Podcast 
What CEOs Can Expect From Marketing in 2025

Marketing has undergone a dramatic transformation in 2025, with new technologies emerging as powerful tools and customer expectations shifting rapidly. In this episode, the BrandExtract team explores what CEOs should expect from their marketing departments as AI integration becomes essential, personalization reaches new levels and the need to balance brand building with performance marketing becomes more critical than ever.

Table of Contents

• What are the key shifts in the marketing landscape?
• How is personalization critical to marketing success?
• How do you balance brand and performance marketing?
• What should CEOs expect when navigating commoditization?

This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.

Q: What are the key shifts in the marketing landscape?

Bo: Everything's coming at us really fast. This feels a lot like the dot-com era, where some stuff's vaporware and some stuff's really going to take off. From 2024's "should we use AI?" we've moved to "if AI is not in your business, you're not functioning well."

CEOs need to think about integration. Sales, marketing and operations are collapsing on themselves. The data you can get is very clear and comes very fast, which helps you make decisions quickly. Structuring a team and being clear on what needs to be achieved is critical.

Charity: The real issue is the velocity of change. We went from planning digital transformation years ahead to a living, breathing system that's constantly changing. Leaders are having conversations not about whether to adopt AI, but how they're integrating it into their customer journey. Some people have been left behind, and customers expect highly personalized, seamless experiences.

Cynthia: Even before AI, B2B audiences were taking on more B2C-like qualities, looking for deeply authentic experiences with brands. If you're already behind on understanding your audience and behind on tech change, you're even further behind now.

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on marketing systems integration
• Be prepared for the velocity of change
• Customers expect personalized experiences
• Time to catch up to this paradigm shift is fading

Q: How is personalization critical to marketing success? 

Bo: Embracing AI and new technologies, along with personalization and the right story, leads to authenticity. The authenticity of understanding who you are, embracing technology, understanding what your customer wants, then using data to drive the right information to the right people so they can make well-informed decisions about your brand - that's what wins.

Charity: AI is being used wrong when it replaces creativity. You can tell when it's AI-generated - there's no personalization, it doesn't feel authentic or human. AI should work alongside you to deliver faster, smarter customer engagements. It's about using AI to enhance the work we do, not replace creativity.

Taylor: We've gone way past "hi, insert first name" in emails. We can customize landing pages based on industry or user persona, remove or replace entire sections, change copy to speak directly to that person. The best example is Amazon - my homepage looks massively different than yours because of personalization.

Key Takeaways:

• AI should enhance creativity, not replace it
• Use technology to deliver authentic customer experiences
• Personalization now extends far beyond basic email customization
• Data-driven insights enable well-informed brand decisions

Q: How do you balance brand and performance marketing?

Charity: You can get leads short-term without a strong brand presence, but the cost becomes higher over time. You're paying more for leads if your brand isn't known. We need a three-tiered marketing budget: brand marketing that sustains the brand over time, performance marketing for driving leads continually and sales enablement for actually driving sales.

Bo: Sales enablement's always been part of our work, but now it's got to be aligned. Understanding the customer, their buyer journey and how it all ties together - if it's not the right customer buying the right thing at the right time, it comes across as inauthentic.

Cynthia: Everyone's waving their hands saying they're the best at everything - fastest delivery, best quality, best product. How do you get to conversion? You need to understand who you are as a unique organization and present it authentically.

Key Takeaways:

• Implement a three-tiered marketing budget approach
• Brand building sustains long-term lead cost effectiveness
• Sales enablement must align with customer journey mapping
• Authentic differentiation beats generic "best at everything" claims

Q: What should CEOs expect when navigating commoditization?

Bo: Align your corporate strategy with your brand strategy. What are you really selling? Who should you be selling to? Why do you matter to them? Get the story right, then focus on speed and technology integration from communications to marketing to sales enablement.

The challenge is that the desire to continue growing almost contradicts the strategic focus needed. You can get in front of more people, but are they really the right people?

Charity: Break down the silos. Fast decision-making can't be only within marketing—it needs to be cross-functional. Finance, sales and product development can't operate separately anymore. They need to work as an integrated team.

Taylor: We need clear KPIs defined. Instead of vanity metrics like impressions and views, focus on ROI-based metrics like customer lifetime value, retention and new product sales. With integrated tools and teams, we can reveal that data.

Cynthia: You can't develop KPIs without sales goals connected to business goals connected to corporate strategy. If you don't know who you are, what you're selling and who you're selling to, then none of the tools and AI matter.

Key Takeaways:

• Align corporate strategy with brand strategy first
• Break down silos between marketing, sales, and finance
• Focus on ROI-based metrics over vanity metrics
• Strategic focus must precede growth initiatives
• Clear business identity is prerequisite for effective tool implementation

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