Agenda

Every CMO wonders what the corner office really thinks of marketing. In this candid opening session, a sitting CEO — who once held the CMO role — shares what they wish they had known when they ran marketing, and what they now see clearly from the other chair. Walk away with a sharper view of how CEOs evaluate marketing, what builds credibility at the top, and where CMOs leave influence on the table.

For decades, marketers have struggled to prove their contribution in terms the CFO actually trusts. Now, there’s a radical new formula that directly connects marketing activities to enterprise value. This session reveals how leading brands are using it to create a shared language for growth across the C-suite. But here’s the problem: most organizations aren’t remotely built to operationalize it. We’ll explain why — and what you can do about it.

Strategy gets the headlines, but operating model is what decides whether marketing actually delivers. Drawing on new MOSTT research across 900+ participants, this session puts color and clarity around how the operating model shapes everything marketing does: talent, structure, decision rights, speed. See how the right model unlocks alignment and impact for the business, and how the wrong one quietly holds even the best CMOs back.

CMOs are often forced into a false choice: build the brand or chase short-term performance. MMA’s multi-year Brand as Performance research shows that choice may be costing companies far more than they realize. This session reveals new evidence on how brand investment drives measurable financial value, why the old budget logic is breaking down, and how CMOs can use the findings to change the conversation with the CFO.

A cross-industry view of advertising in 2026: what brands are saying in their ads, how layered the messages are, and how much creative they’re producing. Built on five years of MediaRadar data across ten industries. A benchmark for CMOs to ask: am I aligned with my category, or breaking from it on purpose?

Forget the segmentation playbook you’ve been using for decades. More effective targeting for growth isn’t about finding more consumers, but finding the ones most likely to respond — the movable middles. Proven across categories, the Movable Middles Growth Framework beats other audience segmentations. Hear from the first advertiser rolling out this approach company-wide on what’s working, what they didn’t expect, what we still don’t know, and what comes next.

New analysis with LiveRamp surfaces three truths CMOs need to hear: the pattern of data loss matters more than the volume, identity precision matters more than match rate, and RCTs hold up where other methods break. We’ll walk through the implications and what leading brands are doing to stay measurable.

Most acquisition models are built to find consumers likely to buy. But buying once is not the same as becoming valuable in the long term. This new MATT Future Lab with AlixPartners explores a different question: who is likely to become a high-value customer, and where can marketing influence that outcome? Hear from the CMO helping pilot the approach on what they’re learning so far, where the early signals are promising, and what marketers should test next.