with iconic models, but the team recognised they needed to address significant mental barriers to electric adoption while rebuilding emotional connections with French consumers.

The brand transformation strategy

The strategy focused on three key pillars:

1. Paving the way for electric transition by systematically removing mental barriers.
2. Strengthening emotional connections between the Renault brand and French people.
3. Premiumizing the brand through design and execution.

"Our job is not to talk to the wallet. Our job is to talk to the heart. If you talk to the heart, you get the wallet," explained Belloni, emphasising their emotionally-driven approach.

Beyond storytelling: Taking action

Rather than relying solely on traditional advertising, Renault implemented tangible initiatives that demonstrated their commitment to inclusive mobility:

The "Cars to Work" initiative addressed a critical societal challenge in France - the "vicious circle" where people need cars to access jobs but can't afford cars without jobs. This program recycled vehicles and offered them to job seekers during their three-month trial periods, with affordable payment plans beginning only after securing employment.

Authentic purpose drives results

What makes these initiatives particularly effective is their authenticity. As Venturelli explained: "When we do things, we do that for real. We make them live. We invest, we put media behind it. We use all the power of the brand to bring things to the world."

The campaigns weren't merely symbolic gestures but substantial investments that addressed real societal needs while positioning Renault as a leader in sustainable mobility. This approach helped Renault move from 10th to 3rd place in brand love rankings and establish leadership in France's electric vehicle market.

David Tiltman, Chief Content Officer at WARC and SVP Content at LIONS, set out an evidence-led roadmap that reframed the brand versus performance around an integrated growth strategy.

Tiltman’s central provocation was simple: advertising has two inter-locking jobs. Performance activity must “locate demand” among the 5% of buyers in-market today, while brand activity builds memory structures in the 95% who will purchase tomorrow. “Brand is a multiplier of performance,” he argued, “so it’s not brand and performance, it’s brand × performance.” He shared data and insights from WARC’s ‘Multiplier Effect’, a wide-ranging report into how businesses are missing out on revenue and profit through an incomplete approach to advertising.

The multiplier effect is quantifiable

The Multiplier Effect study includes data from Analytic Partners that shows moving from performance-only activity to a balanced mix produces a median +90% lift in revenue ROI while a shift the other way triggers a –40% “performance penalty. Tiltman highlighted, "You are nearly doubling your money by investing in the right way.”

Underlying the uplift is a virtuous loop. Stronger brand equity reduces cost-per-acquisition and allows performance budgets to scale more efficiently. BERA brand-tracking data illustrates the same dynamic across the funnel: higher brand equity lowers conversion friction at every stage.

Siloed structures destroy value

Many organisations have responded to the pressure to meet short term sales targets as well as build longer-term brand equity by splitting teams, budgets and KPIs. However, there are significant risks:

• Brand teams lose commercial accountability.
• Performance teams ignore long-term equity.
• Finance credits growth solely to last-click channels.

Budget: aim for 40-60% brand, but never drop below 30%

There is no single “correct” level of investment for brand executions. But the evidence is clear: It needs to have scale to succeed, as it must be seen by a broad range of potential future buyers, as well as current “in market” customers. Analytic Partners discovered most advertisers perform best when 40–60% of spend supports brand. Crucially, the “brand baseline” is around 30%: below that threshold, memory effects are too weak to amplify performance.

Build platforms not campaigns

Tiltman advocates a single creative platform flexible enough to deliver emotionally resonant storytelling and retail-ready reasons to buy. McDonald’s “Famous Orders” system and Instacart’s “Summer Like It’s 1999” were cited as models that ladder from culture to conversion.

An integrated approach to measurement

Brand strength and performance efficiency are linked so a basket of measurement techniques is required to understand both incrementality and timescale of effect. Tiltman shared the example of Instacart’s CMO Laura Jones who merged direct response and brand budgets, adopting a portfolio ROAS approach. The first integrated TV spot by Instacart lifted ad recall by 10% and cut cost-per-incremental-activation by 20% providing “the smoking gun” that unlocked further investment.

President of Creative B2B, Wendy Walker, VP Marketing ASEAN, Salesforce, highlighted how the category has become a showcase for innovation in storytelling and platform thinking. Her selections celebrated the growing creative ambition in B2B, where emotion, humour and long-term narrative are increasingly driving effectiveness.

President of Brand Experience & Activation, Tara Ford, Chief Creative Officer, Droga5 London, emphasised that the best work in her category combined purpose with simplicity, ideas that clearly addressed a real need while delivering on the brand’s promise in innovative ways.

President of Creative Commerce, Gabriel Schmitt, Global Chief Creative Officer, GREY, focused on redefining the category as both commercially effective and creatively ambitious. He praised work that delivered utility, cultural relevance and business impact at scale.

