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Highlights from today’s newsletter:
📈 Scaling content without scaling costs
💰 CMOs say lack of resources is hurting growth opportunities
🛍️ Key takeaways from eTail West
🚀 The content formula behind 10M+ views

Marketing leadership is moving fast—staying ahead means knowing what matters. That’s why we’re introducing Leadership Lens—a new limited-run section dedicated to the insights and strategies shaping the future for CMOs and marketing leaders.

EDITOR’S PICK

#SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Mind The Gap: Gen Z Is Not Where You Think

Gen Z doesn’t shop the way you think—and they definitely won’t buy from brands that feel out of touch. With $360 billion in disposable income, they hold serious purchasing power, but brand loyalty is weaker than ever. They don’t browse websites or watch polished ads—they search TikTok, trust Reddit, and expect brands to be part of culture, not just another voice in the noise.

Liquid Death built a cult following through satire. Duolingo and Ryanair went viral by ditching corporate polish for chaos. Meanwhile, brands clinging to traditional marketing are losing relevance fast.

How can brands earn Gen Z’s attention—and keep it? Let’s break it down.

READ THE FULL INSIGHTS HERE

#EVENT INSIGHTS

Rising Costs, AI & the Halo Effect—Key Takeaways from eTail West

The Fospha team had an amazing time at eTail West last week, connecting with eCommerce leaders and diving into the biggest challenges and opportunities shaping the industry. Here are the top trends that dominated the conversation.

📈 Brands Are Navigating Rising Ad Costs & Complexity

With CPCs on the rise, brands are doubling down on efficiency—looking for opportunities to optimize their marketing mix and making the most of owned channels like email, SMS, and loyalty programs.

🤖 AI-Driven Personalization Is Scaling Up

AI is transforming customer interactions in real time. Hanky Panky shared how AI powers their acquisition, site experience, and retention efforts—including automating 50% of customer service interactions to free up human agents for high-value customers.

💡 The Halo Effect Is Real

Fospha has long highlighted the impact of TikTok, YouTube, and Meta ads on third-party sales channels like Amazon. At eTail West, Ross Wakeham from TikTok reinforced that this ‘spillover’ effect is a huge measurement opportunity for brands.

For those interested in learning more about the halo effect, Fospha’s latest research is available here. 🔗

#AI CONTENT STRATEGY

Innovative AI Strategies for Engaging Executives in a Content-Saturated Market

In the swirling vortex of digital engagement, business leaders face a challenge: attracting executive priming with meaningful content. George Looker, the seasoned helmsman at Contentive and Delfy.ai, advocates for a powerful triad: precision over volume, context, and insightful perspective.

Effective executive content transcends mere information; it illuminates. Be granularly precise, demonstrating how visionary ideas can be pragmatically applied. Challenge assumptions rather than appeasing them, urges Looker.

As AI reshapes thought leadership, Looker’s future gaze is fixed on ‘conversational intelligence‘—AI’s ability to transcend rote data retrieval, inferring nuanced insights, and forging a new era of compelling B2B engagement.

LEADERSHIP LENS

3 Key Priorities for CMOs and Marketing Leaders in 2025

As CMOs and marketing leaders’ approach 2025, they face a complex landscape requiring strategic agility and operational excellence. The most successful CMOs will bridge the gap between strategic planning and execution. Gartner’s recent research highlights the three essential priorities marketing leaders should concentrate on in 2025 to drive successful enterprise growth.

Amidst disruption and transformation pressures, CMOs must prioritize executing their strategic plans. However, many struggle to demonstrate their value to CEOs and CFOs, who may not view marketing as a growth driver.

To overcome this, CMOs should harness marketing’s strengths, transforming it into a forward-looking customer insights engine that shapes enterprise strategy and commercialization efforts.

CMOs Say Lack of Resources Is Hurting Growth Opportunities

CMOs are feeling the squeeze—not just from budget cuts, but from a lack of the right resources to fuel growth. A new CMO Council report lays it bare: underinvestment is stalling marketing performance, making it harder to run efficient campaigns, scale digital efforts, and fully tap into AI’s potential.

Fixing this means using data to sharpen strategies, identifying untapped revenue streams, and rethinking customer loyalty beyond outdated programs. The real challenge lies in finding the balance between efficiency and innovation without sacrificing momentum.

27% of CMOs Avoid GenAI in Marketing Campaigns

A recent survey reveals 27% of CMOs are wary of generative AI, particularly over reputational risks and execution hurdles, despite 77% leveraging it for creative processes. Concerns persist around ROI and AI’s environmental impact. Broader campaign execution issues indicate that AI is just one aspect of marketing’s evolving landscape.

WHAT WE ARE READING

The AI Edge in Creator Partnerships: Scaling Content Without Scaling Costs

AI is transforming creator partnerships by minimizing manual administrative burdens and integrating detailed data-driven insights.

Marketing professionals can leverage these advancements to unlock substantial ROI improvements and effectively scale their content strategies. This shift from manual effort to AI-enhanced processes enables more strategic content utilization and distribution.

CMO Guide To Schema: How Your Organization Can Implement A Structured Data Strategy

Structured data markup significantly boosts website visibility and comprehension by search engines, integral for AI adaptation. Prioritizing entities over keywords through schema markup forms a semantic data layer, ensuring brand coherence and adaptability. SEO should go beyond webpages, optimizing web data to construct an impactful content knowledge graph.

AI and Human Emotion Are The Building Blocks of Effective Creative Advertising

Leveraging AI and emotional creative analysis is essential for crafting compelling advertising. While AI efficiently processes data, emotional analysis uncovers deep audience connections.

The strategic harmony of these tools produces campaigns that authentically engage, enhancing both emotional resonance and conversion rates.

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TOP VOICE

💭INSIGHTS FROM HARLEY FINKELSTEIN