Tamara Bos is a researcher at Google and works within the Market Insights team. She focuses on understanding the mindset of marketers operating across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In the corporate world, you need to keep your boss happy. It’s just a fact of life.
Arguably, the best way to do this is by focusing on their top priorities.
Ask yourself: ‘What do they want? What can I deliver for them?’
Thankfully, we have answers to these questions for U.K. marketers.
Google recently partnered with MTM, the strategy and research consultancy, to ask hundreds of U.K. marketing professionals to share their key priorities for the upcoming 12 months.
The survey – completed in the summer of 2024 – revealed the main marketing and advertising priorities amongst big bosses, which includes all the key decision makers operating below the CMO. Here’s what they told us:

The survey was conducted with 224 individuals at advertisers and agencies who are responsible for making budget decisions and, in many cases, giving final budget sign-offs.
Long-term vs. short-term thinking
It was refreshing to see that marketing bosses say they are focusing on long-term objectives right now, such as:
- Raising brand awareness and understanding
- Improving return on marketing investment
- Improving allocation of marketing resources
- Strengthening brand equity
These marketing leaders are placing greater emphasis on long-term, strategic work in order to create sustained business growth.
Respondents prioritised these areas ahead of others, such as reducing marketing spending, improving margins and increasing sales.
Marketing professor Mark Ritson has argued that short-term thinking has characterised marketing decisions in recent years. This survey indicates the tides are turning.
It’s worth noting though, that priorities diverged a bit between marketing professionals with different levels of seniority.
The most senior marketers with the final say over budgets were far more focused on building brand awareness. In fact, about half of these individuals said this was a key priority for them – this stood out from all other objectives.1 Their marketing counterparts, who have more ‘day-to-day’ responsibilities, had a greater focus on improving returns on marketing investment and improving the customer experience.
The CMO perspective
Interestingly, I also conducted interviews with CMOs last year alongside some of my research colleagues. These discussions revealed CMOs are increasingly focused on AI adoption to help deliver their board’s key priorities.
“CMOs need to prove the marketing function’s value to their organisation’s leadership,” explained my colleague, Maxwell Minckler.
“AI has that potential to deliver on growth, better measurement, and increased efficiencies — which are things that boards tend to respond to. That’s why, near the top of many CMOs’ agendas, you’ll find the need to develop a clear AI strategy.”
Shared goals. Seamless collaboration
Is there a misalignment here amongst marketers? Should this be cause for concern?
“Not necessarily,” said my boss, Jonny Protheroe, who is based in London and leads a team of Google researchers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “It is natural for different roles to have slightly different priorities.”
“When things are working well, marketing leaders should have space to focus on strategic, long-term goals, while those making decisions ‘on the ground’ will be focused on achieving more immediate KPIs from their latest campaign,” he said.
Ultimately, everyone can have different priorities, but it’s all about working together towards a common goal.
For marketers at all levels, here are some ways to ensure your team is working together towards success:
- Clearly communicate how your priorities feed into the priorities of others.
- Establish a shared language and measurement framework to track progress toward both short-term and long-term goals.
- Maintain open lines of communication to ensure everyone is on the same page and can adapt to changing circumstances.
- Recognise that meeting daily and short-term goals shouldn't come at the expense of long-term goals.