Every creative has been there, you’ve got a brilliant idea that feels fresh, exciting, maybe even a little daring. But when it doesn’t get approved, you’re left wondering why.
CMO consultant Alison Feldmann (former Etsy, Booking.com & Eventbrite) reveals what top decision-makers really look for — and why so many portfolios, CVs, and pitch decks fail.
Alison Feldmann is a global marketing executive, strategist, and advisor known for global integrated and culture marketing, driving differentiation and impact across the customer experience and leveraging brand as a driver of growth.
“We had an agency bring in a pitch deck that they reused from a different client of theirs, with their branding. We could tell that this was not actually for the client company that I was working with.”
CMOs want work that feels unique to them, relevant, and strategically aligned with their business goals. The best pitches consider operational realities like budgets, channel fit, and measurement plans, while providing both a detailed rationale and a short, executive-level summary for leadership. Generic ideas that aren’t tailored to the brand they’re pitching to are a big no-no.
“One of the main things is always tying your ideas to business objectives at the level that you're operating in, and really understanding how to show and measure that level of impact that you're doing as an individual for the business. Ultimately, that is what helps you to get promoted.”
Alison emphasized that CMOs want to see creatives tying their creative proposals to measurable outcomes like customer frequency, retention, or engagement through structured testing. Work framed as a “nice to have” without clear business value is often deprioritized because it doesn’t connect back to company goals.
“It's less about ‘I did all these things,’ and more about ‘what it did for the business as a result.’”
Alison emphasised that just showing the amazing visuals isn’t enough – CMOs want to understand the business contexts and your impact: the problem, the objective, and whether the solution worked. For performance-driven roles, metrics like conversion rates, usage increases, and NPS (Net Promoter Score) are essential to understand the outcomes and how it affected the business.
Even failed projects can show learning and risk-taking, as long as you explain it in your portfolio.
“With annual business planning and having goals that we've set for next year, we need to know how much money and people we need to be able to execute these goals according to priorities the business has put forward and the budgets that were signed off.”
A lot of the challenges that CMOs face revolve around managing money and budgets alongside long-term brand strategy, rather than immediate ROI. While ROI matters in the short-term, boards are equally focused on brand equity: ensuring the brand has a clear role in the market and remains relevant to customers in the long-term. The hardest part for CMOs is aligning big creative ideas with these business priorities so they secure the investment and support needed to bring them to life.
“I would say definitely niche down before going broad. I feel like that's actually to your benefit.”
Two big themes have risen for creatives and agencies: AI and focusing on one particular thing.
Alison explained that AI has huge potential as a creative tool, especially when trained on a brand’s own assets to build something distinctive and help solve potential brand problems.
She also highlighted the value of niching down: agencies and creatives who focus on a specific category or platform (like beauty or TikTok) stand out more than those who try to do everything.
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