The last 18 months have been some of the most challenging, if not the most challenging months in business history. As companies fought to navigate the overnight chaos the pandemic brought with it, understanding the customer zeitgeist and responding to it took on a whole new level of importance - and business leaders looked to marketing for the answers.

The pressure mounted. Budgets were cut. All while digital transformation accelerated, along with customer expectations of a seamless digital experience. Customer retention and growth required a new marketing agility mindset that now looks set to become the norm - faster decision making, faster creative processes, faster campaign delivery and faster approvals.

Doing more with less has focused the mind of many senior marketers on the processes and tools that will help them drive growth, whatever the challenge, and they're set to shake things up to create their ideal marketing future.

According to the Tomorrow's CMO report, aspiring CMOs are motivated to reach the senior position to change the way marketing works for the better.

The research, which surveyed 1,100 marketers, explores how the pandemic has impacted their strategic, operational and creative approach to marketing leadership. The findings of the data build a picture of what these future CMOs will bring to the boardroom table across four key attributes of the future CMO as follows: