With the current economic climate, framing marketing as an investment rather than a cost was raised as a critical issue amongst our media steering groups for 2025. By bringing together Finance Directors (ex Disney and current tails.com) and experts like Dr. Grace Kite and Sam Tomlinson our hybrid event emphasised the importance of understanding the financial perspective and using good data to make a compelling case for marketing investments with practical insights and strategies.
Dr Grace Kite: Empathy and financial alignment in marketing – key takeaways
- Grace shared three top tips from CFOs:
- Translate marketing concepts into financial numbers.
- Build strong relationships with finance.
- Involve finance early in decision-making
- She emphasised the importance of empathy for finance, recognising the balancing act finance teams perform when evaluating expenditure requests.
- She advocated for using good data and effectiveness research to build trust and strong relationships with finance.
- Grace shared insights from CFOs on the need for:
- Understanding market context and performance.
- Maintaining consistent communication with finance.
- Using independent third-party corroboration to validate marketing data.
- She explained the difference between CapEx and OpEx in advertising, with examples of how various advertising types fit into each category.
- Highlighted the importance of understanding the long-term payback of brand building.
- Encouraged marketers to showcase the creative side of marketing to finance teams.
Sam Tomlinson, MediaSense: Financial strategy and operational efficiency – key takeaways
- Sam provided three top tips for managing supplier complexity:
- Understand procurement’s role.
- Map operational workflows.
- Focus on efficiencies and value.
- Sam warned against the pitfalls of benchmarking and auditing, urging marketers to focus on internal value rather than external comparisons.
- He stressed the need to balance long-term brand building with short-term performance marketing.
- Recommended using discounted cash flow analysis to measure marketing effectiveness.
- He explained how accounting standards that prohibit capitalising marketing spend create challenges for marketers.
- Offered strategies to make a compelling case for marketing investments, especially during economic uncertainty.
- Sam shared findings from a study on digital retail media:
- Highlighted the integration of commercial and marketing.
- Emphasised the need for clear strategies and contracting with retailers to ensure value for money.
- Discussed the impact of AI on marketing:
- Applications in content production, LLM search, and media.
- Stressed the importance of a strong data strategy to unlock AI’s potential.
See the event videos below.
Working better with your finance team: A practical guide from Stephen Dainteth, the Chief Financial Officer of Acado Group PLC, interviewed by Dr Grace Kite (see full video interview below)
Want to get finance on your side? Here's what actually works: Start every conversation by explaining what you're trying to achieve and how you'll measure it. Finance teams love concrete numbers -customer acquisition, repeat purchases, and brand health surveys are your best friends.
Test small first. Run control samples to show early results before asking for bigger budgets. This builds trust and gives you proof points for scaling up. Schedule monthly check-ins rather than waiting for year-end reviews—finance appreciates being kept in the loop, and you'll spot issues early.
Keep your growth projections realistic. Overpromising kills your credibility fast. If possible, get a finance-savvy person on your marketing team who can translate between both worlds and speed up approvals.
The golden rule? Involve finance from day one. Position marketing as a long-term brand investment, not a quick win. Be ready to double down on what's working and kill what isn't based on real data. Finance teams respect marketers who think like business partners, not just creative spenders.
Bottom line: transparency, evidence, and realistic expectations will transform your relationship with finance from adversarial to collaborative.
See the full video below:
