NIQ finds CMOs squeezed: flat budgets and ROI scrutiny cut brand spend as AI, retail media and fractured data reshape 2026 planning.
Chief Marketing Officers are facing an intensifying battle to secure support for long-term brand-building initiatives, according to a new report from NielsenIQ (NIQ). Amid rising macroeconomic pressures and sharp scrutiny from executives, marketing leaders are increasingly forced to prioritize short-term returns on investment, even as they remain confident in the intrinsic value of their brands.
NIQ’s “CMO Outlook: Guide to 2026” found a notable cooling in C-suite support for sustained brand investment. The share of marketing leaders who believe their CEOs and CFOs support long-term brand efforts decreased to 69%, a 11 percentage-point drop from the previous year. Correspondingly, 84% of CMOs now view immediate ROI as their primary metric for budget allocation.
The Data Fragmentation Crisis
Despite the sharpened focus on measurable ROI, marketers are struggling to connect their activities to outcomes due to significant technological fragmentation.
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Data Silos: 54% of CMOs reported struggling to integrate data from different sources, a significant increase from 31% in 2024.
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Measurement Tools: One-third of marketers require between five and 15 different tools to measure ROI.
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Unified Data: Only 37% claim to have a single, centralized data source accessible to all stakeholders.
“Every marketing dollar is now under the microscope,” said Marta Cyhan-Bowles, chief communications officer and head of global marketing COE at NIQ. “It’s no longer just about efficiency; it’s about proving impact—all with largely flat budgets.”
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Confidence vs. Purpose
The pressure to prove immediate value is undermining traditional marketing pillars.
While a significant 83% of surveyed CMOs maintain confidence in their overall brand equity, their belief in the underlying concept of brand purpose—the values a brand champions beyond commercial goals—has fallen sharply, from 83% to 71%. This decline occurs as brands face increasing political and consumer backlash for their involvement in social issues.
The data shows a clear shift toward performance: only 55% of marketing leaders are allocating 60% or more of their budgets to long-term brand building, a decrease from 2024.
The AI and Retail Media Pivot
To address the demand for efficiency and measurable results, CMOs are intensifying their focus on two key areas: generative AI and retail media networks.
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Generative AI: The technology is moving beyond the experimental phase, with nearly 70% of CMOs now using AI for content generation, 64% for personalization, and 55% for media planning. NIQ emphasized that successful CMOs will need to quickly quantify the impact of these solutions to justify their investment to the executive team.
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Retail Media: The channel is gaining significant traction, with 69% of CMOs viewing it as critical and 67% planning to increase investment in 2026. While these networks place ads closer to the point of sale, their rapid proliferation is also contributing to the very marketplace fragmentation that CMOs are struggling to solve.
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“Data, A.I., and retail media networks are reshaping the marketing playbook, and the most successful CMOs will be those who connect these forces to demonstrate measurable value for the organization,” Ms. Cyhan-Bowles concluded.
