February 2023

Six steps tobuild marketing
resilience now

How CMOs canmaintain growth amid
economic headwinds
The economic shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic caught many marketing
leaders off guard. Across industries, marketing budgets plummeted. In the years
following, many organizations rebuilt their marketing budgets to new highs. Alongthe way, smart leaders leaned into new solutions that helped address challenges
and deepen customer connections—proving that even in times of unprecedented
global chaos, marketing can serve as a compass for mapping the path to growthand brand resilience.
Now, yet again, economic indicators are warning of a downturn, with two in three
CMOs reporting that they feel less optimistic about the trajectory of the economy¹.
Historically such conditions would have likely led to cuts in marketing budgets
across industries. But with the growing role and importance of marketing inrevenue growth, most CMOs anticipate that budgets will remain the same or evenincrease in the quarters ahead¹.
Great news for marketers, right? Except then there’s the threat of continued
inflation—which reduces what’s possible tomorrow with today’s budget. An
average forecasted budget increase of 8.8% means that many organizations willfind themselves essentially treading water¹.
In these conditions, it’s important for CMOs to take action now to identify
savings and efficiencies without sacrificing growth. While strategic spending andoperational efficiency are best practices in any economic environment, they
become critical when budgets tighten and the pressure to demonstrate return onmarketing investment increases.

2Іn this paper we will explore
six tactics that can help
marketing leaders get more outof budgets, enhance operational
resilience—and deliver on

growth ambitions.
TACTIC 1

TACTIC 2

TACTIC 3

Harness thepower ofperformancemarketing

Shift owned
channels into
overdrive

Establish spend
thresholds
based onperformance

TACTIC 4

TACTIC 5

TACTIC 6

Find costeffective ways
to source
and amplify
content

Partner withagencies
to identify
savings

Ramp uptemplatized,
reusable
content

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TACTIC 1

Harness the power of
performance marketing
In times of uncertainty, CMOs need to squeeze the most out of marketing budgets. Digital performance marketing—where
payment is tied directly to outcomes—is well suited to that demand, offering unprecedented clarity into what works andwhat doesn’t, and allowing leaders to shift funds and tactics rapidly.
But just because performance marketing tactics can offer that clarity and agility, doesn’t mean they will deliver the desired
outcomes. Indeed, many brands struggle to realize the potential of performance marketing due to disconnected tactics,
one-size-fits-all targeting, and delayed or opaque reporting.
When the pressure is on to demonstrate return on investment, performance marketing can drive greater
efficiency. That starts by unlocking the full potential of new capabilities:

HYPER-TARGETING:
Use customer and behavioral data available on digital channels in concert with your own first-party data to perform audiencemodeling and create micro-segments. Then close the loop by feeding customer engagement and performance data back into
a decision engine powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, to update segments in real-time. This kind of hypertargeting enhances relevance and creates more meaningful engagement.
REAL-TIME MULTICHANNEL NURTURING:
Design orchestrated multichannel journeys to build trust and consideration, deliver personalized content and use behavioral
triggers to nudge action – allowing you to accomplish more than traditional retargeting. This type of investment in mid-funnel
activity can help you drive efficient customer acquisition and new levels of growth.
DYNAMIC PERSONALIZATION:
Serve personalized creative, messaging and offers by pairing hyper-targeting with dynamic content assembly. By applying
artificial intelligence and machine learning to real-time data, you can develop and optimize advanced rulesets that trigger
dynamic assembly of content components – allowing you to create exponentially more variations of content necessary todeliver personalization at scale.
CMOs who invest in these capabilities and get performance marketing right have seen significant gains in marketing efficiency
and effectiveness.

Based on Deloitte’s 2021 Personalization Research, companies with mature personalization capabilities
achieved an average of 50% improvement across key performance metrics: Customer engagement, cost
per acquisition, conversion, revenue per customer, and retention².

