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.