This piece was originally published in Forbes.
The only constant in marketing is change. As brands and agencies navigate this evolving landscape, one question loomed large at the 2024 Forbes CMO Summit: What truly matters?
Amid the debates and discussions among the country's top marketing executives, one thing was clear: the structures that once defined how brands connect with consumers externally and organize themselves internally are collapsing. This “Great Collapse” is reshaping the way brands are built, organizations are structured, and campaigns are created.
The Evolving Definition of “Brand” And Its Impact
Historically, “brand” was defined by an organization’s logo, messaging, or product itself. Today, the definition has expanded to encompass every interaction a consumer has with a company—from the moment they land on their website to their experience with customer support. As the definition of brand has evolved, so too has the remit of marketers, leading internal organizational silos to have more visible consequences.
As MilkPEP CMO/CEO Yin Woon Rani remarked on stage, “When I see a website that doesn’t match the other touchpoints of a brand, I joke that the brand’s org structure is showing.” This highlights a broader truth: internal silos lead to external inconsistencies. If the marketing team isn’t aligned with customer service, or if sales operates with different goals than the product team, customers will sense that disconnection.
This sentiment was recently echoed by Melissa Puls, CMO and SVP of Customer Success at Ivanti, who said in Fast Company, “This disjointed approach is more than an annoyance—it can have real business consequences. As a customer, you’re shuffled through organizational silo after silo as you progress through your lifecycle journey, resulting in frustrating inefficiencies, countless hours wasted repeating yourself, and costly gaps in service.”
Throughout the CMO Summit, marketers discussed how they’re breaking down internal silos by aligning marketing with sales, customer service, and beyond.
Collapsing Processes and Funnels
Similarly, the way brands and agencies create has shifted, driven by the rise of creators. Gone are the days when every piece of content was allowed a multi-week, high-cost production shoot that flowed through various departments in a rigid, linear process. Today, creators are raising the bar–acting as strategists, producers, and distributors all in one–while setting a faster pace for content creation and sharing. Ideas that once took months to produce can now be turned around in days, putting pressure on brands and agencies to keep up.
Digiday recently highlighted one solution, noting that “hiring in-house creators is a growing trend that allows [agencies] to scale and move quickly on new content and platforms as they experiment in new verticals.”
Agencies and brands alike must consider today’s in-house talent needs, and the skill sets that should be prioritized for the future.
As the old models of marketing and content creation collapse, the current structure and organization of marketing departments will be faced with increasing pressure. While discrete marketing functions have the benefits of creating subject matter experts, the demand for speed to market, driven by technology, will push departments to dismantle silos in favor of hybrid experts. These experts will need to operate with the same level of expertise, but more quickly and with greater agility.
Successful marketing will be defined by integration, not isolation and rigid rules. The lines between marketing, sales, product, and more will continue to blur as brands strive to create seamless customer experiences. As this “Great Collapse” unfolds, marketers must rethink traditional structures and build fluid, collaborative processes.
