Nike’s move to brand thinking over quick wins shows boardrooms are relearning patience

Things have gotten so shaky, in fact, that Donahoe is stepping down as Nike scrambles for a full-on strategy reboot. His incoming replacement, Elliott Hill got a glimpse of the scale of that challenge earlier this week (October 1) when the company revealed its earnings for the latest financial quarter. Sales slumped 10% over the period, and the company pulled its full-year forecast, plummeting shares as much as 7%. For the world’s biggest sports brand, the climb back just got steeper.

Whatever Hill does next, marketing will be key. CFO Matthew Friend made that clear, calling for “bigger, bolder brand storytelling,” citing the recent Paris Olympics campaign as proof that good marketing might be the key to turning this ship around. Thanks to the campaign, Nike “owned over 60% of total share of voice during the games”, Friend said, with the ads “resonating especially deeply with our athletes and Gen Z consumers”. 

Which means all eyes are on CMO Nicole Hubbard Graham. After a 17-year stint, she left Nike in 2021 but returned this January to steer its marketing ambitions — already bringing a noticeable shift in the brand’s messaging. Now, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

After years of pushing the “advertising is an investment, not a cost” mantra — often to the eye-rolls of skeptical CFOs — CMOs finally have a chance to prove it. And Nike’s turnaround could be the ultimate test.

But it’s not just Nike’s marketing chief under pressure. Across industries, CMOs are being called to the frontlines as CEOs realize marketing isn’t just a budget line to slash — it’s an investment to fuel growth.

In Nike’s case, it’ll need to find new customers and persuade old ones (including the critical, taste-making running audience) to return. eMarketer head of commerce Suzy Davidkhanian told Digiday that focusing on brand-first marketing techniques as it eases off on performance activity will help it work on the “leaky bucket” problems of customer acquisition and retention.

Struggling retailer JC Penney is another firm that, having focused on loyalty programs and discounting, is now looking to its marketers to help turn its fortunes around. This week it hired former Taco Bell marketing boss Marisa Thalberg as its consulting chief marketing officer, with a “brand reinvigoration” brief, according to a statement Thalberg posted on LinkedIn.

In Q2, Unilever decided to put a $700 million chunk of cash gleaned from healthy profit margins towards brand marketing. In a July call with analysts, CFO Fernando Fernandez explicitly linked the increased investment with “high-quality sales growth.”

This isn’t just about hiring or increasing budgets, though. Auto brand Hyundai recently broke up its performance marketing and creative advertising operations, abolishing its CMO role and instead making marketing chief Angela Zapeda its chief creative officer; the performance marketing brief has been transferred to its head of sales. While the move has its skeptics, some industry experts have suggested it indicates Hyundai is putting brand-building creative advertising on an equal footing with performance marketing activity.

And recent investments by agency groups suggest they’re alive to client demand for brand-building expertise. In August, WPP acquired buzzy London-based creative shop New Commercial Arts, and just this week, MSQ – a mid-tier British holding company backed by private equity firms One Equity Partners and LDC – acquired Dairy Queen creative agency-of-record SPCSHP.

Elsewhere, Dentsu has moved to expand a new creative R&D division in London after piloting the concept in Japan. And Publicis Groupe has expanded its portfolio with this week’s launch of LeSHOP, a brand and commerce agency operating across the U.K. and Ireland. 

‘I have never won a pitch without a creative idea,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun at a recent industry event in London.

Another sign that marketers are re-evaluating the way they approach and invest in marketing? The rising number of firms taking pitches for their media and creative accounts at the same time. “We’re increasingly seeing the role of storytelling playing an important role in our reviews,” said Greg Paull, principal at consultancy R3.

In the U.K., consumer bank Santander, pizza chain Papa John’s and Walmart-owned supermarket Asda have each recently embarked on joint media and creative reviews.

It might be early to call that an industry-wide trend, notes Sam Tomlinson, chief client officer of consultancy MediaSense. But it does suggest fewer companies are treating brand marketing as an afterthought. “Pitching media and creative together is still unusual, but less unusual than it was,” said Tomlinson.