Why measurement is marketing’s next battleground

With rising media costs, an increasingly complex media landscape, and persistent scrutiny over marketing’s financial contribution, measurement is fast becoming a strategic imperative. Yet many brands are relying on legacy marketing mix models (MMM) that are slow, static and often siloed from day-to-day decision-making.

Lesley Butler and Phil Dowling, Partners at Bain & Company, argued that marketing measurement is no longer a diagnostic function; it’s a competitive advantage. And the most advanced marketers are building it into the operating system of the business.

Measurement maturity is now a growth lever

Bain’s global study of 1,300 CMOs revealed that marketing leaders differed from the rest in three key areas:

• ROI: Leaders achieve four times the marketing return while spending only 1.5x the budget. They don’t just track performance—they engineer it.
• Deeper tech integration: Marketing leaders are eight times more likely to embed martech in a unified ecosystem, rather than layering on disconnected point solutions.
• Generative AI as an accelerator: While many marketers view AI as a cost-reduction tool, leaders increasingly see it as a decision accelerator. Measurement and analytics now rank as the number one use-case for generative AI among this group.

Lesley Butler explained the shift in measurement best pracitce: “MMM was never designed to make daily decisions - it was built to explain last quarter. But marketing today moves too fast for backward-looking models.”

How the future of marketing measurement looks different

Moving from reports to real-time

Bain research had identified four maturity archetypes on the journey to more dynamic measurement. From Pathfinders still reliant on partner data, through to Alchemists—organisations like Mercado Libre, which operate fully integrated, AI-powered decision engines across media, promotions and commercial levers.

• Pathfinders rely on media partner metrics
• Explorers use MMMs but lack integration
• Builders create self-serve in-house tools with unified data
• Alchemists run full-funnel, personalised, AI-driven optimization at scale

^{Image courtesy of Bain}

Most CMOs in the room identified as Builders, already investing in proprietary tools, data harmonisation, and agile routines. The ambition? To make dynamic investment decisions across media, trade, loyalty, and owned assets, not just paid.

Data, culture and the limits of automation

Technology is part of the puzzle. But both speakers were emphatic: data infrastructure alone is not enough. Brands must rethink the behaviours, rhythms and incentives that surround decision-making. As Lesley Butler emphasised, “You can have the world’s best algorithm, but if the trade team and the media team don’t trust the data—or don’t talk to each other—you won’t move a dollar.”

This is particularly critical when reconciling machine-led optimisation with brand-building judgement. Phil Dowling noted that “Just because something shows a lower ROI, doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. You need human governance to protect long-term brand equity.”

That blend of science and strategy—machine precision tempered by human insight—is emerging as the hallmark of effective measurement cultures.

Marketers have long treated corporate reputation as PR’s problem and brand equity as marketing’s domain. With today’s geopolitical shocks, AI-fuelled misinformation and 24/7 scrutiny, that division is becoming a liability. Ashish Verma, Global Head of Creative at Bloomberg Media Studios, argued that reputation and brand must operate in tandem, saying of corporate reputation, “It’s everyone’s job, but it’s also your job.”

Evidence of a strategic gap

Bloomberg’s 2025 Corporate Reputation Study surveyed 1,250 marketing and communications C-suites and business decision-makers across the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore, findings included:

• 44% still named brand equity as their firm’s “most prized asset”, yet 36% cited corporate reputation – a share that rises above 40% among next-gen leaders aged 25-35.
• Trust and credibility have overtaken “action and conduct” as the top drivers of reputation, signalling a shift from behaviour alone to the perception of that behaviour.
• More than 40% of respondents said they are now measuring reputation “more rigorously” than a year ago – and reallocating budget accordingly.

In today’s volatile and always-on world, corporate reputation is being tested, making real-time readiness the new benchmark for trust. However, the Bloomberg study found top challenges in building and maintaining a strong corporate reputation were:

1. Handling of negative publicity or crises
2. Geopolitical constraints or operating in politically sensitive markets.
3. Access to cutting edge tech or advanced analytics tools for brand monitoring.

Brand equity and corporate reputation

Ashish Verma highlighted a strategic gap, in his view reputation is about trust, credibility, responsibility while brand equity is about differentiation, positioning, and experience. Brand equity is faster to deploy and easier to measure. Brand activities can move the funnel quickly, he flagged IKEA’s award-winning “Life Is Not an IKEA Catalogue” which drove record store traffic by celebrating real-life mess. Reputation, he argued, accrues slowly through responsible action, consistent narrative and transparent partnerships - and is under increasing scrutiny in a world of LLMs, misinformation, and geopolitical tension. Verma warned that when reputation is neglected or collapsed into brand, businesses risk undermining the very trust that sustains growth.

