Gartner refers to this as the marketing leaders’ “Epic Journey” to growth, specifically focusing on marketing leaders’ ability to plan, navigate and lead, to meet the growing expectations. These include:
- Plan long-term to avoid strategic dysfunction
- Treat strategy as an ongoing discipline to be invested in, not just a deliverable
- Be a market shaper, not an enterprise operator
- Let your customer be your north star in times of crisis
For us, the topics and conversations give valuable insights into what’s coming in the market and what’s next for our clients. Here are some trends from the Gartner Marketing Symposium, 2025:
AI. Drink.
The topic of AI was everywhere. It appeared in keynotes, in sessions, in conversations and on the expo floor. One digital leader I spoke to compared it to a drinking game where every time the term ‘AI’ was heard, we should drink. A fitting description.
Many marketers we spoke to were keen to introduce AI into day-to-day tasks, but were being let down by slow legal and security teams and felt their hands were tied by regulations.
Despite this ocean of AI-driven topics, there were several that highlighted the availability of AI within your existing marketing technology stack and leveraging this could be a cheaper way to invest in AI. After all, how many marketers have a budget line item for AI?
This heavy presence of AI was complemented nicely by guest speaker Rahaf Harfoush, a Digital Anthropologist, who successfully verbalised the subtle apprehension that we’re all feeling towards AI. Prioritising humans and giving marketing leaders permission to feel excited about AI, but also to hold worry and concern along with it.
Many conversations at Gartner felt like they were trying to adopt AI for AI’s sake. Our advice? AI is a solution to a problem that needs to be identified. Find that problem and solve it with AI, allowing you and the organisation to feel the full value of AI.
CMO’s are prioritising AI. We explore whether this will change the way teams work, or if it will just further widen the technology-execution gap, in our latest Digital Connections research report.
Understanding your customer. Improving your CX.
57% of CEOs and CFOs plan to drive growth through customer experience*. To improve customer experience, you first need to understand your customer. A topic covered in both their sessions and in individual conversations.
Gartner highlight 5 key areas to better understand your maturity when it comes to customer experience. These are:
- Voice of the customer
- Personas
- Customer journey map and analysis
- Customer experience strategic plan
- Measuring customer experience
They note the biggest gap often reported by CMOs is in obtaining and using voice of the customer materials, such as surveys, market research and panel discussions. Something we see reflected in conversations with our clients and prospects.
Many marketing leaders I spoke to understood the importance and value of increasing their understanding of the buyer and their journey. But were facing challenges in gathering the most relevant data points and getting teams to actually use the insights in their activities.
Building substantial customer profiles with valuable insights is something we do often at Modern. So much so, we’ve built a maturity model to help marketing leaders generate a personalised roadmap to success. Establish your maturity when it comes to delivering customer experience.
To design a demand and customer engagement programme to more effectively convert enterprise customers, we worked with Expel to help them understand their buyer journey.
The buyer journey sweet spot
Did you know that 98% of buyers use predetermined shortlists* when it comes to choosing a supplier? I knew it was high, but 98% feels astronomical and a little deflating.
One theme was about ensuring that your brand was front and centre in the market. This is something we often work with our clients on, too. With only 5% of the market ready to buy at any one time, keeping your brand top of mind for when the time comes is one key move towards growth. If we wait for buyers to show intent before engaging with them, it’s likely already too late.
But, and this is a big but from Gartner. If you reach out too early, you risk jeopardising the relationship and the opportunity, because 60% of buyers avoid doing business with suppliers due to unwanted outreach*. Highlighting a very small but very sweet spot for outreach. But how can you find this sweet spot?
At Modern, we partner with intent platforms 6sense and Demandbase to help our clients serve the right message at the right time in their ABM programmes.
If you’re looking to better understand your customer or their journeys. Or are preparing your marketing technology stack for the introduction of AI, we’d love to hear more about it.
To better anticipate your customer demand and future-proof your martech set up, get in touch.
*Statistics taken from Gartner research presented at the Gartner Marketing Symposium.
