Let’s be honest for years, marketing was the support act. Build awareness. Manage the brand. Feed the funnel. All good, all useful – but, and let’s be polite about this, slightly… peripheral.
Now? The spotlight is changing.
Boards want return. Partners want data. CFOs want clarity. Everyone’s asking the same question: how is marketing driving growth?
And honestly, that’s not a threat, it’s an opportunity.
Because commercial accountability doesn’t shrink marketing. It finally elevates it. It’s the invitation we’ve been waiting for to step fully into the business conversation.
The marketers leading the charge are part strategist, part financial translator, part change agent. They’re comfortable talking in revenue, margin, and pipeline terms. They know how to connect marketing spend to commercial outcomes, not perfectly, but convincingly.
They’re also building teams that think the same way, less “creatives vs data” and more “everyone fluent in both.”
And when that happens, something powerful can follow: marketing finally stops apologising for its existence. It owns its seat at the table.
Let’s make 2026 the year we stop proving marketing’s worth through volume and start proving it through value.
That’s not a rebrand of the function. It’s a rebirth.