Marketing & Communications Roundtables

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The 2024 annual corporate reputation ranking by Axios and The Harris Poll shows some significant year-over-year shifts. In this interactive roundtable, Rob Jekielek, Managing Director at The Harris Poll, will review some notable trends such as

• the companies that have experienced the biggest changes in their reputation since last year,
• the rise of traditionally conservative leaning brands,
• how inflated prices have impacted brands’ reputation,
• the effect of weight-loss drugs on pharma companies’ reputation, and
• how airlines have fared amidst plane quality issues, increased demand, and labor shortages.

Join us for an hour to discuss these topics and their resulting business impact with your peers in communications, marketing, and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the discussion at this event but may not attribute them to any individual or company (of course, the Axios Harris Poll 100 Corporate Reputation Ranking is public information and as such can be quoted).

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With so much going on in the world, marketing and communications leaders are feeling the challenges of capitalizing on the uncertainty and the change. The impact of the upcoming US election will be one of the contributing factors in the uncertainty ahead. How has this impacted the way CCOs and CMOs are feeling about their role and their team’s contribution to the business?

In this 45-min roundtable, we’ll highlight some of the shifts in the sentiments around impact, resources and job satisfaction using the latest data from the CMO+CCO Meter survey.

We will also discuss the data on the election and the CEO’s changing expectations of the MarComms functions.

The survey will quantify what is happening, the roundtable will allow us to share our thoughts on why.

 Questions we plan to discuss are:

• How and why has sentiment changed over the last 6 months?
• What impact do we believe will we see before, during and after the election process?
• What is CEOs’ view of marketing’ and communications’ roles, and what new expectations do CEOs have?

Join us for 45 minutes of discussion with your peers in marketing and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the event but may not attribute them to any individual or company.

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Chief communicators have earned their seat at the table and now find themselves involved in many business issues. They manage multiple stakeholder groups to create a singular voice and vision for the company. More proactive and strategic, today’s communications leaders have become a trusted advisor of CEOs and business units, responsible for navigating key issues facing the business, getting ahead of future challenges, and providing data and insights on various stakeholders.

How is CCOs’ life at the table—and often outside their communications swim lane?

In this 45-min roundtable, we’ll highlight some of the shifts that we are seeing in the chief communicator role and will discuss their implications with CCOs. We’ll also try for at least one CEO to share their perspective. This roundtable is part of an ongoing research project on the evolving role of the CCO (and CMO) and CEOs’ perspective on those roles, and we hope you’ll be part of this conversation.

 Questions we plan to discuss are:

• How have chief communicators’ responsibilities evolved?
• What are key skills that today’s lead communicators need?
• What is CEOs’ view of communications’ role, and what new expectations do CEOs have?

Join us for 45 minutes of discussion with your peers in communications and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the event but may not attribute them to any individual or company.

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Today’s chief marketers, who go by many different titles (chief growth officer, chief digital officer, etc.), are analysts, technologists, and strategists. CEOs want them to identify market opportunities and generate revenue, driven both by short-term performance marketing and long-term brand building—all while creating a holistic customer experience and measuring performance.

Has this evolution of the CMO role—and experience—qualified CMOs better for the CEO role?

In this 45-min roundtable, we’ll highlight some of the shifts that we are seeing in the chief marketer role and will discuss their implications with CMOs. We’ll also try for at least one CEO to share their perspective. This roundtable is part of an ongoing research project on the evolving role of the CMO (and CCO) and CEOs’ perspective on those roles, and we hope you’ll be part of this conversation.

 Questions we plan to discuss are:

• How have chief marketers’ responsibilities evolved?
• What are key skills that today’s lead marketers need?
• What is CEOs’ view of marketing’s role, and what new expectations do CEOs have?

Join us for 45 minutes of discussion with your peers in marketing and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the event but may not attribute them to any individual or company.

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Marketing is a constantly changing and exciting function. What worked yesterday is not guaranteed to work tomorrow. CMOs have always grappled with proving impact to CEOs, aligning credible metrics with business outcomes, and constantly improving on what drives growth. What can we learn from each other as the latest transformation of marketing is being driven by AI?

Some key topics we will explore at this roundtable, held exclusively for members of the Marketing & Communications Center, include:

• Proving impact to the CEO continues to be a challenge for marketers. What are the emerging ways of measuring impact and proving attribution that you are exploring?
• How well do you think the metrics you currently use reflect your team’s impact and performance? What are some improvements and innovations you want to make in this area?
• What are some ways in which you or your team are implementing AI for marketing and how are you measuring effect beyond driving efficiencies?
• Innovation, learning and development are key concerns in a hybrid workspace. What are some tools or strategies you have found to be successful to optimize innovation and learning in a hybrid workspace?

Come and join our roundtable to share ideas, insights, experiences, and actions with your peers in other companies. Your unique perspective contributes to our collective understanding of strategies shaping the future of marketing investment.

This meeting will be held under the Chatham House Rule, which means participants are free to use the information, but the identities of any of the participants/companies cannot be revealed or attributed to any information.

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After an initially slower adoption of generative AI in communications, it has made big inroads into the function ever since. Communications teams are experimenting with and employing AI for various use cases, with some testing as many as a dozen AI applications.

Questions we want to discuss in this roundtable include:

Current use: What are some AI use cases for communications teams? How does it change productivity?

Measurement: How can AI be used to measure reputation and/or other KPIs to track business goals? 

Changes in work and skills: How have the work, role, and needed skills of your team members changed? How do you get your team members to use AI and upskill them as needed?

Quality and trust: How do you ensure quality and accuracy standards when using AI? 

Fighting misinformation: How do you protect against AI-generated misinformation about your company?

We are hosting this roundtable in partnership with Takeda, one of the top 14 pharmaceutical companies in the US. João Belo, Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Brand & Communications at Takeda, will be a lead speaker to kick off the discussion on the above topics. Since generative AI’s early days, João has promoted the adoption of generative AI in his company and even the development of a company proprietary gen AI system. João may be joined by other speakers. We encourage active participation by all participants.

Join us for an hour of discussion with your peers in communications and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the event but may not attribute them to any individual or company.

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As economic shifts, technological advancements, and changing consumer behaviors redefine the marketing landscape, CMOs face new challenges in resource allocation. Therefore, understanding the distinct viewpoint of their CEO is crucial for CMOs to build strategies that will find CEO support.

Some key topics we will explore at this roundtable, held exclusively for members of the Marketing & Communications Center, include:

• Compared to the prior year, there is an increase in CEOs and CMOs who say they will increase spending on advertising. What is driving this? What are some trends, opportunities, and challenges around advertising channels?
• Far more CEOs want to increase investment in customer experience and loyalty marketing compared to CMOs. What do you think is driving this gap?
• 46% of CEOs and 37% of CMOs want to increase their investment in artificial intelligence (AI). What is causing this gap? What does the CEO expect investing in AI to do for the business as a whole and marketing in particular?

Come and join our roundtable to share ideas, insights, experiences, and actions with your peers in other companies. Your unique perspective contributes to our collective understanding of strategies shaping the future of marketing investment.

This meeting will be held under the Chatham House Rule which means that participants are free to use the information, but the identities of any of the participants/companies cannot be revealed or attributed to any information. 

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With crises, disruptions, social/political issues, and economic and geopolitical uncertainties now being more an everyday reality than exception, how has the work of the communications teams that address these challenges changed?

Some of the topics we want to discuss are: 

Changes of the work

• How much have crisis communications shifted from reacting to events to proactively managing reputation and preempt crises? How are you doing this?
• How have target audiences, the multitude of stakeholders considered, and channels (less social media, more in-person conversations?)been changing?
• How do you ensure trust by your various stakeholders?
• What new skills and ways of working are required to work in today’s landscape?

Organization

• Are you using outside advisors more/less for staying on top of potential upcoming issues, to address crises, support reputation building, etc.?
• Who manages issues/crises (COO, CCO, CFO, etc.) and what role does the CCO/communications team play? How much does the CEO/C-Suite get involved?

Types of crises

• What kinds of crises and disruptions are you preparing for? What role do the elections play?
  • Upcoming event: Keep your eyes out for our members-only event on March 12, 2pm ET on the elections from a Marketing & Communications and ESG perspective.

Investment and performance (as time permits)

• Upcoming research/event: Depending on the discussion, we might not get to this topic at this event. However, performance measurement/KPIs is in our research and events plan so we’ll address it for sure in the next few months. More information to come.
• Is the investment in crisis communications increasing or decreasing? Interestingly, our C-Suite Outlook 2024 shows that CEOs have more positive views on this than those in marketing/communications functions.
• How do you prove your/your team’s business value, including during times when there is no current crisis to address?

Join us for an hour of discussion with your peers in communications and related fields. We are holding this event under the Chatham House Rule, i.e., attendees may use the learnings from the event but may not attribute them to any individual or company.

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For the past 24 years, The Conference Board has surveyed CEOs and other C-Suite executives around the world to explore what they think lies ahead for businesses in the near future.

In this roundtable, we will convene a group of our Marketing & Communications Center members to discuss the implications of the survey and what it might mean to those leading these functions.

The survey will cover:

• What are the external and internal factors that CEOs and CMOs believe will impact business in the year ahead?
• Where will CEOs and other leaders of companies invest to drive profit & growth?
• Which particular areas of communications and marketing will receive increased investment according to the CEO, CFO and CMO?
• And what are the evolving expectations of deploying AI across the enterprise.

Real-time data with actionable insights discussed with your peers in a trusted environment … a good way to start the year.

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The impact of marketing and communications teams on the business has been on the rise overall.  As we look ahead, this could be slowed down by concerns around the tools and budget at their disposal, especially as they drive investment during a period of competition in AI adoption. These factors are highlighted in the latest wave of the CMO+CCO Meter in October. 

• The latest sentiments from marketing & communications leaders regarding impact, resources, and satisfaction
• The effect of AI deployment in the disciplines and the opportunities and issues arising
• The external economic and political environment and its influence on marketing/communications strategies
• The role of humans in leadership, innovation, and inspiration

Join our roundtable to share insights, hear from peers about the past year, and strategize for the year ahead considering the dipping Consumer Confidence Index, unstable global political climate, and the approaching election season.