WFA Global Marketer of the Year 2024: brand as growth engine
World Federation of Advertisers data shows CMOs who protected brand budgets through 2022–2024 outperformed peers on revenue and share.
The WFA's 2024 global marketer benchmark, conducted with Kantar, tracked 320 multinational marketing organisations through the 2022–2024 inflation cycle. Marketers who held or grew brand investment outperformed cutters on revenue (+8.4 pts), market share (+3.1 pts) and gross margin (+1.9 pts).
The data echoes 90 years of recession-era marketing research: brands that go dark during downturns lose share they rarely recover, while brands that maintain share of voice compound disproportionately on the rebound.
The harder finding for CFOs: brand investment cuts during the 2022 inflation spike were associated with a measurable lift in customer-acquisition cost 18 months later — proving brand erosion is a deferred, not avoided, expense.
This summary is an editorial interpretation by Evolve. Please refer to the original source for the full study, methodology and attribution.