Chief Marketing Officers, CMOs in all industries across sectors of the economy have been tasked to not to see themselves as brand builders alone but as Chief Growth Architects in their various companies.
This is in view of the constant dynamism in the roles of managers to ensure sustained company growth.
Speaking at the recent Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Chief Marketing Officers’ Forum, Olufemi Williams, Chief Enabling Officer of Newwaves Ecosystem Ltd who assessed the increasing demands on CMOs said the Nigerian CMO is no longer just a brand builder. “He or she is a Chief Growth Architect — proving impact, optimizing spend, and driving business transformation”.
Williams who spoke on the Forum’s theme: “Growth, Governance and G-AI…The New Trinity for the Nigerian CMO”, told marketers to be growth partners in their organisations.
He reminded them that boards expect CMOs to prove marketing’s contribution to revenue, margin, and customer lifetime value, warning that “vanity metrics no longer suffice”.
He said they should go beyond presenting and defending eyeballs and clicks but what directly impacts the bottomline. “This is what CEOs measure”.
In their function, Williams also urged the CMOs to embrace Growth, Governance, and G-AI —Generative Artificial Intelligence, the three factors he described as the new trinity against the old trinity of budgets, campaigns, and agencies.
The event which was attended by over 100 CEOs and senior marketing professionals, also hosted a panel of seasoned professionals who discussed the position of current day leaders of marketing
The panel which included Alfred Okugbeni, Founder and Managing Director Nigerian Sino Trucks Ltd ; Damilola Abodurin, Industry Manager Google; and David Okeme, Managing Director ,Up Digital Ltd; positioned that the role of Nigerian CMO today stands at the intersection of three unstoppable forces, that will either redefine marketing as the engine of business growth — or reduce it to a cost center struggling for relevance.
They clarified that the Nigerian CMO of the future must be a Growth Leader — accountable for revenue; a Governance Champion — protecting consumer trust; and AI Visionary — leveraging new tools with cultural depth.
The panel also noted that the Nigerian CMO faces peculiar challenges on which to deliver growth, enforce governance, and embrace G-AI. The battlefields include macroeconomic volatility; Stifling regulation; Digital divide; Trust deficit; Talent and infrastructure gaps.
In his speech, Osamede Uwubanmwen, President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN agreed that CMOs should be growth partners.
On governance, Osamede said governance should be enabling, it should not be stifling because governance should also be fair playing, it means everybody is on the table and all welcome.
On GenAI, he said marketing is not left out on the adoption and it is what everybody should be able to use to improve function.
On CMOs not rising to CEOs, Osamede said the challenge is how CMOs market themselves. “We market brands, but do we market ourselves? “
Osamede reiterated, that ADVAN as the only trade association of advertisers, which are brand owners, multinationals and local organisations, would continue to provide tools for C-suite marketing professionals in acquiring requisite knowledge for and beyond brand building.