Targeting in a cookie-less world
In the past, performance marketing tactics have relied heavily on third-party browser cookies. With thedeprecation of cookies, brands will need to take increasing ownership of their first-party customer data. Checkout these six trends to deliver on the promise of performance marketing.
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TACTIC 2

Shift owned channels
into overdrive
Consistent and connected customer experiences are essential to building loyalty—and loyalty is critical to brand resilience.
Owned and earned channels can play an especially powerful role during times of uncertainty by combining higher returnon investment (ROI) than paid media with greater opportunities for personalization, relevance and connection.
When evaluating your channel mix, three channels can play a particularly strong and efficient role in growing
customer value and connections:

EMAIL MARKETING
Use targeted emails to nurture leads or deliver customized offers. The ROI of effective email marketing is often among thehighest of any channel, especially when you embrace new capabilities for automation and personalization.
ORGANIC SEARCH
Invest in content marketing on owned website/e-commerce channels and search engine optimization (SEO)—including
keyword strategy—which also typically yields a high ROI. SEO builds awareness and generates leads to bring more customers
into the top of your marketing funnel. It’s important to avoid the common mistake of adopting a one-and-done approach.
Being successful in Search requires ongoing maintenance and creativity to keep your content and keywords up to datewith customer interests and needs—both globally and locally—and ongoing optimization to keep up with platform andalgorithm changes.

ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA
Expand reach and amplify messaging with organic social media content. High engagement rates create the opportunity toconnect with audiences, build loyalty, and amplify promotional messaging (e.g., bundle or savings offers, price drops). Social isalso a great channel to activate your loyal customers as social influencers by creating compelling, sharable content. More onthat in Tactic 4.

30% savings seen when marketers improve marketing mix allocation by making strategic shifts like Tactic 2 and 3³.

Improving SEO to drive organic traffic and conversions: a case study
A leading luxury retailer sought to make the most of an e-commerce and website redesign to increase organic
search rankings and drive new user growth.
Deloitte Digital partnered with the retailer to perform a technical audit of the website, content analysis andcompetitive keyword analysis resulting in recommendations to optimize the site for SEO success. The result: A
44% improvement in organic traffic by incorporating SEO into site design, content, and development and a
45% increase in conversion by placing relevant content in front of buyers right when they were searching for it.
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TACTIC 2SHIFT OWNED CHANNELS INTO OVERDRIVE

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
To achieve greater effectiveness and scalein these channels, CMOs should continuallyinvest in and tune their adtech tools with newcapabilities in mind:
Customer data platforms
can be used to stitch together customer and prospect identifiers from acrosschannels and functions (e.g., sales, marketing, service), providing a 360-degreeview of engagement that can be leveraged to target and orchestrate connected
experiences across channels in entirely new ways.

Content management systems
that are fully integrated with decisioning engines can deliver personalized
content to users engaging with a brand’s owned site content. Key personal
identifiers captured in the process help in nurturing new leads and fostering
deeper engagement.

Marketing automation tools
can efficiently help you scale content delivery and orchestrate personalized
experiences that drive add-on purchases, reduce shopping cart
abandonment and bake in new levels of loyalty.
Together, these capabilities not only allow marketers to understand how users
are engaging with their channels, but also to serve them targeted, relevant
content that amplifies effectiveness, opens new markets and drives growth.

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TACTIC 3

Establish spend thresholds
based on performance
In hard times, CMOs are often asked to identify “low-hanging fruit” to reduce budgets. This is challenging and can backfire
if it results in ceding market share to competitors. A strategic lens on media and campaign investments is key to balancing
short-term cuts with long-term resilience. For example, brands with a broad portfolio of products may be overinvesting in
low-margin lines that aren’t generating enough revenue to justify spend. Similarly, brands targeting multiple markets andaudience segments may not be seeing enough consistent success.
Pulling these levers can help drive greater efficiency:
REALIGN SPEND ACROSS PRODUCTS / MARKETS
It’s critical to assess marketing spend across products, regions, and segments to identify areas of underperformance andover-spend. Going dark in non-strategic markets and reducing campaigns for low-growth, low-margin products can yield a
10%-20% savings that can be applied to supporting more effective marketing of other products or in other markets³.