Verma’s suggestion was to fuse the CMO and CCO into a single Chief Communications & Marketing Officer (CCMO) – a role empowered to align thought-leadership, investor messaging and demand-generation under one strategic roof.

A significant part of managing corporate reputation was adapting to new AI tools. Verma urged leaders to treat AI not just as a creative tool, but as a distribution and perception engine. LLMs are already shaping brand narratives — often based on third-party data. As Verma put it, “In the world of LLMs, your inputs are your outputs — and AI is now a client.” This demands new thinking around reputation readiness and real-time narrative consistency.

Putting theory into practice

To succeed, CMOs should adopt a dual mindset:

• Offense: Craft differentiated brand experiences that convert.
• Defense: Safeguard trust through responsibility, clarity, and consistency.

Together, this becomes a strategic engine that strengthens both equity and resilience.

Bloomberg Media Studios’ work for Holcim, a global cement company, illustrates the dual-track model. A proprietary study on “Circular Cities” positioned Holcim as a thought-leader in sustainable urbanism (reputation), while the ‘ECO-Planet’ advertising platform translated that authority into a differentiated product story (brand). The result was commercial uplift and elevated trust in an industry not known for environmental best practice.

Sandro Gelashvili, Head of Creative Works, MENA and Global Gaming and Tech, Google and Leyal Eskin Yilmaz, CMO Ice Cream, Unilever, offered a refreshingly practical perspective on AI's transformative impact on brand marketing.

Moving beyond the typical fear-based narratives surrounding AI, their session provided a balanced view of both the "wow" factor of generative AI and the practical "how" of implementation.

The acceleration curve

Gelashvili opened with a reminder that technological adoption curves are compressing. It took ChatGPT just two months to reach 100 million users versus Netflix’s 18 years, and Instagram’s 2.5 years.

Underneath that curve sit three reinforcing forces – cheaper computing power, improving model quality as “the technology itself is a profound change”, and plunging per-token costs (from US$10 per million to US$0.10 in two years).

“If content is king, Gen AI is God mode,” Gelashvili argued, using a gaming metaphor to describe how creators now leap over production constraints. The result is an explosion of viral content such as AI-native memes, micro-films and brand mash-ups that were unimaginable a year ago.

Eskin Yilmaz shared research that shows AI-enabled productions are 30× faster, five times cheaper and twice as effective as conventional workflows. Google’s consulting data reinforces the point, citing 300% faster asset creation and 80% cost efficiency gains across its client base.

Small budgets and scaled personalisation

Two use cases illustrated AI’s levelling power:

• Kalshi, a relatively small US online betting company bought a single NBA Finals spot. A US$2,000 brief to an AI creator produced a Super-Bowl-quality ad and earned CNBC coverage.
• Saudia Airlines used Gen AI to generate 400 bespoke assets for four traveller personas across three platforms in just four days, transforming last-minute offers from text-only to context-rich video and driving full-funnel lift.

A whole-funnel AI framework

BCG/Google research shows that marketing leaders applying both predictive (“left brain”) and generative (“right brain”) AI across data foundations, experimentation, media, creative and processes report 60% higher revenue growth than early adopters. Consider how to use AI as a growth lever, not just an efficiency tool.

Governance is critical

Eskin Yilmaz urged CMOs to “be best friends with your general counsel” before unleashing Gen AI. Using synthetic humans raises likeness consent, job-security and DE&I questions that can torpedo brand equity overnight. Living AI policies updated as fast as the AI models are essential.

Brand distinctiveness in an ocean of sameness

With the same tools available to everyone, doubling-down on your brand’s distinctiveness and authenticity is critical. Dove’s decision to never use AI to create or distort images of women is true to the brand’s long association with ‘Real Beauty’. While signature assets like Magnum’s decades-old chocolate “crack” audio cue, show how established brand assets become even more valuable when AI makes imitation easier. Eskin Yilmaz highlighted how quality chocolate is important to Magnum so they always want to show real product, but other ad elements can be AI-generated “where it makes sense to do something faster, cheaper or that was not possible before.”

From T-shaped to M-shaped talent

Google/Kantar research shows 75% of marketers believe AI tools give them competitive advantage, but only 20% of those people are actually confident in how to think about AI and how to use AI tools. Eskin Yilmaz advocates cultivating “M-shaped” talent, deep in multiple areas of marketing plus broad commercial fluency, rather than hiring isolated AI specialists. Gelashvili’s provocation is sharper: “No one will believe that you are serious about change unless you start using AI tools yourself”.

Practical applications

The speakers both shared practical ways they are using AI at Google and Unilever revealing a range of uses both for more individual purpose and across campaigns. These ranged from insights mining and ideation – such as using NotebookLM personally to digest large amounts of data and files, to engaging with it through audio or chat, or, more broadly, to leverage cost savings for creating assets including text, video, images, and sound including scaling multiple variations.

