Key Takeaways:

• Marketing budgets have dropped to 7.7% of revenue and stayed flat for the past two years, signaling a new normal. Yet CMOs are still expected to deliver high performance and measurable ROI.¹
• In-house marketing teams are overwhelmed, managing over 200 campaigns a year across fragmented tools and vendor stacks.²
• Omnichannel strategies are most effective when digital and physical channels are executed in combination, not isolation.
• Marketing Execution Partners (like Continuum) help CMOs scale omnichannel execution with brand governance and speed.
   

Why Are CMOs Struggling to Execute Strategy in 2025?

CMOs are facing mounting execution challenges — and the Gartner Marketing Symposium validated that reality.

Our clients — and if you’re reading this, perhaps you’re one of them — have been telling us for the better part of a year that something isn’t right. Budgets are tighter. Teams are leaner. There’s more pressure to perform, and far less room to fail. And most importantly, executing across channels — digital and physical alike — has become a bit like trying to juggle flaming torches while walking a tightrope in a windstorm.

The marketing world isn’t short on insights or ambition. What it’s short on is capacity.

So I went to Denver to test our hypotheses against hard data. To see if what we’d been hearing in our client conversations was showing up in the research. And I’m pleased (and somewhat alarmed) to report: it was.

What Do Gartner’s 2025 Marketing Data Say About Execution?

Let’s start with the numbers.

1. Why Have Marketing Budgets Stalled?
   Marketing budgets are averaging 7.7% of company revenue, a significant drop from the pre-pandemic average of 11.2% and holding steady year over year, signaling a lasting shift.¹ According to Gartner, CMOs agree that this level of spend isn’t enough to fully deliver their strategy in 2025.
2. Where is the Spend Going?
   CMOs are dedicating 31% of their marketing budget to paid media, with 61% of that flowing into digital performance channels like search.¹ But here’s the kicker: 55% of CMOs say those campaigns aren’t delivering expected returns.¹
3. Which Channels are Underestimated?
   Email emerged as the top channel for loyalty, with a remarkably strong impact-to-cost ratio.¹ Events drive significant brand value, especially in awareness and consideration. And direct mail is regaining attention as a way to break through digital fatigue.

But here's the issue: the data treats channels in isolation. What gets missed is the compound lift that happens when channels are executed in combination — email, SMS, direct mail, paid media, events.

This was one of the more interesting moments that came during a session led by Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and Chief of Research, who shared a quadrant plotting marketing spend against channel impact. It was a helpful visual — but what struck me was what it didn’t show.

It treated each channel in isolation.

And that, to me, is where the bigger opportunity lies. It’s not about measuring channels independently. It’s about understanding how they work in combination — the compound impact that emerges when email, direct mail, paid media, and events are orchestrated together.

How much lift does direct mail create when layered into a nurture stream that includes email and SMS? What happens when a digital ad is timed to land right before a physical invitation? That’s where strategy turns into results. Because while most platforms tell you what’s working within a channel, they rarely tell you what’s working between them.

Why is Marketing Execution the Biggest Challenge Today?

Teams are at capacity.

39% of CMOs plan to cut agency spend.¹ Nearly the same number are cutting in-house labor. And marketing leaders are being told to simplify, centralize, standardize, and automate —without the budget or bandwidth to do so.

Marketing teams are being pushed to launch more campaigns, across more channels, in less time — all while reducing headcount, slashing agency budgets, and streamlining their tech stacks. At the same time, they’re expected to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI-powered tools, making the job of staying relevant not just demanding, but increasingly complex.

And, yet, the workload hasn’t gone anywhere.

The execution challenges haven’t disappeared. They’ve just landed on the desks of increasingly overwhelmed in-house teams who are now responsible for stitching together platforms, assets, timelines, and measurement across both digital and physical channels for an average of 209 campaigns annually.²

That’s not just inefficient. It’s risky.

Because as the execution burden increases, clarity declines. And that’s when great strategies start to fall apart.

What is a Marketing Execution Partner – and Why Now?

Execution shouldn’t be what holds strong marketing strategies back.

Unlike marketing agencies built for big ideas and brand storytelling, marketing execution partners focus on delivery. They collaborate with internal teams to bridge the gap between strategy and results.

What Do Execution Partners Do?

Here’s how marketing execution partners help:

• Assess your execution ecosystem — identifying redundant platforms, vendors, and gaps.
• Execute omnichannel campaigns across digital and physical touchpoints — working closely with your team to ensure every element is delivered to spec, on brand, and on time, leveraging their networks. (For example: At Continuum, we leverage our vetted network of 900+ supplier partners and hybrid onshore/offshore creative services models to get the job done right).
• Simplify supplier sprawl — consolidate operations and reduce friction.
• Embed operational support within your team — boost your team’s capacity and focus to drive strategic priorities forward.
• Make reporting practical and transparent — helping leadership understand what’s driving performance and where to reinvest.

In short: we bring clarity and structure to the chaos.

Not as an agency. But as a true execution partner.

Why Omnichannel Needs an Execution-First Mindset

Omnichannel doesn’t just mean “being everywhere”. It means coordinating everywhere — across touchpoints, timelines, and teams — to create a consistent, responsive customer experience. That requires clarity. That requires orchestration. And, increasingly, that requires help. 

If there’s one thing this symposium made painfully clear, it’s this:

Channels are not the strategy. They are merely how the strategy is executed. 

Historically, that help came from agencies. But the agency model — built for big ideas, creative storytelling, and brand building — is struggling to keep pace with the sheer complexity of modern execution. CMOs don’t just need more ideas. They need more doers.

This is where execution partners come in.

Final Thought: It’s Time to Climb the Mountain (Together)

Suzanne Schwartz, Sr. Director Analyst at Gartner, described building an omnichannel strategy as standing at the base of Mt. Rainier. On paper, the route looks simple. But when you’re staring up at the mountain, the path feels steep, dangerous, and murky.

And you know what? They’re right.

But you don’t have to climb it alone.

With the right goals, the right metrics, and the right team (including the right execution partner), that mountain becomes manageable. Not easy. But possible. And isn’t that what leadership is really about?

So if you’re staring at a strategy that makes sense on paper but feels impossible in practice — let’s talk. Because execution isn’t the end of your brand’s marketing journey. It is the journey.

And it’s time we started walking it with a bit more clarity.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is a Marketing Execution Partner?
   A Marketing Execution Partner helps brands deliver omnichannel campaigns across digital and physical channels, managing execution tasks like supplier coordination, asset delivery, and reporting — without adding complexity.
2. Why are marketing budgets flat in 2025?
   According to Gartner, average marketing budgets remain at 7.7% of revenue — a significant drop from pre-pandemic levels — signaling a new normal in spending.¹
3. What’s the difference between execution partners and marketing agencies?
   Agencies focus on creative and strategy. Execution partners focus on tactical delivery — ensuring campaigns launch on time, on brand, and at scale.
4. Why is omnichannel execution so hard?
   With fragmented tools, shrinking teams, and complex channel coordination, many in-house teams are overwhelmed — making execution the new marketing bottleneck.

Sources:

¹2025 Gartner CMO Spend Survey. https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6461339

²2024 Gartner Channel and Campaign Management Survey.