Introduction New tools. New challenges. New strategies. If you’re a marketing leader in 2022, you’ve If you’re struggling to keep your team engaged, this seen a lot of “new” in the last 10 years, if not last point should hit home. The inability to connect the last 10 months. After two years immersed everyday work to meaningful outcomes has been linked in a global pandemic, and as major economic to employee burnout—manifesting in feelings of “mental shifts force teams to accelerate digital distance from one’s job” or “negativism or cynicism transformation and focus on efficiency, we’re related to one’s job”, as defined by the World Health collectively more exhausted (and distracted!) Organization. The great majority of participants in this than ever. Leaders are challenged to keep report—even the marketing leaders who are responsible their teams inspired and performant—even for revenue-based goals—find it strikingly difficult to show the return on investment (ROI) of content and campaigns. as the very nature of marketing continues to And only 24% find it ‘very easy’ to measure the impact evolve. The rate of change shows no signs of marketing initiatives against broader business goals. of slowing. How can a team stay motivated, without confidence Keeping up with these changes takes a powerful that their work truly matters? investment of your teams’ energy and time—an The tension between the ideal and the real is the investment we could be spending on the work itself. foundation of this report. Broader, societal narratives This report suggests that we’re increasingly balancing of burnout, the great resignation, and low productivity deep work with chasing asset approvals, communicating come to life in this data—shown in the hours marketers the same information in multiple places, keeping data up spend in meetings, the endless lists of non-core tasks, to date, and proving our value as marketers, as a team. and the lack of room left for creative collaboration. On the brighter side, clear commonalities exist between teams that are successfully reversing these engagement-draining trends—they’re connecting their initiatives to broader company goals, they’re investing in no code technologies, and they’re improving the efficiency of their day to day workflows. By adopting similar methods, marketing leaders can build teams that are not just adaptable, but resilient in the face of change. 3 Airtable 2022 Marketing trends report