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Every week, a CMO sits down with a trade publication and explains how their brand earns a place in culture. Every week, an agency leader sits down with another one and talks about the work they're proudest of.
We read three years of both. 150 CMO interviews and 317 interviews with agency and industry leaders, published from late 2023 to October 2026.
The two sides tell almost the same story. They only disagree on how to prove it.
What CMOs talk about
- Culture. In 2024, 47% of the CMO interviews talked about cultural relevance. In 2026 it was 88%.
- Moments and sports. 71% talked about moments. 69% talked about a sports platform.
- Creators. Mentioned in 27% of interviews in 2024 and 52% in 2026.
When CMOs offered proof that it worked, one in five pointed to views, likes or awards. Only 17 of 150 described a way to connect marketing to sales.
What agencies talk about
- Ideas and craft. 72% described what they sell as ideas, creativity or craft. 6% described it as commerce or performance.
- Awards. 45% pointed to awards as proof their work succeeded. 31% offered no proof at all.
- Client results. About 10 of 294 agency-side leaders put a number on a client's sales.
The pattern
Put the two sides next to each other and the same holes show up in both.
- The sale. 42% of CMOs used commerce language, mostly about retail partners. 9% of agency leaders did. The site, the landing page and the checkout came up in 13% of CMO interviews and almost never on the agency side.
- A shared idea of proof. CMOs show attention. Agencies show trophies. A CFO takes neither.
- The CFO. Finance came up in about 15% of interviews on both sides.
- Creators as a sales engine. CMOs talk about creators far more than agencies do, and the agency number is falling. Nobody connects creators to revenue.
The few who closed the gap stood out. A restaurant chain paired more than 125 creators with its loyalty program and reported same-store sales up 7.7% after a last-place quarter. A beverage company built its own mix model on market-by-market tests before it expanded. None of them gave up on culture. They made it countable.
Questions for brands
- When your last big campaign ended, could you say what it sold?
- Does every idea have somewhere to go: a page, a cart, a shelf, a second purchase?
- Did you agree on the number with finance before the money went out?
- Are your creators judged on views, or on new buyers?
- If your agency won an award for the work, what else could they tell you about it?
Culture earns attention. The moment after it is where marketing earns its budget.
How we did it: we read every CMO of the Week interview from Brand Innovators (Nov. 2023 to Oct. 2026) and every "5 Minutes with" interview from LBB Online (Oct. 2023 to Oct. 2026), and tagged what each person talked about. Percentages are the share of interviews that mention each idea. These are public interviews, so they show what leaders choose to say in public.