ESTABLISH MINIMUM THRESHOLDS
A similar tactic you can use is to establish minimum thresholds for products or markets to qualify for varying levels ofmarketing investment.
EXAMPLE: Deloitte worked with a client to prioritize marketing programs based on criteria such as the priority of the product, researchand development, segment, and consumer experience. Spend thresholds were then assigned based on program priority. A high priority
program may receive full funding whereas a low priority program would receive limited funding.

PARTNER WITH OTHERS TO GAIN CLARITY
For many CMOs, understanding marketing spend relative to performance is difficult, especially if budgets aren’t centrally
managed. Partner with procurement, marketing, finance, and measurement functions to gain clarity and establish a marketing
spend baseline. Then you can identify areas where investment isn’t generating the desired performance or business results.

30% savings seen when marketers improve marketing mix allocation by making strategic shifts like Tactic 2 and 3³.
10%-20% savings when you go dark or reduce campaigns in non-strategic markets³.

Developing sensible campaign spend thresholds: a case study
A global pharmaceutical company was struggling to control marketing spend across its multiple markets. Budgeting
decisions and campaign funding took place at the local level, leading to limited visibility into advertising andpromotional (A&P) spend.
Deloitte partnered with the company to establish a centralized A&P spend baseline. This enabled
us to identify 27% in A&P improvement potential across markets. The largest driver of savings was predicatedon a market performance threshold: Products which exceeded set A&P-to-sales ratios or failed to meet minimum
market thresholds would require a business case to justify certain levels of A&P investment.
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TACTIC 4

Find cost-effective ways tosource and amplify content
Consumers are increasingly turning to social media influencers and creators for product and brand recommendations, atrend that may accelerate as audiences—especially younger generations—seek out alternative product recommendations
amidst price increases and other economic pressures. Already nearly 40% of consumers trust social media influencers
over brands, with Generation Z and millennial consumers twice as likely as baby boomers to trust influencers7.
In an environment where purchasing decisions are increasingly driven by creators and online communities, CMOs may findthey get more impact by investing in alternative content creators and amplification-friendly tactics that help multiply thereach and impact of marketing.
Here are three areas to focus on:

INFLUENCER MARKETING
Partnering with creators who have cultivated loyal followership can be a cost-effective way to engage certain audiences. Thiscan be especially true when collaborating with so-called “micro-influencers” who bring with them highly targeted and active
communities of followers. In addition to adding a layer of authenticity and trust to messaging, creators often closely monitor
how their content is performing and adjust messaging and tone rapidly, which can help make your content investments more
relevant and effective.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Incentivize customers and users of your products / services to publish reviews by offering discounts on future purchases. This
inexpensive strategy can be very effective at driving purchases via social media channels and through direct-to-consumer andmarketplace sites. Over 90% of consumers turn to online communities to get questions answered about a productor service⁵. Brands can also recruit employees to amplify brand messaging via social media channels.

AMPLIFICATION-READY ACTIVATIONS
One of the best ways to grow the value of existing content is to turn those assets into highly sharable media that can beamplified across social channels and platforms. Case in point: sponsorships. Ask sponsorship and collaboration partners to
help create unique brand takeovers during live event moments. This content is ripe for earned media amplification and viralpotential, which can vastly increase sponsorship value—sometimes rivaling the impact of a primetime TV ad spot.

80% aided brand recall after ad exposure delivered by influencer marketing, resulting in gains in brand familiarity
and affinity⁴.

Use AI to gain new perspective on ROI
AI-enabled measurement platforms with image recognition can help you gauge the hard-to-quantify value of incontent brand exposure on screens and across digital channels, helping to more accurately reveal the true value ofbrand activations, such as sponsorships and earned media.
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TACTIC 5

Partner with agencies
to identify savings
On average, external partner spend represents approximately 24% of marketing budget allocations6—which makes
agencies a natural place to look for efficiencies. But rarely do across-the-board cuts make sense; after all, someagency activities deliver greater business value than others. There’s no need for CMOs to go into an agency ecosystemassessment on their own. Tapping insight from their counterparts in procurement, agency relations and finance can help
to identify savings opportunities while still achieving effectiveness from agency investments.
Consider the following approaches:

