Last week, Mavis Liew and I had the pleasure of hosting Forrester’s B2B Peer Discussion session with a small group of CMOs from enterprises across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The private event format allowed an open and honest exchange about the challenges and opportunities these leaders were facing as they started planning their marketing budgets for 2025. 

GenAI Is Gaining Steam 

This was an engaging conversation with a lot of interesting insights and perspectives. While some of the CMOs are laser-focused on getting the most ROI from their marketing initiatives, others are excited about the potential to leverage generative AI (genAI) to boost team productivity and drive campaign efficiency through personalization. Some organizations are planning for an eventful year ahead with new product launches, while other CMOs are considering restructuring their marketing organizations with genAI in the mix to better align with business objectives.  

Adaptive Planning 

A recurring theme throughout our discussion was the importance and need for adaptive planning, which Forrester advocates. Having rigid, monolithic budgets or siloed marketing planning exercises just doesn’t work — CMOs are recognizing the need for collaboration, flexibility, and agility in their planning. They need a planning model that allows them to respond to changing market conditions and to seize emerging opportunities arising out of an unexpected event, including a disruptive tech innovation, an out-of-the-blue competitor move, a new entrant in the market, or M&A.   

Customer Advocacy Boards 

Shifting attention towards doing more with existing customers and not just focusing on net-new quickly bubbled up as a topic of interest during the discussion. To further enhance their customer-centricity and relevance to customer needs, CMOs are exploring the creation of customer advisory boards in their organizations. These boards provide valuable insights into customer needs and preferences, helping marketers tailor their strategies for maximum impact.  

Partner Enablement 

Investment in partner engagement and enablement are also top of mind for CMOs. By investing in their partners’ success and thinking beyond just “leads” or “MDF”, marketers can create mutually beneficial relationships that can significantly propel successful business outcomes for their organization.  

Priorities Are Many. Resources Are Limited. 

This can be the one of the toughest decisions to make — where to invest and where not to. The recently published Forrester’s Budget Planning Guide 2025 for B2B Marketing Executives recommends marketing leaders focus on achieving growth objectives and increasing their ROI in the coming year through collective strategies, collaboration, cross-functional partnerships, and teamwork. More observations, insights, and recommendations are available in the report, which also recommends where CMOs should invest, divest, and experiment in the year ahead to steer their organizations through this challenging environment and drive growth.  

To maximize ROI, you need to drive innovation, adaptability, and customer-centricity, and these efforts must never be siloed, but collective, cross-functional efforts with shared KPIs that are aligned toward your business growth objectives.  

If you are getting started with your budget planning and would like to discuss further, connect with me through an inquiry.