CMOs are under pressure, and it is changing what they expect from agencies

New Delhi: Marketing budgets are no longer protected territory. Every rupee is being questioned. Every campaign is expected to prove its worth. And that pressure is landing squarely on the shoulders of chief marketing officers.

According to Himanshu Saxena, Managing Director, BBH India and President (North & East), Saatchi & Saatchi India and Propagate India, the anxiety in boardrooms is real, and it is changing what brands now expect from their creative partners.

“CMOs are under tremendous pressure today,” Saxena told BestMediaInfo.com, pointing to the growing accountability placed on marketing heads.

He added that “the level of scrutiny on marketing spends has become extremely sharp and specific,” reflecting how closely investments are now being examined.

That scrutiny has also changed how success is measured. “You can no longer hide behind vagueness or loose vanity metrics of impressions, likes and shares. Those are soft parameters. Important, but soft. Today, ROI has become very sharp and specific,” Saxena said.

Across industries, marketing heads are increasingly expected to justify investments in direct correlation with performance indicators. Saxena suggested that conversations have shifted away from impressions and visibility toward commercial impact. In that context, the traditional agency model is being questioned.

“There are hard business questions CMOs are being asked,” Saxena explained. “How are you going to premiumise the brand so that I can extract 20% better pricing? How are you going to expand distribution? How are you going to drive dealer demand in automotive? Advertising alone is not an answer to many of these problems,” he added.

Watch the full interview here: 

What clients expect now

Saxena argued that brands are no longer looking for classical creative output in isolation. “Clients no longer want classical creative agencies,” he said. What they seek instead are deeper partnerships. “They want partners who can understand the entire business problem,” he added.

According to Saxena, the industry is going through a major change. “Creative agencies cannot operate the way they used to. If you are operating only as a classical creative agency today, it is neither sustainable nor desired by clients. Clients no longer want classical creative agencies. They want partners who can understand the entire business problem,” he commented.

Agency-client relationships are changing, too. “CMOs do not want vendors. They want trusted partners,” Saxena noted, suggesting that credibility and senior leadership involvement now matter as much as creative capability.

Marketing budgets, particularly in large organisations, are increasingly linked to revenue contribution, customer acquisition costs and long-term value metrics. This has compressed timelines and heightened accountability across the funnel, from awareness to commerce.

Saxena described the current moment as unsettled and fast-moving, where marketing leaders must navigate fragmentation across media platforms, commerce ecosystems and shifting consumer behaviour, all while delivering measurable returns.

Reinforcing his earlier point, Saxena said, “Advertising alone is not sustainable,” adding that “it cannot exist in isolation from commerce, performance and data,” emphasising that everything now has to work together, not in separate silos.

The push toward full-funnel thinking

The pressure on CMOs has pushed them toward a more connected, full-funnel approach. Saxena emphasised that every communication effort must now justify its role within the larger business objective.

“If you are doing a TVC, you'd better know why you are doing it,” Saxena said.

He added, “Every medium must have a very clear role. Earlier, there was a tendency to create a big idea and then adapt it across five channels. Today, that doesn’t work. There has to be clarity on what each medium is expected to achieve.”

Saxena maintained that no medium is becoming obsolete. “Nothing is phasing out,” he observed, before noting that “roles are becoming sharper,” meaning that mediums are not disappearing; they are simply being used with clearer intent.

The issue, he argued, is not the medium, but misalignment. “If the same eye is not looking across the entire funnel, top, mid, in-store, e-commerce, performance, it never gets orchestrated properly. The ROI weakens. The sync breaks.”

The takeaway is simple. Brand-building and performance marketing can no longer sit apart from each other. When different agencies and teams work in silos, it often leads to waste and confusion. Without alignment across the funnel, marketing investments risk losing effectiveness, further intensifying the anxiety already present in boardrooms.

Creativity in a data-driven world

The growing emphasis on measurable outcomes has also raised questions about the place of creativity. Saxena addressed this directly.

“We are in the business of commercial creativity,” he said, making it clear that creativity must serve business outcomes, not just artistic ambition. He defined it more precisely, explaining that “creativity is connecting seemingly disconnected dots,” a process rooted in insight rather than instinct alone.

“We are in the business of commercial creativity. Creativity is the unique ability to connect seemingly disconnected dots to form something new. But those dots have always existed as data points. No iconic advertisement was ever made without data. It is just that earlier, observation and collation of those data points were manual. Today, they are digitised and massive in scale,” he observed.

Artificial intelligence, in his view, amplifies this shift but does not replace human thinking. He noted, “AI processes the past. Humans imagine the future. AI can scan 100 years of work in three minutes and tell you what has been done before. But it cannot imagine what does not yet exist. That still requires human ingenuity.”

While acknowledging that AI is reshaping productivity and workflows, he maintained that human ingenuity remains indispensable. “Machines are tools,” he commented, adding that “a brilliant creative mind is still behind the machine,” reminding us that people are still leading the work.

“The quality is in the question you ask,” Saxena said, referring to prompting in AI systems. He further observed that “even a prompt is imagination,” suggesting that creativity now extends into how technology is guided.

Culture is the new filter

Another factor intensifying CMO anxiety is cultural volatility. Consumer sentiment evolves rapidly, and missteps can escalate quickly in digital ecosystems.

“Cultural context is the new creative currency,” Saxena said, stressing that relevance is non-negotiable. He added, “If your creativity is not seeded in culture, it will only be pushed with money. It will not travel organically because people care about it.”

In a fragmented, hyper-personalised environment, relevance travels further than media weight.

He maintained that brands must engage with culture meaningfully. “Creativity must participate in culture,” Saxena noted, reinforcing the need for contextual sensitivity in communication.

From volume to intelligence

For years, agencies competed on agility. How quickly they could produce large volumes of digital content. That is no longer sufficient. As content consumption fragments across devices and platforms, Saxena argued that agencies must rethink production models.

“Agile content is not enough anymore,” he said, suggesting that speed alone cannot solve complexity. He elaborated that it’s no longer about producing more content, but about producing smarter content.

Describing the evolving system, Saxena threw light on a system where data directly shapes what gets created and where it appears.

He said, “It is a singular platform where data inputs inform creativity, and that creative engine then distributes multiple versions of that idea based on specific cohorts or geographies.”

With feeds increasingly personalised, he pointed out the growing expectation of relevance. “Your feed is different from mine,” Saxena said, adding that “brands must reflect that,” making it clear that brands must adapt their message depending on who they’re talking to.

The year ahead

Looking ahead, Saxena characterised 2026 as a defining period for agencies. “2026 brings a fundamental reset for agencies,” he said, making it clear that this is not about small tweaks but a deeper shift in how agencies will operate.

“Full-funnel is no longer optional. Agencies that remain narrowly defined will struggle. Those that integrate creativity, data, commerce and performance, and operate at scale, will grow.”

For CMOs already operating under intense scrutiny, that evolution cannot come fast enough.

In a market where every marketing decision is tracked, measured and questioned, the pressure is unlikely to ease. It is forcing agencies to rethink not just what they produce, but how they operate, and pushing creativity to prove its commercial value more clearly than ever before.

Watch the interview here: