To The Modern CMO
Marketing Unfiltered 64 → The 5 Fronts Every Modern CMO Is Fighting On & How To Attack Them With 90 Day Plan To Prove Your An Executive
Good Morning Leaders, welcome back to Marketing Unfiltered.
Simon’s article last week really struck a chord, thanks for the kind words and feedback.
Today I am offering a different perspective on and for the Modern CMO and you need a plan to show you are an executive not just another Department lead.
The Modern Day CMO
Dear Leaders,
By now you’ve felt it: the CMO role is no longer a “nice-to-have creative voice.” It’s a high‑stakes leadership seat at the intersection of growth, transformation, and risk.
It’s hard f-ing work! I have the scar tissue, I bet you do too.
You’re expected to behave like a Chief Growth Officer, think like a Chief Transformation Officer, and still carry the brand (yes capital B Brand) – all under sharper scrutiny and shorter timeframes than ever.
At the same time, your customer has more choice, less friction, and more tech helping them than they’ve ever had. You’re effectively presenting to your boardroom and then presenting products, SKUs and the brand to the customer board.
Any plan you bring forward has to stand up to both boards.
Most CMOs I speak to and work with are fighting on these 5 fronts simultaneously:
Boardroom & Financial Pressure - Proving incremental ROI, closing the CFO credibility gap, balancing short‑term performance and long‑term brand, doing more with flat budgets – all while holding the shortest tenure in the C‑suite.
AI & Technology Paradox - Avoiding AI‑driven brand sameness, moving from simple prompting to agentic AI, taming martech bloat, turning “do AI” hype into value, and managing governance, risk.
Data Privacy & Measurement - Navigating signal loss, building first‑party data infrastructure, staying ahead of regulation, making sense of omnichannel attribution, and breaking down data silos across Marketing, Product, Sales, and IT.
Talent & Org Design - Managing burnout, hiring and upskilling for creative + data‑literate + AI‑native skills, reducing friction with Sales and Product, maintaining culture in hybrid teams, and supporting employer branding.
Market Dynamics & Consumer Behaviour - Staying culturally relevant without tipping into “cringe” (or falling into the completely unhinged trap) reaching fragmented audiences while distribution channels are dying, rebuilding trust in an age of AI content, managing volatility, and standing out in crowded categories. While, watching out for those random popular TikTok’s about and abusing your brand.
None of these arrive one at a time and often all at once.
And yet, your job is to prioritise, simplify, and keep the business moving forward.
That’s Why I’m Writing to You
I’m not listing these to add weight to your shoulders.
You already feel it, on both shoulders.
I’m writing this because there is a way to move through the next 6 months that is structured, honest, and commercially grounded.
And that gives you space to lead, not just react.
My work with CMOs is typically coaching first, consulting second. Everyone needs help especially at the exec table, its challenging, lonely and every day feels like an episode of the Traitors…
I’m not here with another generic playbook you could download. I’m beside you, as you:
Decide what genuinely matters in the next 90 days
Shape the narrative for your board and CFO
Protect your team while you change the engine
Today’s framework is super simple:
Phase 1: Triage (Days 1–30) → stabilisation & alignment
Phase 2: Efficiency (Days 31–90) → optimisation & integration
Phase 3: Scale (Month 6)→ transformation & future‑proofing
Underneath that is one question:
Q: How do we stop the bleeding, earn credibility, and make room for real transformation – without burning you or your team out?
So here is a viable option to move forward with:
→Phase 1: Days 1–30: Triage, Trust, Guardrails
Focus: stop revenue leaks, secure the boardroom, and set AI guardrails.
Quick Wins & Credibility - Cut or fix the bottom 20% of spend, reallocate, and walk into the next board meeting with a cleaner, simpler story. Trust comes from impact aka relationship building, results and becoming a force to reckon with.
CFO Alignment - Agree a shared, simple definition of “Marketing success” this quarter in a joint and agreed language.
Cultural & Capacity Check - Audit scheduled/automated content for risk, and run a quick capacity review to free your team from low‑value “busy work”. Kill the long slack and team threads - help drive deliberate focus and remove chat seen as doing work.
AI Governance - Put a practical internal AI policy in place – enough to protect, not enough to paralyse. Then go and teach the org how you did it, how you use it and how they collaborate with it. (Here are 5 executive prompts to help you with AI)
→Phase 2: Days 31–90: Efficiency & Integration
Focus: fix the engine and align the org.
Data & Tooling (to Day 60) - Understand your exposure to third‑party data loss, rebalance toward first‑party, simplify martech, and introduce a realistic attribution approach (you’re likely being pushed towards MMM or equivalent - do the deep research to understand the pros and cons - MMM looks great but rarely provides real insights for better work vs knowing what you already knew).
Cross‑Functional Alignment (to Day 90) - Run a focused Sales + Marketing (or with Product) session to fix definitions, handoffs, and SLAs.
AI Value Story - Deliver 1–2 AI pilots with real outcomes (time saved, cost down, revenue up) and a clear narrative the board can follow.
AI Hackathon - Go that step further and co-create with your department and your peers. AI hackathons are as much about the working process and creating shared language and creating opportunities the business couldn’t sign off in an effort vs reward matrix and start to deliver with AI not just individuals using tools. Be the leader who shows progress and owns transformation
Agentic Commerce - Not to push the AI train too hard but get across how you will work with agents and with agentic commerce.
UCP is the new offering that will be changing your landscape.Brand & Performance Balance - Add a simple brand health measure alongside performance dashboards to change the conversation.
Hint: Have analysis driven dashboard not just metrics - enable the business to understand and feel you understand and are addressing issues.
→Phase 3 – Month 6: Scale & Future‑Proofing
Focus: move from fixing to leading. By Month 6, we’re working on:
Agentic AI Workflows – governed, repeatable AI processes that will become a collaborator and in some take routine work off your team’s plate
First‑Party Data Activation – using your data to create more relevant, human experiences tied to revenue.
Brand Soul in an AI World – create and practise a practical “Brand Soul” guide for humans and machines, so you don’t sound like everyone else and people connect deeply with your brand - here are a few more of my tips. Brand is a moat in 2026, but if you don’t have a brand customers know, like or love your competitors will win
Talent & Skills Strategy – mapping the roles and capabilities you actually need next, and how to build or buy them.
Sharper Category Positioning – answering “Why us, why now?” with six months of better insight behind you.
This is where the work shifts from crisis navigation to leadership development: how you show up, what you choose to say NO to (always be prepared to and confidently say NO), and how you build a team that can sustain the pace.
I Invite You!
If you recognise yourself in any of this, you don’t need more noise, decks, or unpersonalised templates.
You need:
A clearer way to prioritise the next 90 days (as offered above)
A sharper, calmer narrative for your leadership peers and board - clear, concise and critical communication wins the executive battle, don’t fall into the over explain, over communicate under deliver trap many CMOs fall into!
A confidential place to test the decisions you already know you need to make
If one area feels most acute right now
(i) Boardroom, (ii) AI, (iii) Data, (iv)Talent, or (v) Market – reply with which one and I’ll happily chat (my email is danny @dannydenhard.com or DM me on LinkedIn) or point you to the most relevant previous newsletter or we will cover in upcoming issue of the newsletter.
Go grab that bull by the horns and drive your business forward! Your team, business and career will thank you!
» If you would like a doc to take away download the supporting deck here
Thank you for reading again today and have a great weekend!
Danny Denhard
⇒ I help coach, I work as a consultant & as a company advisor
Thank you for these words