ESTABLISH A BASELINE FOR YOUR MARKETING EXPENDITURES
The first step is to establish a baseline that shows working vs. non-working spend and categorizes spend by agency vendor
and marketing activity. Baseline in hand, you can bring agency partners into a conversation about the best way reevaluate
spend without negatively impacting effectiveness and outcomes

AUDIT MARKETING PERFORMANCE AND REVISIT CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
CMOs can often identify efficiencies by comparing vendor rates and performance to the share of marketing budget eachvendor receives. As a result of this process, you might identify costs that should be recovered due to underperformance ofdelivered services. You might identify media non-compliance issues that require clawbacks. Or you might find opportunities torenegotiate rate cards, overhead and/or team composition.
It can be helpful to create standard processes for invoice and performance auditing. This is best executed alongsideprocurement, which will help enforce sourcing policies and renegotiate contract terms based on performance metrics.

OPTIMIZE YOUR AGENCY ECOSYSTEM
Consider re-structuring or assigning agency activities and responsibilities based on a combination of capabilities andgeography to gain new efficiencies. This can yield volume discounts and economies of scale while removing duplicate spend
and still preserving quality where it matters in your ecosystem. Such initiatives might look something like:•

Maintaining creative and strategy with a global and core agency of record•

Decoupling production from strategy and creative in order to increase efficiency and reduce costs•

Shifting to a global in-house production hub that allows centralized messaging and workflow•

Partnering with regional hubs or niche players for localization

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TACTIC 5

10

PARTNER WITH AGENCIES TO IDENTIFY SAVINGS

Agency spend reduction strategies

TypicalSavings ³

Revisit contract negotiations

1 - 3%

Consolidate the agency ecosystem,
pursue volume discounts, and in-housing

5 - 15%Go dark in non-strategic markets

10 - 20%

TACTIC 6

Ramp up templatized,
reusable content
Modular or templatized content can be a powerful tool to help CMOs drive operational and asset efficiencies while also enabling
personalization at scale. By breaking down creative assets into modular components that can be assembled and updated or
localized as needed, marketers can quickly bring an array of assets to market without creating content anew for every campaign.
This new way of working—often called a content factory model—can slim the costs of asset creation and production, translating
to savings of up to 30% on creative services⁵. Templatized campaigns also save time at almost every point of the creative
lifecycle, producing up to a 75% decrease in time to market5 by cutting down on lengthy concepting sessions and review cycles.
CMOs can find content efficiencies by leaning into:

MODULAR CONTENT
Partner with internal content operations or external agencies to rewire how content is built—atomizing creative into its
component parts (e.g., image, message, offer, call to action) to personalize by target audience segments rather than taking a
one-size-fits-all approach.

OMNICHANNEL CONTENT STRATEGY
Align content strategy with channel planning to yield a more componentized content model: running agile experiments tomeasure how different component combinations perform on certain channels and optimizing over time. We recommend
marketers adopt an iterative go-forward strategy by starting small, funneling learnings in your next experiment, and scalingover time.

CONTENT OPERATIONS ENABLED BY “MADTECH”
Adopt an agile-based approach to content creation by assessing your processes and capabilities with a goal of identifying
areas where you can reduce content waste and shorten production time. Componentized content works best in a marketing
environment that is agile, data-driven and enabled by madtech (martech and adtech) including a content management system,
digital asset management platform and automated workflow tools.
By moving to a more templatized and component-driven content model, CMOs can improve overall content velocity andultimately get the right content to the right customers at the right time—resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness inbringing campaigns to market.

75% decrease in time to market achieved by marketers who use templatized content⁵.

Enabling reusable content to drive speed and efficiency: a case study
A top-five U.S. bank was faced with increasing campaign cycle times and an inability to deliver personalized offers
and experiences at scale. The marketing team sought to transform its digital acquisition marketing to drive greater
efficiency and effectiveness.
Deloitte partnered with the company to reimagine the campaign lifecycle and enable componentized creative that
could be rapidly assembled into personalized marketing across channels. By introducing agile processes, standing
up a content management system and digital asset management platform, and redesigning digital marketing assets
into standardized and reusable components, the bank cut campaign cycle times in half—in some cases reducing
timelines from weeks to hours—and achieved savings by reusing 75% of its creative.
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TACTIC 6

RAMP UP TEMPLATIZED, REUSABLE CONTENTMEASUREMENT
The measure of your success.
An important capability to support these tactics and amplify customer resilience is a robust
system of measurement and attribution modeling. Digital channels and tactics give marketers
unprecedented quality and precision of data—but without a well-designed system of key
performance indicators, analytics, and modeling capabilities that data has little value.
Establishing a marketing measurement capability that uses artificial intelligence andautomation is important. This capability will identify where the greatest value lies and where
cuts or optimizations can be made. An automated system of measurement gets smarter overtime, creating an ever-improving model.
Various tools and methodologies exist to help CMOs gain this type of visibility.
Marketing leaders can get granular with econometric modeling for multi-channel attribution(MCA). MCA helps marketers understand advertising and marketing impact across channels
in a forward-looking fashion—even down to the individual customer level—without relying onthird-party cookies or other signals that have been reduced or lost due to browser, device,
and regulatory changes.
Armed with this information, you can make strategic choices about spend on campaigns andchannels that are underperforming and reallocate that spend to stronger areas. CMOs haveseen an 11% increase in media-driven conversions and a 10% decrease in cost per
media-driven conversion while maintaining spend levels⁷.
These granular insights also allow you to use scenario planning to optimize budgets without
risking cuts on spend in growth areas. MCA can also be used to predict opportunities toincrease overall spend and ROI across channels.

Effective marketing measurement requires smart performance indicators, next-generation models, wellmanaged data, instant insights, a connected ecosystem and integrated internal teams. To learn more about thebest practices and results achieved by today’s measurement front-runners, download and read our series on
performance measurement.
www.deloittedigital.com/us/measurement12CONCLUSION
By making the most of each dollar in the marketing budget now, CMOs can protect strategic
investments in more transformational initiatives. Deloitte’s 2023 Global Marketing Trends
Report found that CMOs plan to accelerate the move to new digital technologies/platforms
as well as systems and/or algorithms to create greater personalization over the next 12months. When budgets are tight new technology or capabilities may feel like “nice to have”
investments that can be paused for later, but these advancements are critical to improving
marketing precision, identifying new potential markets, and optimizing to reach the rightcustomers. Lastly, don’t forget to close the loop with effective measurement. This not only
allows algorithms and decision engines to get smarter and optimize, but also empowers
CMOs to demonstrate the value of the marketing function to their c-suite peers – positioning
marketing as a revenue driver, not a cost center. Ultimately, by looking for ways to be
more efficient and effective today, marketers can drive business growth and build greater
operational and brand resilience to tackle whatever lies ahead.

GET IN TOUCH
Holly Darov

Katie Denlinger

Baylee Simon

Principal & Offering Leader,
Marketing Strategy &Transformation
hdarov@deloitte.com

Principal & Offering Leader,
Marketing Strategy &Transformation
kdenlinger@deloitte.com

Senior Manager,
Marketing Strategy &Transformationbasimon@deloitte.com

Sources
1. Deloitte, The CMO Survey: The latest results. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/chief-marketing-officer/articles/cmo-survey.html,
accessed September 22, 2022.
2. Deloitte 2021 Personalization Research- Personalizing growth (deloittedigital.com)
3. Based on market results observed by Deloitte Digital subject matter advisors.
4. Nielsen Brand Impact Norms, May 2022. Getting closer: Influencers help brands build more personal consumer connections | Nielsen
5. Oracle, 37% of Consumers Trust Social Media Influencers Over Brands, 2022, https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/
consumers-turn-to-social-media- influencers-2022-05-03/, accessed September 22, 2022
6. Gartner The State of Marketing Budget and Strategy 2022
7. Based on actual results of Deloitte Digital clients

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