Don't blame the agency for underperforming creative. The root cause is often internal: outdated processes and organizational issues that "roll downhill." The creative is merely the most visible scapegoat for a deeper, strategic or operational failure.
Most brands never unified their marketing operations. Instead, they bolted on new models for digital, social, and influencers, leading to siloed teams, inconsistent briefs, and conflicting agencies. This hidden complexity is why creative work suffers.
CMOs often arrive with a transformative vision but are quickly consumed by daily crises ('day job'). To succeed, they need a dedicated resource—an advisor or internal team—to progress long-term strategic initiatives, which is their 'night job'.
Consistently great creative is underpinned by excellent operations. To achieve this, operational roles like program managers shouldn't be in a centralized PMO. They must be part of the creative organization to understand how their work directly enables high-quality output.
The CMO role is no longer about a single iconic campaign. It's about redesigning the marketing organization (architect) and delivering rapid, visible improvements (house flipper) to satisfy immediate business needs while building for the future.
Don't focus AI on replacing creatives. The biggest drain on marketing teams isn't production cost but operational inefficiency. AI should be deployed to streamline processes and administrative tasks, giving marketers more time to think strategically.
AI excels at turning abstract ideas into tangible visuals for concepting. CMOs should stop accepting text-based "manifestos" and instead require agencies to use AI to rapidly mock up and demonstrate their creative vision before production begins.
Don't start an AI transformation with an org redesign. First, map end-to-end workflows to identify operational bottlenecks where AI can help. Restructuring without fixing the underlying process just recreates the same problems in a new chart.