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12 January 2025 | Issue #77

In this issue:

• The CMO Survey: Results are Mostly Positive
• How to Craft a Visual Marketing Strategy That Sells
• 2025 Salary Guide for Marketing and Creative Professionals
• The Illustration Trends Set to Take Shape in 2025
• Why Community Will Make or Break Creators and Brands in 2025
• Design Quote of the Week

Over the break, I was reading through The CMO Survey, and the results are better than I would have expected. The good news is that it appears that marketing growth is back. Now, the survey was completed before the US presidential election, so I'm not sure what sort of impact that has had on CMOs' outlook.

I fed the report to my friend Jackie D (you might know him as ChatGPT), and he consolidated some stats you might find interesting.

• Marketing Budget Growth: Marketing expenditures grew by 5.8% over the past year, a significant recovery from the prior year’s 2.5% growth. CMOs are optimistic, projecting an 8.6% increase for the new year.

• Digital Marketing: Digital marketing spending continues to climb, increasing from 8.9% to 11.1% this year, with forecasts suggesting another 12.7% growth in the next 12 months.

• Traditional Advertising’s Modest Recovery: After years of decline, traditional advertising showed a 0.8% increase, marking its first positive shift in two years and only the fourth in the last decade.

• Spending Allocation: While marketers ideally envision a 50/50 split between long-term brand building and short-term performance, the reality is different—only 31.2% of budgets go toward long-term efforts, with the bulk focused on short-term gains, which makes sense given short CMO tenures.

• Headcount Growth: Marketing departments expanded by 5.3%, rebounding from 3.9% growth earlier in 2024. However, this growth isn’t uniform, with sectors like Education, Finance, and Healthcare driving increases, while Retail and Media saw reductions.

• Marketing Budgets as a Percentage of Revenue: These budgets have slipped, now representing just 7.7% of company revenues, down from a high of 10.1% earlier in 2024.

• CRM, Branding, and Customer Experience Investments: Marketers are prioritizing key areas with notable increases projected:

• CRM: +6.9%

• Customer Experience: +5.6%

• Branding: +7.0%

• New Product Introductions: +8.1%

• Expense Reductions in Profit Shortfalls: Alarmingly, when companies face profit shortfalls, 44.6% of executives prioritize cutting marketing budgets over other expenses (yikes!).

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What’s interesting to me is how cautious optimism seems to dominate the findings. While the numbers point to growth, the declines in marketing’s share of overall budgets and revenues suggest a lingering hesitation to fully invest. Right now, many teams are still in a "wait and see" state as we determine if a flood of M&A activity and an overall lack of stability will shake our respective industries.

NEWS AT THE INTERSECTION OF MARKETING, DESIGN, & AI

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😺 How To Craft a Visual Marketing Strategy That Sells

Shopify’s guide highlights the power of visual content—images, videos, and graphics—in capturing audience attention and boosting conversions.

• Types of Visuals That Work: High-quality photos, engaging videos, and well-designed graphics help brands tell their story and connect emotionally with audiences.

• Steps to Success: Define your brand identity, create authentic visuals, distribute them on the right platforms, and analyze performance to refine your strategy.

• My Take: With a glut of low-effort, low-cost marketing slop, you're going to need to spend time using visual marketing to build your brand. I'll have more on this in the coming weeks.

​Keep reading​

🤑 2025 Salary Guide for Marketing and Creative Professionals

Robert Half’s 2025 Salary Guide outlines salary trends, in-demand roles, and the evolving skill sets required for success in marketing and creative industries.

• Top Roles and Salaries: Creative Directors earn between $101,750 and $163,500, while roles like Production Managers range from $55,250 to $77,750.

• In-Demand Skills: UX/UI design, content strategy, and art direction are among the most sought-after creative skills.

• My Take: This report also shows where companies tend to use contractors the most, job flexibility, and addressing skill gaps.

​Keep reading​

👩🏼‍🎨 The Illustration Trends Set to Take Shape in 2025

Creative Bloq outlines key illustration trends for 2025, focusing on how illustrators are blending traditional techniques with modern demands.

• Multidisciplinary Approaches: Artists are combining mediums like painting, animation, and collage to push creative boundaries.

• Transparency and Process: With the rise of AI, audiences are demanding behind-the-scenes content that highlights the human element in art.

• My Take: We're going to see a lot of hand-drawn illustrations, and companies try to stand out by being more organic.
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​Keep reading​

NEW RESOURCES FOR YOU

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Why Community Will Make Or Break Creators And Brands In 2025

A new article on the Forbes Agency Council outlines why community will play a large role in marketing this year and beyond.

Creators and marketers need to move beyond social media (especially as those become larger cesspools of hatred). Building a community around your offerings will strengthen the bonds between you, your brand, and your audience.

Creating authentic relationships, not just one-way megaphone conversations, encourages people to further amplify your message. When it's a symbiotic relationship, people feel a sense of ownership.

I am part of a few communities like RISE, CEX/The Tilt, Content Marketing World, and others. I've met people on these digital platforms who are now friends and I'll help them out whenever possible. If they were just accounts I followed on Bluesky or LinkedIn, I wouldn't have the depth of understanding without the ongoing conversation.

Think about how community can help you expand your reach and grow tighter bonds with your target audience.

Design Quote of the Week

“Practice safe design: Use a concept.”
– Petrula Vontrikis

My AI disclaimer: I write the main stories by hand (with occasional assistance from Grammarly). The quick news hits are articles I've found, which I run through a ChatGPT prompt to generate the synopsis and bullet points. However, I write the My Thoughts bullet. If AI generates the images, I include the prompt so you can see how I got to that image. Nothing in this newsletter, or anything I publish anywhere, reflects the views of my employer.

Thanks for reading!

–Jim

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