<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dbd5c4978f51cb831e0f_entry-002-banner-68c3180350adb478789377-6902579f7afb1233368853.webp" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Expression</span> <h1 class="gn-title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 004: Sometimes, it works.</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>7 October 2025</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>3 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <p class="gn-lede gn-reveal">It's been three weeks since my last entry. I didn't forget. I just didn't have anything major to report that felt worthy of daylight.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><em>w/c 30th September 2025</em></p> <p class="gn-reveal">The irony, of course, is that the silence was a good thing.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Not quiet because of burnout, pressure, or disengagement (the usual suspects). But quiet because, unusually, we've had a few weeks where things have worked. Threads pulled in the same direction + positive conversations + firm decisions = momentum without drama!</p> <p class="gn-reveal">If I'm being honest, I hesitated to write this one as i'm acutely aware that positivity can easily sound smug or performative. But part of the deal I made when I said yes to writing these entries was honesty, and that has to go both ways.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">You may have seen the latest IPA Bellwether report in the news.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"UK companies revised their total marketing budgets down in Q1 – marking the first overall decline in four years."</blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">The article got passed around our team with the usual mix of schadenfreude and strategic worry. But inside our walls, the narrative has shifted.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">While the wider market tightens, we're leaning into a few core growth bets and unusually, no one's trying to dismantle the plan three months in.</p> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <p class="gn-reveal">The breakthrough came not from a strategy offsite or a boardroom standoff, but a joint workshop with two of our key agency partners, plus our European insights team. The brief was a complicated one: how to evolve a well-performing campaign without undermining what made it resonate. That awkward space between iteration and reinvention.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The agency teams came in well-prepared and brilliantly sharp on data, grounded in local nuance, but brave in their recommendations. One of them challenged a core brand truth we've carried for years. Not with ego, but with evidence that landed and my team has backed it. I watched our Head of Comms build on it in real time and by the time we wrapped, we had alignment on a direction that felt exciting and ownable, and for once, not compromised. One of the agency creatives actually said, "This is the most honest brief we've worked on in years."</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Sometimes, in global organisations, energy gets lost in translation. Between markets, layers and silos, but this one cut through. Not because it was a breakthrough idea necessarily, but because the collaboration worked the way it's supposed to.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I came back home and reread a slide I'd drafted two weeks earlier: "Revisit agency model – too fragmented, not adding value." I didn't delete it. But I added a note underneath: "Hold for now."</p> <aside class="gn-quote gn-reveal"><q>One of the privileges of this job, and it is a privilege, is watching really talented people find the answer. Not dictate it but genuinely uncover something useful together.</q><cite>The Secret CMO</cite></aside> <p class="gn-reveal">Those moments are more rare than i'd like but when they happen, they reset your cynicism. You remember that progress is possible even in big, complex, politics-laden environments like ours.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I know the bumps will come back. We've got a retail partner review next week that will almost certainly kick out fresh challenges and Q1/Q2 planning starts in earnest soon, which always brings a flurry of panic prioritisation and budget jockeying. But for now, we've got a campaign that has a shot at being great, and a team that feels like a team.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Someone asked me recently how I measure success in this role. Clearly KPIs, media effectiveness or campaign lifts are the hard and fast metrics but often I feel like those are for someone else's presentation. For me, it's the days I leave a meeting feeling like less of a translator and more of a conductor and when the noise turns into something with direction.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">This was one of those weeks.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">More soon.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>The Secret CMO</strong></p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/the-secret-diary-of-a-cmo-entry-002-the-theatre-of-influence" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 002: The Theatre of Influence</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">A senior CMO unpacks the gap between being in the room and being heard, and how to land a brand investment case when the budget instinct cut</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/the-secret-diary-of-a-cmo-entry-003-we-spent-four-months-aligning-on-a-slide-no-one-used" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 003: We Spent Four Months Aligning on a Slide No One Used</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">A CMO&#39;s candid account of four months refining one slide that never shipped. The real cost of over-alignment, and what it means for agency p</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/the-secret-diary-of-a-cmo-entry-011-the-wrong-brief-in-the-right-suit" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 011: “The Wrong Brief in the Right Suit”</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">A sitting CMO reveals the mindset gap that trips up agency talent in brand-side interviews, and the one question that exposes the wrong ment</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/the-secret-diary-of-a-cmo-entry-010-three-weeks-in" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 010: “Three Weeks In”</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">A CMO&#39;s FY27 diary entry exposes how retained and departing agencies signal their true intent, and what those signals mean for modern agency</span> </a> </li> </ul> </aside>