CMOs are hoping marketing does not get squeezed as a result of looming tariffs.
In the last 12 months, chief marketing officers worried about an uncertain economy, tenuous relationships with other C-suite execs and the presidential election. While November’s results answered some questions for marketers, they also brought up many more. For example, what will President-elect Trump’s promised tariffs mean for marketing budgets? Will TikTok still be banned?
Here are five of the biggest issues weighing on marketers as they consider their 2025 roadmaps.
AI continues to dominate conversations involving how CMOs can maximize efficiencies and do more with less. Some marketers are worried that the technology’s rise will come at creativity’s expense. In 2024, some brands such as Toys R Us used AI for creative marketing—and were heavily criticized in the process. As generative AI improves, marketers cannot stop prioritizing the human touch, said Lina Polimeni, chief corporate brand officer at Eli Lilly and Co.
“The concern is we as stewards will lose sight of creativity and forget the human emotion,” she said, noting the eternal desire to “find the next shortcut or next shiny thing.”
As CMOs try to grow their reach without increasing their costs, they now have “the added layer of gen AI as a means of efficiency,” said Mike Proulx, a Forrester VP who leads its CMO research team. “CMOs are under even more pressure to try and figure it all out.” He added that Forrester predicts that in 2025, “we will start to see the first practical use cases beyond some of the experimentation that was happening this past year.”
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Such examples, especially if presented at industry conferences, could be helpful to marketers since thus far, much of the conversation has been around theorizing about AI’s role, noted Maggie Schmerin, chief advertising officer at United Airlines.
“As an industry, the discussions around AI that only serve to hypothesize are not overly helpful or inspiring at this point,” she wrote in an email. “Let’s evolve the conversation to be an actionable, scalable roadmap.”
Marketers focused on attracting talent in recent years, especially during the era of the “Great Resignation” in 2021. This year, however, marketers might be worried as much about keeping employees they have hired, with some employees concerned about new return-to-office mandates.
Schmerin stressed the need to be flexible. “We all have a lot of good data now, so how can we take into account the realities we’ve learned and continue to double-down on what’s working while also challenging ourselves to continuously improve team culture,” she added.
For Evereve, a women’s clothing store with more than 100 locations, retention has been a priority for CMO Tom Nowak, who runs a marketing team of 28.
“We’ve grown quite a bit over the last five years and as we experience more success, we do see people becoming more coveted by other organizations,” he said. Evereve’s employees work in the office four days a week.
“People are worried about AI taking jobs,” he said, noting that if that is the case, “then the fewer you need will need to be better people who are even harder to find.”
One of the top initiatives for CMOs in 2025 is investing more in creator marketing, according to Forrester’s recent survey of U.S.-based marketing executives. Proulx said that highlighting creator marketing was not a surprise given the trend’s growth in recent years; however, he was surprised that it was the second-most important priority for marketers, behind behind advancing generative AI capabilities.
“We continue to see the impact that creator marketing has on product sales,” he said. “As social commerce becomes a greater part of a brand’s total commerce strategy, creators as part of that mix are an important lever for brands to utilize to be able to have a presence and sell on social media.”
Sara Mitzner, VP of brand marketing at New York-based AS Beauty, which owns brands including Laura Geller, Bliss and Julep, has been boosting her creator marketing investments in recent years. AS Beauty, which works with creators on user-generated content, plans to increase its influencer and creator marketing by at least 25% in 2025.
“Paid content has had the most success with creator ads,” said Mitzner. “They see it on real people.”
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Of course, one of the primary challenges of creator marketing is giving up control. The channel is most effective when creators are left independent to represent a brand in a way that is authentic to their own audience. “Creators know what appeals to their audiences and when a brand selects an appropriate creator to partner with there has to be an element of trust and backing off—that’s very hard for brands to do in this space,” Proulx said.
Many marketers, particularly in retail, are wary of looming tariffs. Trump has said such costs would include a 25% tax on goods coming in to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10% on products from China. While the impact may not be felt until the second half of the year, costs will most certainly rise for consumers, creating a marketing challenge for brands, according to Polly Wong, president of digital marketing agency Belardi Wong.
“Everyone is worried about the tariffs,” she said. “There are a lot of ways companies can respond to an increase in product cost, but it could very well be a combination of potential increased prices to the consumer and also impact the marketing budget—you have to make it up somewhere.”
Nowak said that the tariffs could impact Evereve’s supply chain and also noted that consumers remain leery of price increases.
“People are spending less and they’re being more careful with their dollars,” he said. “The reason marketing gets cut first is because it’s seen as this amorphous brand love, brand magic.”
Nowak plans to stay closely aligned with Evereve’s CEO and chief financial officer in the coming months to continually endorse the value of marketing.
Restaurant chain Chili’s is also watching a value-searching consumer who isn’t going away in 2025, according to CMO George Felix.
“We’ll keep finding creative ways to promote messaging around our $10.99 3 for Me meal,” he said, noting that two years of the offering have helped customers trust it more than “other limited-time offers popping up in the fast food and casual dining space.”
As shoppers look for more value with their purchases, they’re also being served up an endless amount of choices on more marketing platforms than ever. The script CMOs once followed has been upended as buyers make quicker decisions. Proulx suggests that CMOs will return to more brand marketing.
“Consumers can go from awareness to purchase in seconds in the world of social media,” he said. “For a brand to cut through that and differentiate itself means that it 100% has to invest in its brand equity.”
Rothy’s, a direct-to-consumer brand that sells shoes and bags made of recycled materials, plans to try to stand out by continuing to incorporate its mission of emphasizing sustainability into its marketing. For example, in 2024 the brand hosted in-store bottle swap events that engaged its customer community.
“Shoppers today are looking for more than just convenience; they want to feel connected with the brands they support, and care deeply about purpose and authenticity,” wrote CMO Jamie Gersch in an email, adding that offering buying channels of in-store, wholesale and e-commerce are critical. “But as the customer has more choice than ever, access isn’t enough: all channels must work together to deliver a cohesive brand experience, and your DTC channel has to go deeper to share why you matter in the world and what makes you different.”
Chili’s Felix noted his marketing team will continue to invest in being part of the cultural conversation. “The voice of Chili’s comes through best on social, and our team continues to prove that they know when to throw gas on the fire to turn a moment into something bigger,” he said, noting how the chain tapped into TikTok’s viral “Triple Dipper” moment last year.
AS Beauty’s Laura Geller has built its brand by targeting women over 40, but in recent years, an increasing number of other brands have entered what Mitzner calls the “mature space.” To maintain its advantage, Laura Geller, which was founded more than 25 years ago, plans to market itself from a position of authority.
“We see more competition—more brands are wanting to speak to that customer as well,” Mitzner said. “We have to make sure we are presenting ourselves in a way that we are the experts and we have the product for the customer.”