Gelashvili highlighted that while generative AI dominates conversations, predictive systems have already transformed media effectiveness. "It's evolving into an even deeper black box," he noted.

Eskin Yilmaz shared how Unilever has used internal communications as a low-risk environment to develop AI capabilities. She uses AI video versions of herself speaking different languages to engage and motivate teams across markets.

Despite the new tech on display, both speakers emphasised that AI fundamentally remains a tool requiring human direction. "You don't really have to learn prompting... you can use large language models for that," Gelashvili explained. "But what you need to know, and this is our job that AI will not do, is to have vision and to know what you want."

Most marketers would consider healthcare a category bound by caution. But for Ramon Soto, CMO of Northwell Health, the real risk lies in irrelevance. "Healthcare is a low-interest category until you need it," Soto told Jim Stengel in a candid interview.

Over the last decade, Soto has led one of the most unconventional marketing transformations in US healthcare. Northwell, a $23 billion nonprofit health system in the hyper-competitive New York market, moved far beyond transactional care ads. Instead, it uses branded entertainment, cultural insight, and purpose-led campaigns to provoke dialogue and drive growth.

"No one is interested in your cardiac ad unless they need heart surgery tomorrow," Soto said. "But everyone cares about their health. So why not meet them there?"

From transactions to relationships

Healthcare ads traditionally highlight institutional superiority such as being the number one in orthopaedics or best in cancer care. Soto argues that this approach speaks to perhaps 1% of the market at any given time.

Northwell recognised the need to develop longitudinal relationships with consumers across their health journey. "The burden of navigation is put on the individual," Soto explained, describing how patients often face a "mystery of life" when experiencing health issues. This insight led Northwell to analyse engagement models from retail, digital commerce, entertainment, and financial services—industries that excel at building ongoing consumer relationships.

"When we looked at other industries, they thought about lifetime value. Healthcare didn't," Soto explained. "So we began thinking not just about care, but about the whole life around it."

A new kind of content strategy

Northwell's breakthrough came through an unexpected opportunity: documentary filmmaking. When approached by showrunners seeking to film a health-related series, Soto recognised the strategic potential rather than seeing only operational challenges. With CEO support, Northwell launched "Lennox Hill" on Netflix, which generated 40 million viewing hours in its first two months and was translated into 54 languages.

This success led to additional productions: "The First Wave" (documenting COVID-19's impact) with Hulu and National Geographic, "Emergency NYC" on Netflix (50 million viewing hours), and "One South" with HBO (focusing on college student mental health interventions).

Entertainment with purpose

Crucially, the strategy wasn’t just about brand building. Soto’s team used entertainment to spotlight systemic health issues, from gun violence to mental illness.

One breakthrough campaign responded to the grim statistic that guns became the leading cause of death for US children in 2019. Northwell launched a pioneering PSA, partnered with the Ad Council, and convened 20+ health systems to co-fund a national education effort.

"We're using our brand permission to start uncomfortable conversations," Soto said. "Not just to grow awareness, but to bend the curve."

The same thinking applied to food. Dissatisfied with hospital meal scores, Soto hired Michelin-starred chefs to overhaul Northwell’s food services. Then he turned the project into a cookbook and content series exploring the role of food in health, tapping into broader cultural conversations around obesity, wellness, and lifestyle.

Measurable business impact

The entertainment strategy delivered quantifiable results:

• Northwell moved from the fourth-ranked healthcare brand in New York to number one across awareness, consideration, preference, and likelihood to recommend.
• Employee engagement scores rose from the 47th percentile nationally to the 98th.
• Staff retention rates doubled the national average—critical in an industry facing shortages of 200,000 doctors and 400,000 nurses.
• The organization achieved growth in a shrinking market, adding approximately $1.5 billion in annual volume.

Behind the scenes, the marketing function expanded to 200 people across brand, digital, performance, and product marketing. An econometrics model now underpins spend decisions.

"This started with experiments," Soto said. "But when you show the ROI—not just in awareness, but in usage and behaviour change—you get the backing to scale."

The CMO as change agent

Soto's approach reflects his evolution from traditional marketer to business partner and change agent. Drawing on experience from Madison Avenue and GE, he emphasises understanding business fundamentals before marketing solutions: "I'd always start conversations with physicians who run their divisions... 'Let's talk about your business. Who are your competitors? How do you make your money?'"

This business-first mentality, combined with a willingness to challenge conventions, has positioned marketing as a strategic driver within Northwell.

Soto also brings personal conviction. A serious health scare made him feel "like a transaction, not a person." His mission since has been to infuse healthcare with what he calls "unconditional love."

"You see it when 20 clinicians sprint to treat a gunshot victim with zero judgment. That’s not branding. That’s who we are."