September 2022 This 29th Edition of The CMO Survey examines how marketers are approaching strategies, spending, and organization in a post-Covid environment. Results show that some aspects of marketing have changed quite a bit over the last three years, while other aspects that were changed dramatically during Covid have returned to pre-Covid levels. Optimism for the U.S. economy hit 57.2 (out of 100)—up from 50.9 at the height of the pandemic in June 2020 and the all-time low of 47.7 in February 2009 during the Great Recession, but down from 66.8 reported in February 2022. Customers’ continue to prioritize product quality as they did throughout the pandemic, but low price has now emerged as a priority given inflationary pressures. The pandemic has changed the use of channels—marketers are using a larger number of channels (65%) and are using social channels to sell (41%). Only 10.5% of marketers report their former face-to-face channels are now all digital and 50% report their companies are returning to or opening up face-to-face channels. The pandemic’s acceleration of digital marketing investments has pushed marketing budgets as a percent of company budgets up to the highest level in CMO Survey history. This level also corresponds to the growing importance of marketing in organizations, which has increased in more than half of all companies during the pandemic. Marketing budgets as a percent of revenues revert to pre- 。。。以下略