As seen on adage.com:

For many, it’s tough out there right now: record unemployment, whole industries shut down, business plans turned upside down. It’s not hard to find examples in the marketing industry, with Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Kohl’s, Zillow Group and Marriott stopping or cutting their advertising. Even companies that are doing well are looking at ways to trim costs to weather this economic storm and its aftermath.

Despite CMOs’ best efforts to drive marketing credibility and accountability, marketing remains viewed as a cost center, and its budgets are being challenged during current economic conditions. While CFOs may want to keep marketing as a percentage of (potentially falling) revenue, CMOs and CFOs both have one big-picture goal in common: to drive shareholder value. This creates an opportunity now for marketing leaders to collaborate with finance—CMO with CFO—to demonstrate and prove the value marketing creates. When marketing and finance work together, the combined input has proven to drive significantly better results versus working in silos.

Read the full article by CEO & President Nancy Smith on Ad Age.