The pressure marketers are under is real. From the persistent need to do more with less, to grappling with feelings of imposter syndrome and the threat of burnout, nuance is needed when thinking about where the industry is headed.
Despite the challenges, however, marketers are feeling optimistic about the future.
Over half (54.3%) of the more than 3,500 marketers responding to Marketing Week’s exclusive 2025 Career & Salary Survey say they are gaining influence in their business and therefore feel optimistic about the future of marketing in their company.
By comparison, 11.4% of the total sample feel pessimistic about the function’s future and report losing influence in the business. Close to a third (30.5%) of respondents are unsure about what the future holds, with support for marketing within their company uncertain.
Within B2B businesses the sense of optimism is greater, with 56.5% enjoying the fact they are gaining influence. This is an opinion shared by 52.4% of their B2C peers.
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Marketers within SMEs (250 employees and under) are also largely feeling optimistic about the future of the marketing function within their business (56.1%), as are 53.3% of their counterparts in large organisations.
Over half (53.6%) of CMOs, marketing directors and vice-presidents feel like they are gaining influence in the business, as do (54.7%) of senior managers/managers. This sense of optimism is shared by 51.7% of junior managers/executives/assistants.
Marketers falling into the Gen Z demographic (65.1%) tend to be most optimistic about the future of marketing within their business.
While still reporting increasing influence, the survey finds this sense of optimism tends to wane the more seasoned marketers become. Over half (54%) of millennial marketers and their Gen X peers (53.2%) feel optimistic about the future of marketing within their organisation.
Female marketers (55.5%) are marginally more likely to say they are gaining influence than their male peers (51.9%).
All rosy?
While this growing sense of influence is to be celebrated, the data suggests a sizeable minority still feel unsure about the status of marketing within their business.
Returning to the total sample, a combined 41.9% feel either pessimistic or unsure about the future of the profession within their company.
Some 45% of B2C marketers feel pessimistic or unsure about the support for marketing and sense a declining influence. Interrogating this figure further, 14.7% specifically express a sense of pessimism.
Over a third (39.5%) of their B2B peers also feel either pessimistic or unsure about the status of marketing.
A similar picture emerges when looking at the data according to size of business. More than a third (39.3%) of SME marketers and over a fifth (43.8%) of their peers in large organisations are either pessimistic or unsure about the state of marketing in their company – whether that be losing influence or feeling uncertain when it comes to support.
Furthermore, over a fifth of CMOs/marketing directors (42.4%), senior managers (42.1%) and junior managers/executives (43.5%) also feel downbeat or a sense of uncertainty when it comes to the future of marketing in their business.
Whereas more than a fifth of millennial (42.8%) and Gen X marketers (41.8%) share this sense of either being pessimistic or unsure looking ahead, these feelings are much less pronounced among Gen Z (27.7%).
Male marketers (44.7%) are marginally more likely to feel pessimistic or unsure about the state of marketing in their organisation than their female peers (40.3%).
Given the 2025 Career & Salary Survey data Marketing Week has reported in recent weeks around the experience of imposter syndrome and the industry’s burnout crisis, it’s hardly surprising a sizeable minority are left questioning the support and influence of marketing.
However, this uncertainty is being tempered by a wider sense marketing is growing in influence at a time when brands need strategic vision and an eye for growth more than ever.
Marketing Week will be reporting on exclusive data from the 2025 Career & Salary Survey over the coming weeks, including exploring pay gaps, in-demand skills and the changing face of recruitment.
