In a major survey conducted in December 2022, we surveyed 300 marketing experts in France to understand their business priorities and concerns for 2023. 66% of the respondents were CMOs across the spectrum: media, retail, banks and insurance firms, services (including Schneider, Lalalab, Castorama, Decathlon, Prisma Media, Le Monde, SNCF Connect & Tech, and so on).

Using the results from this survey, we analysed the priorities and worries of today’s marketers: rising inflation, the environment, and the new directives from the French data protection authority CNIL. The outcome? Project streamlining and greater investments in using proprietary data.

Download the study and our complete analysis below!

What concerns do CMOs have?

Worries split between economic outlook, privacy and CSR

Over half of the respondents said they were concerned by the macro-economic outlook and the faster pace of climate change (54.8% and 49%, respectively) . Purchasing power was another key concern (28%), affecting their day-to-day work.

Paradoxically, there were fewer concerns over the Great Resignation (19.4%) and job market tensions (16%). The main obstacle to productivity seemed to be that teams were short of members (53.8%). This was against the backdrop of a historically high number of resignations in France in the second half of 2022 — 520,000 resignations per quarter (of which 470,000 were from open-end employment contracts).

Marketing and tech ecosystem

Changes to data privacy rules were the biggest source of concern for the marketing and tech ecosystem.

Last year, CNIL ruled that data transfers between Google Analytics (GA) and the US were illegal, commanding the attention of most professionals.

And yet, CMOs showed surprisingly little interest in the unprecedented verdicts handed down by the French data protection authority CNIL in 2022. The paradox is that over two-thirds use Google Analytics (66%). A large majority was somewhat concerned (43.6%) by CNIL’s rulings against Google’s software, while 34.7% claimed to be not at all concerned.

In a sign of the times, a growing proportion of CMOs stated that they were attuned to the challenges posed by technological subservience, and they were ready to promote their domestic European economy. A large majority (57%) believed it was better to pick European technology solutions.

The environment and social matters are growing increasingly important: over 75% of respondents considered CSR a criterion when choosing technology partners.

Marketer goals for 2023

There was an overriding desire among CMOs to streamline operations. The priority was on examining roadmaps thoroughly (54.3%), team staffing (27.1%), deploying new tools (27.1%) and stopping unnecessary projects (23.7%).

While 1/3 of CMOs were getting ready to accelerate on all fronts regarding media spending (37.8%), around 1/4 planned to reduce it (26.2%). However, there was a slim minority that was considering reducing their CRM and first-party data investments (2.9%).

Although few CMOs responded that they wanted to change jobs in 2023 (8.7%), three times as many wanted to upskill (23.3%).

Which marketing tools do marketers seek out the most?

Most CMOs said that as the number of technologies used multiples, they pay more attention to customisation capabilities (42.1%) for the tools deployed and their interconnection capabilities (36.8%) (reminder: according to our 2021 survey, each company had an average of 5.5 tools). In this context, a tool’s price was of secondary importance (10.5%), as was the relationship with the teams of partners chosen (10.5%).

On the other hand, a lack of user-friendliness and limits on market segmentation capabilities were the main sources of frustration for 21% and 15.7% of CMOs, respectively.

Spotlight on preferred analytics solution

Despite the regulatory restrictions on data collection, 64% of respondents continued to prefer Google Analytics (Universal Analytics & GA 4) as a data analysis solution.

Download the study and our complete analysis below!