This issue, we look at what’s really happening in the C-suite, what the latest jobs data means for B2B growth, and why the smartest companies are investing in brand before demand.
Read:
U.S. jobs report: Strong on paper. Weak in reality.
Gartner: B2B growth starts with brand
Take our reader poll
CMO 2.0 or CMO TBD?
Only 40% of Fortune 500 “CMOs” actually hold that title
—Jay & Adam
💼➡️💥
💥 MARKET MOVES:
U.S. jobs report: Strong on paper. Weak in reality.
The U.S. added 147,000 jobs in June—and headlines deemed the jobs market resilient with unemployment falling to 4.1%.
Dig a layer deeper and the picture shifts
Nearly half the gains came from public-sector hiring in health and education. Strip that out, and private-sector growth hit its lowest level since October 2024. ADP even showed a decline in private jobs altogether.
Then came the other shoe: Microsoft cut another 9,100 employees this week. The tech giant cited the need for agility and cost control. That’s 15,000 layoffs so far this year—despite record revenue and soaring stock.
What B2B companies can expect:
Longer sales cycles as budgets stay frozen
More scrutiny on vendor ROI
Fewer champions with power to say yes
👉 Takeaway:
The economy is shedding weight.
Enterprises are cutting humans, hoarding cash, and restructuring for efficiency. Growth is still possible—but only for vendors who prove they make ops tighter and dollars go further.
🌋 DEMAND & GROWTH:
Gartner: B2B growth starts with brand
When budgets tighten, most companies cut brand. High-growth companies do the opposite.
According to Gartner, 48% of high-growth companies increased brand investment last year—compared to just 29% of low-growth peers. The difference? Strategy.
Brand drives recognition before you ever talk to sales
Brand earns trust when buyers check third-party reviews
Brand makes performance marketing cheaper, faster, and more effective
👉 Takeaway:
The companies pulling ahead treat brand as fuel for everything downstream. Trust, recall, conversion and margin all depend on making an impression and occupying real estate in your prospects’ minds.
🤝 Next up: 2 rebrand slots left for August & September
July’s fully booked. But we’ve opened two brand strategy slots for late summer.
If you’re prepping for a rebrand, relaunch, or GTM shift and your message still feels murky, now’s the time to lock it in.
We work with B2B teams ready to sound like leaders, not just vendors.
In a crowded market, clarity isn't optional. It’s your edge.
✍️ THE MESSAGING LAB:
CMO 2.0 or CMO TBD?
It’s getting weird in the org chart.
CMOs are being redefined and sometimes sidelined. Some orgs are giving marketing to product. Others are embedding it inside RevOps. Meanwhile, the CEOs who do back marketing are demanding more: more pipeline, more orchestration, more integration with AI and data.
Kermit thought he signed up to launch fun campaigns. Now he’s managing Oscar’s churn strategy.
What’s emerging is a new kind of CMO: less brand ambassador, more growth architect.
Here’s what that looks like (and who’s already doing it).
The CMO role has ballooned spanning digital tech, analytics, AI, customer experience, personalization, and micro‑targeting at scale. Specifically, CMOs now carry a far heavier executional workload and face higher expectations around optimizing strategy
Companies where CMOs are closely aligned with CEOs and CFOs see significantly stronger growth. When CMOs sit at the table, growth can be 2.3× higher
A serious CEO–CMO gap exists: only about 70% of CEOs feel marketing has a clearly defined role—down from 90% two years ago
👉 Takeaway:
The CMO role isn’t disappearing—it’s expanding.
But that expansion comes with risk. As CMOs take on more scope—AI, analytics, CX, personalization—they’re also under more pressure to prove impact.
What kind of B2BOOM! content would be most helpful for you this quarter?
📊 DATA & INSIGHTS:
Only 40% of Fortune 500 “CMOs” actually hold that title
The role of CMO is evolving. According to Spencer Stuart, just 40% of F500 marketing leaders carry the title “Chief Marketing Officer."
Change is hard
The rest?
16% carry hybrid titles (e.g., Chief Marketing & Communications Officer)
33% don’t have “chief” in their title at all (e.g., SVP of Marketing)
11% don’t even have “marketing” in their title—showing up as Chief Customer Officer, Chief Growth Officer, Chief Brand Officer, etc.
Marketing is no longer siloed. It’s being fused with growth, customer experience, commercial strategy, and brand ops.
Companies are:
Broadening the CMO’s remit to include sales, CX, and strategy
Rebranding roles to reflect outcomes, not org structure
Elevating marketing leaders who speak the language of revenue
👉 Takeaway:
The title may change, but the power is growing. The future marketing leader is a business architect.
🤝 Add the brand and marketing firepower your team needs without the overhead.
Midway through the year, the pressure’s real. Channels are noisier, buyers are colder, and internal teams are stretched thin. If your brand, demand, and ops efforts feel misaligned, no one-off tactic is going to fix it.
That’s where we come in.
We work as an extension of your team—plugging in senior brand and marketing talent to help you:
Refocus on what’s working
Cut what’s not
Rebuild with clarity across the funnel
Need a sharper second half? Let’s get to work.
🔥 FAMOUS TAKE:
The CMO isn’t dying. But the role is being redefined.
AI agents. Sales orchestration. Economic ambiguity. Increased revenue responsibility. The CMO who owns brand and pipeline becomes the growth architect every company needs.
—Jay
Thanks for reading. You could be spending your time anywhere—we’re glad you’re here. 💥
—Jay & Adam
Heads Up: In each issue of B2BOOM!, we highlight services from our crew at FamousFolks or friends we trust. When you see the 🤝, it means we’re sharing something we genuinely back. We only shout out things we believe are truly valuable for your business—no shady promos, just stuff we stand behind.