Global brands, global shifts: marketing transformation in action

Senior media and marketing roles can be a lonely place. The opportunity to connect with others who ‘speak your language’ in WFA’s communities is valuable (and often therapeutic!) But WFA was not designed to exacerbate silos.

That’s why we frequently bring our communities together at our Forum Connect events around the world: Amsterdam, Singapore and soon Mumbai.

Our latest of these forums took place in New York City. Our focus for this series of events has been: global marketing transformation for growth.

Here's a fraction of what we learned.

1. Marketing in a time of tectonic shifts

For the third-year running, we brought together 150 WFA members in New York City. This year, transformation is top of the agenda for many. A quick Slido poll of our member delegates confirmed this: 95% of attendees are in the midst of transformation. And that mirrors what we heard in Amsterdam and Singapore too. This isn’t a wave. It’s a tide.

No prizes for guessing one of the main drivers behind this transformation. Every community represented at the event - CMOs, Media, Insights, Sourcing - has already been impacted by AI. The acceleration of adoption is unparalleled. AI is now table stakes. Terry Kawaja reminded us that despite the hype, nobody - CMOs, agencies, platforms, even Big Tech - truly knows exactly where this is all going. But with over $250 billion a year now flowing into AI, the momentum isn’t slowing.

2. Take care of your teams… and yourself

It’s often said that transformation is about people first. We were treated to a humble, and vulnerable, session from one of our CMOs. Sharing his candid reflections from leading multiple global organisational transformations… people resist change, because you’re asking them to fundamentally change what they do every day.

That means leaders must design transformation around human benefit, not just organisational opportunities.

And an overlooked truth? Transformation can be just as hard on the people leading it. As this industry leader shared: “If you don’t protect your mental and physical health, you can’t lead effectively.”

A powerful reminder that the CMO role, now increasingly an architect-of-change role, requires emotional as well as strategic leadership.

3. The Opportunity in a crisis (a.k.a. “Crisitunity”)

One of the standout transformation sessions came from a brand leader who told the rebirth story of a global household name. One that went from bankruptcy to category leadership. How? By treating crisis as opportunity.

Having to deliver more with less (budget), resulted in this member bringing more talent in-house. Changing their marketing model. To become “makers of marketing, not buyers of marketing.” It also impacted their partnership model… adding more creators and influencers and finding a foundational partner to build an internal AI engine to understand, and bring to life, product distinctiveness at scale.

The message was clear: When the chips are down, transformation becomes unavoidable, but it can also prove to be your competitive edge.

4. Beware “Pilot-itus”

One thing we heard across forums was the need to move from strategy to delivery. For many organisations they are experiencing too many tests, too many pilots and too little activation.

Yes, we need to experiment with AI. But constant experimentation without a north star leads to fatigue, waste, and standstill. The need across functions and stakeholders is to have a clear vision for transformation, which enables fast decision making backed up by a common language and framework for value - especially when talking to CFOs.

In other words: test, but don’t linger. If you find something that works, scale it. If it doesn’t, move on. As one member put it “be willing to scrap what you started’.

5. Treating LLMs as an audience

One of the most thought-provoking ideas of the day was that “we no longer design just for humans. We also design for machines.”

As LLMs increasingly shape discovery – using sources like Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook - we need to think about what signals we’re sending to them.

This means: prioritising knowledge media that builds authority and ensuring content aligns to genuine human interests (which social algorithms amplify).

In short: treat LLMs as a real audience segment—one that influences billions of human interactions.

6. People as the front office, technology as the back office

Despite the pace of change, one message echoed across our forums. Don’t lose sight of your people. One member framed it perfectly: “Treat AI as the back office and human creativity as the front office.”

AI accelerates insight, speeds up content production, and supports decision-making. But quality brand building still happens thanks to human minds and hearts.

If there was one overarching lesson from New York City, it was this: marketing is central to transformation. Our role isn’t just to communicate value. It’s to create it. AI will keep reshaping our work. Budgets will keep shifting. Teams will keep adapting. But the organisations that thrive will be the ones that combine human brilliance with technological strength in a collaborative operating model.

There’s another upcoming chance to explore global marketing transformation and growth at WFA’s Forum Connect. On February 3rd, for the first time ever, this event will take place in Mumbai at the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

Join us to make history within history! Register now.