There is a quiet coup happening in the C-suite. It isn’t being led by a rival brand or a disruptive startup, but by a department two floors down: procurement, writes Pieter Geyser, commercial director, Humanz.
In the modern corporate machine, marketing, once the engine of growth and the soul of the brand, has been demoted to a line-item expense. We have entered the era of ‘efficiency marketing’, where the most critical question asked of a CMO is no longer “How do we build unshakeable market authority?” but rather “Which agency has the lowest hourly rate?”
The result? A self-inflicted demise, where the CMO role is evolving into a hybrid of data scientist and cost-cutter, while the actual power to shape the future of the business is being traded for a decimal point on a spreadsheet.
The rise of the ‘commodity’ partner
The current landscape is driven by finance and procurement teams who treat marketing services like office supplies. Decisions are made not based on creative insight, category knowledge, or strategic chemistry, but on standardised service offerings and bottom-dollar bidding.
When procurement dictates the partner, the CMO loses their most potent weapon: the ability to build long-term brand equity. We are witnessing a ‘value vs cost’ gap. While procurement celebrates a 10% saving on agency fees, the brand suffers a 20% loss in market share because the ‘cheapest’ partner lacked the soul to resonate with a human audience.
The 81% problem: Why ‘cheap’ is expensive
The data tells a harrowing story for those obsessed with efficiency over effectiveness. Recent market trends show that B2B buying cycles are shortening, and a staggering 81% of buyers now choose their vendor before they even contact a sales representative.
If the sale is won or lost before the first phone call, the “service rates” of your marketing partner are irrelevant if your brand wasn’t on the shortlist to begin with. By prioritising ‘efficiency marketing’ (cost-cutting), companies are failing at ‘effectiveness marketing’ (demand-building).
If you aren’t building a brand that occupies the buyer’s mind months before they need you, no amount of procurement-led ‘optimisation’ will save your quarterly targets.
The CMO’s evolution: From art to algorithm (and back)
The CMO role has undoubtedly expanded. Today’s leader must navigate AI, analytics, business strategy, and complex commercials. But in this rush to become business-literate, many have surrendered their marketing-literacy.
The commercial CMO must stop reporting on ‘likes’ and start speaking the language of the balance sheet. We need to move away from vanity metrics and towards brand contribution; i.e. the actual dollar amount the brand contributes to the parent company’s value.
When you can prove that brand value is a balance sheet asset rather than a marketing cost, the procurement conversation shifts from “How much does this cost?” to “How much value are we leaving on the table?”
The antidote: Lo-fi authority and human connection
As we move further into 2026, we are seeing massive AI fatigue. Nearly one-third of consumers are less likely to choose a brand that uses obvious, slop-style AI advertising. To bypass procurement’s spreadsheets, marketers must build human-led authority.
This means moving away from polished, soulless corporate sizzle reels and towards lo-fi executive authenticity.
Think whiteboard sessions, unfiltered thought leadership and smartphone-shot insights. This ‘un-produced’ content builds a level of trust that a procurement algorithm cannot quantify and a commodity competitor cannot replicate.
Taking back the power: A 90-day sprint
To reclaim the throne, CMOs must lead a power shift campaign within their own organisations:
-
Phase 1 (awareness): Debunk the myth of marketing as a cost centre. Use data to show that cheap partners lead to high churn and low Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
-
Phase 2 (education): Educate the C-suite on share of search. If you aren’t being searched for, you don’t exist in the 10-month buying cycle.
-
Phase 3 (conversion): Present case studies where brand-led (not procurement-led) partnerships drove 3x higher ROI.
The verdict
The CMO is not going extinct, but the passive CMO is. The future belongs to the leader who can bridge the gap between the spreadsheet and the story. It is time to stop letting procurement choose our dance partners based on the price of their shoes.
We must prioritise giving marketing power back to the marketers – not for the sake of the ego, but for the sake of the bottom line. Because, at the end of the day, a business that competes only on price is a business that has already lost the war.
Pieter Geyser is commercial director at Humanz.
