Publicizes New Regional President in Asia, Findings of Digital Advertising Transformation Audit, and Thought Management Campaigns with New Development Officer Council and Chief Marketer Community
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 14, 2026 — The CMO Council’s inaugural weblog for 2026 displays on 25 years of an evolving and defining position for the chief advertising and marketing officer within the C-Suite. The elite govt affinity community of some 20,000 world advertising and marketing leaders controlling practically $1 trillion of annual spend, emphasizes that CMOs as we speak are now not anticipated to easily construct manufacturers.
Over the previous 25 years, advertising and marketing has undergone probably the most profound transformations of any enterprise perform, notes the CMO Council. What started as a digital disruption within the early 2000s has advanced into an period outlined by knowledge saturation, AI acceleration and radical shifts in how folks uncover, belief and have interaction with manufacturers.
“The trendy CMO is tasked with making use of insights to enterprise issues, validating choices with knowledge, orchestrating seamless buyer experiences, and embedding customer-centricity throughout the enterprise,” notes CMO Council founder and govt director Donovan Neale-Might.
That is underscored by the staggering progress and digitization of the Linked Financial system between 2001 and 2025. International advertising and marketing spend is projected to succeed in $1.3 trillion (WARC) by 2026, with roughly 75% allotted to digital promoting. There are actually 7.49 billion cellphones in use and practically 6 billion folks on-line. Social media customers have surged to five.25 billion globally.
“When the Chief Advertising Officer’s position first emerged, it was largely about model stewardship and communications,” states Martyn Etherington, a CMO Council advisory board member and CMO of BMC Software program. “Chief Advertising Officers who’ve endured didn’t survive by defending advertising and marketing or justifying its existence. They’ve survived by being fearless leaders, by redesigning advertising and marketing right into a measurable contributor to progress.”
Benchmarking Digital Advertising Efficiency
Presently, the CMO Council is benchmarking the extent of digital advertising and marketing maturity, organizational capability and efficiency predictability amongst its member firms. It’s taking a look at the place and the way modular, progressive and selective investments in advertising and marketing expertise are bettering advertising and marketing marketing campaign effectiveness, market competitiveness, and general enterprise progress. It has additionally fashioned a separate influencer group, the Development Officer Council, participating heads of income, commerce, enterprise, technique, gross sales and growth.
Almost 37% of chief entrepreneurs (one in three) audited consider advertising and marketing continues to be seen internally as being targeted on execution and a tactical price heart in assist of gross sales fairly than a strategic progress driver. This compares to 35% who say advertising and marketing is a now a robust progress driver of their enterprise. One other 27% report advertising and marketing is noticeably producing extra enterprise outcomes. (https://www.cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership/applications/cmo-at-the-crossroads)
Starting in 2026, the CMO Council and the Chief Marketer Community will collaborate on new thought management initiatives with particular person sponsor assist to handle among the most urgent points dealing with world advertising and marketing leaders. The joint thought management initiative groups the CMO Council with a number one advertising and marketing intelligence hub connecting a worldwide portfolio of seven specialised media manufacturers reaching 1.6 million advertising and marketing professionals.
New CMO Council President within the Asia Area
With Asia Pacific set to overhaul North America as the biggest client market in 2035 (Bain & Firm with NielsenIQ), the CMO Council has appointed a brand new president to serve the area’s rising group of promoting leaders. Jamshed Wadia, a former head of promoting for Intel Company in APAC and Japan and Edelman’s Vice Chair for Digital in Asia, steps into the position with a mandate to mobilize the Council’s sources, advocacy, and peer community in assist of APAC’s advertising and marketing chiefs.
In accordance with Bain analysis, personal consumption within the APAC area is anticipated to develop at 7% CAGR to succeed in $36 trillion by the tip of the following decade, presenting each huge alternative and complexity for native CMOs. Wadia brings over three many years of expertise to the Council’s mission, having constructed Advertising Facilities of Excellence at Intel and led the digital follow for Asia at Edelman, the place he enabled the combination of synthetic intelligence into technique.
In his new capability, Wadia is dedicated to directing the Council’s world thought management and group assist to assist CMO council members in APAC navigate these shifts.
“The CMO’s position has by no means been extra pivotal, requiring leaders to be artistic souls, knowledge scientists, and enterprise strategists suddenly,” stated Wadia. “My objective is to empower and assist APAC CMO leaders via CMO council’s world group, sources and information base to maintain tempo with the wants of the CMO position, making certain they safe their rightful seat on the C-suite desk via clear, accountable enterprise impression.”
About The Chief Advertising Officer Council
Marking its 25th Anniversary in 2026, the Chief Advertising Officer (CMO) Council is devoted to high-level information trade, thought management and private relationship constructing amongst senior company advertising and marketing leaders and model decision-makers throughout a wide-range of world industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members management greater than $1 trillion in aggregated annual advertising and marketing expenditures and run advanced, distributed advertising and marketing and gross sales operations worldwide. In whole, the CMO Council and its strategic curiosity communities embody over 65,000 world advertising and marketing and gross sales executives in over 110 international locations protecting a number of industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are energetic within the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Center East and Africa. The Council’s strategic curiosity teams embody the Buyer Expertise Board, Digital Advertising Efficiency Heart, Model Inspiration Heart, Advertising Provide Chain Institute, GeoBranding Heart, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Gross sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To study extra, go to https://www.cmocouncil.org.
Media Contact
Kevin Sugarman
ksugarman@cmocouncil.org
