UK CMOs lose a month yearly to martech woes, creativity suffers

Research has shown that UK chief marketing officers are losing a significant amount of time each year troubleshooting their marketing technology platforms, highlighting ongoing challenges with martech complexity.

The findings come from a survey by Intermedia Global (IMG), which canvassed the views of 250 C-suite professionals responsible for marketing technology in UK mid-sized enterprises with annual revenues between GBP £100 million and GBP £500 million.

Time lost to martech issues

On average, the research found that CMOs spent 13.3 hours each month over the past year on troubleshooting their martech, which equates to more than 21 working days per year or, put another way, an entire month. For almost a third of respondents—31%—that figure rose to more than five hours a week, amounting to over 34 working days per year.

With marketers now having access to more than 15,000 different tools and platforms, the technology landscape underpinning modern marketing teams has grown increasingly complex and fragmented.

Creativity affected

The study also revealed the impact of these issues on creativity. Nearly three-quarters of CMOs (71%) reported that they often lose time they had set aside for creative tasks, such as team brainstorming sessions or individual thinking, due to having to address martech or technical support issues. The proportion rises to 95% among those who have occupied their current role for one to two years, a period when familiarity with the company's martech stack is usually being established.

A third (34%) of respondents admitted that they lose this creative time "very often" as a result of martech problems. MG CEO Steve Kemish said:

"People who are spending all their time troubleshooting their tech because tool A doesn't link with platform B, or because there's a problem and they don't know where the responsibility for the tech stack lies, or because their creaking legacy system can't cope with brand-new AI functionality, aren't able to be creative and design effective marketing campaigns. If CMOs want their martech to actually help them, they need to rationalise and rethink how they approach it."

Morale and motivation

The impact of martech complications is not limited to time and creative output. The research found that one in twelve CMOs stated that dealing with martech and data reduces their enjoyment of their job. Additionally, around one in eight (13%) respondents stated that, despite martech being intended to save time, money, and improve efficiency, it was not having a positive impact on team morale or motivation.

Kemish continued,

"Martech was designed to make marketers' lives easier, but all too often it's having the opposite effect. It's impossible for CMOs and their teams to focus on customer experience when their own experience is so poor. Tech overload is something that hits businesses of all sizes and across all categories, and is significant enough that we developed a specific Marketing Experience (MX) approach to address it. This transforms how marketing teams actually work with their tech, reduces frictions, and reclaims more time for creativity and strategy. When the day-to-day experience improves, so does the output. And given the current economic climate, with scrutiny on budgets and headcount, it has never been more vital for CMOs to be able to make the most of their team's valuable time and resources."

The findings underscore the growing disconnect between the intention of marketing technology and the actual experience of those using it daily within organisations.