Despite the emphatic case for long-term brand building being waged by marketers and academics, the bellwethers that surround the marketing function, coupled with an impending economic downturn, should send shivers through the supply sector. It's time to assume the brace position.

What might look like fractal events on the outside are growing challenges for the CMO, the marketing function and the marketing brand itself.

The headlines that flood the c-suite from Harvard Business Review, Forbes, the consulting and strategy houses, and  those that measure CMO tenure dramatise a significant fracture in the confidence and purpose of marketing - fractures that reverberate sector wide, impacting agencies, media owners and  tech providers.

Elevating the respect for marketing is a pledge many of us have signed up to, but the certainty of recession  throws a curve ball. Morgan Stanley has already declared an advertising recession. Most are asking when and how, but not if. 

We know the tightening has begun. Corporate Australia is intently focused on cost reduction, new operating models and large-scale transformations. It's everywhere. Improving productivity, AKA doing more with less, and the postponement of investment are already visible. They're early indicators of recession-proofing. 

The question is what role does marketing play beyond short term activations in driving the corporate growth strategy through an economic downturn and in a market that is already incredibly hard to navigate. Or, does the economic overlay just exacerbate the focus on short-termism? 

It's been said before, many times over. The only thing that will stem what appears to be marketing’s death by a thousand cuts is to first deliver a robust case for investment that demonstrates material contribution to the business case - both predictive tech and robust post analysis on which marketing investments are doing the heavy lifting for business growth.  Nothing else matters.

The line that has to be struck from the global marketing narrative first, in the most public of ways, from the world's biggest brands is this: "Marketing departments have trouble attributing their work and showing how it impacts a company’s bottom line".   

For all of us that cohabit under marketing's roof, it's imperative that marketing shakes its headlines as a cost centre,  addresses attribution and wrestles itself from those that are pushing a short-term agenda. If we don't and with the chill winds of recession whistling around our ears, now will be the beginning of the longest winter of our discontent.