Each year, the CMO Council surveys more than 500 marketing executives to gain perspective on the future of marketing. Last week, it published The State of Marketing 2012: A Global and Multi-Regional Marketing Assessment. Findings indicate that marketers are positive as they head into 2013 with confidence in their roles and their business performance.

According to the report, marketing budgets are also on an upward swing. While the increase to marketing budgets will likely be conservative post-recession, there has certainly been some improvement. These budget swings have come with strings attached-specifically a mandate from senior leadership for marketing to increase its understanding of the customer and the big data that fuels intelligence. In 2013 and beyond, marketers will need to be savvy strategists, customer analysts, and business leaders rather than branding powerhouses and advertising geniuses.

Figure 1: The CMO Council's The State of Marketing 2012

54% of the 550 respondents surveyed by the CMO Council indicate that budgets are going up in 2013. The report also indicates that 2013 may prove to be the "transition year" from a social-focused strategy to a mobile-dominated experience. In addition to the new marketing channels being investigated in the coming year, 63% of senior marketers are looking at social. Meanwhile, 65% of marketers planned to make mobile a key area of investigation. Marketers also indicated that they were looking to bring on new talent with specialties in social media, marketing analytics, strategic planning, search marketing, web analytics, and customer insight. Across internal and external suppliers, marketers want to lead by example, holding both groups accountable with metrics and a link to business outcome and performance.