Escaping the Triple Trap: How CMOs Can Reclaim Time, Budget, and Trust

Marketing leaders today find themselves stuck in what many now call the “triple trap”: no time, no budget, and no trust. These constraints are not entirely new, but they’ve become more acute in today’s environment of geopolitical instability, economic pressure, and relentless technological change.

Building on a candid panel session at DEPT's Secret Garden in Cannes, AAR’s Victoria Fox, Chris Lock (LockSmith) and James Witter (PZ Cussons) reunited to delve deeper into this critical topic. 

It’s not just a passing problem, it’s a structural issue that risks leaving marketing in a cycle of “movement without progress”. Busy teams, mounting pressure, but little impact.

So, how do CMOs and their teams break free?

Framing the Problem: Old Pressures, New Intensity

The roots of the triple trap go deep. Marketers have long battled for budget and influence in the boardroom, but the demands of the last decade have stretched the discipline to breaking point.

“Teams are smaller, but their scope has exploded,” says Lock. “Social, e-commerce, influencers, martech, it’s all piled on top of what was already there. Add economic uncertainty and restructures, and the pressure compounds.”

Fox adds that the sheer layering of new demands - AI today, data yesterday, something else tomorrow - has created a cycle where burnout is almost inevitable. Without a clear strategy, marketers risk ticking off buzzwords rather than making meaningful progress.

When asked how to identify the problem, Chris Lock says the signs are easy to spot once you know where to look: constant restructures, frequent agency reviews, high CMO churn, and campaigns that change as quickly as they launch. The danger? Marketing becomes an execution engine rather than a growth driver.

No Time: Breaking the Cycle of Busyness

Where do marketers lose time? Everywhere. From duplication of effort (22 people turning up to a single agency briefing) to firefighting endless board-level debates, inefficiency is rampant.

Witter sees this first-hand. “Marketers are losing precious time under the weight of mounting responsibilities; everything seems to land at marketing’s door,” he explains. “Layer on the endless chase for the next shiny new thing, and it quickly becomes overwhelming. The real focus must be on building brilliant marketing foundations, strengthening capabilities where it matters most to drive brand demand.”

This echoes the solution proposed by Lock; leaders need to “slow down to speed up.” That means investing time in those foundations; clarifying processes, upskilling teams, and gaining alignment at board level. “You only get fast, brave work out the door if your board already trusts your strategy,” Lock notes, pointing to Dove’s lightning-quick COVID response as an example of preparation-enabling agility.

It also means adopting a dual-speed model. “You can’t abandon immediate sales delivery,” he says, “but you must carve out space for future growth.” At Diageo (where Chris spent 9 years in marketing leadership roles), this looked like operating multiple models simultaneously: mainstream brands, premium tiers, near-term innovation, and disruptive future ventures.

For Fox, the message is clear: transformation can’t be a “side-of-desk” project. It requires a roadmap, resourcing, and explicit links to business strategy.

No Budget: Making the Commercial Case

Transformation needs investment, but too often, budgets go to campaigns rather than capability.

The answer, says Fox, lies in alignment. “If the enterprise strategy is clear, and marketing shows how its skills and processes deliver against it, you’re not fighting uphill for budget, it’s already built into the plan.”

Lock stresses the importance of speaking the board’s language. You have to present the case for capability from a point that they can understand within their experience. “You’d never let an unqualified accountant run your financials. So why let an untrained marketer spend millions on campaigns?” he asks.

For Witter, this is the key to unlocking investment. “When marketing capability is tied to clear principles and aligned with business objectives, the C-suite listens,” he states. “Developing teams produces more effective work, and more effective work fuels financial growth.”

CMOs must balance rational arguments (reduced agency costs through better briefs, for example) with emotional ones (creativity, professional credibility, risk management). Crucially, they must frame marketing’s role not as cost but as value creation: harvesting current demand while also building future demand, coupled to reducing price sensitivity and improving profitability.

Skimping on skills is a false economy. “Spend £20k training your team to brief better, and you protect a million-pound media investment,” Lock notes. “That’s the multiplier effect.”

No Trust: Building Safety and Credibility

Trust is the most intangible of the three traps - and perhaps the most corrosive when it erodes.

Inside teams, Fox argues, the lack of psychological safety is the critical issue. With change accelerating, too many marketers are afraid to admit what they don’t know. “Everyone’s expected to be an overnight AI expert. No one wants to raise their hand and say, ‘I need help.’”

Leaders can change this by modelling vulnerability, rewarding learnings as much as wins, and protecting boundaries so teams don’t race themselves into the ground. “Protect the space for curiosity and bravery,” Fox says. “That’s what creates joy and results in marketing.”

Externally, trust breaks down when weak foundations lead to campaigns that don’t deliver. Boards lose confidence, Sales push short-term tactics, and agencies get blamed. The cycle feeds itself.

The antidote? Stronger upstream strategy, better briefs, and alignment on the true commercial role of marketing.

Protecting the Joy of Marketing

For both Lock and Fox, joy is not a nice-to-have; it’s the heartbeat of marketing.

Joy looks like bold creative leaps, deep consumer closeness, and the thrill of work that resonates with people to deliver results. It’s what draws people to marketing in the first place.

But joy only survives in cultures that protect it. That means leaders must shield teams from burnout, celebrate experimentation, and create conditions where people can push beyond their comfort zones without fear of punishment. According to Witter, the payoff is immediate and energising. “Carving out time to invest in building capability within the marketing community has created real buzz among our teams and reignited the magic of marketing - reminding us of the art of the possible!”

“Money follows magic,” says Lock. “The best work earns trust and, in turn, earns budget.”

Unlocking the Triple Trap

So which lever matters most; time, budget, or trust?

Both Lock and Fox are clear: time is the starting point. With time, you can build better work, earn trust, and unlock budget. Without it, you’re stuck in the doom loop.

Their final advice to CMOs:

• Invest in people. Skills, culture, and leadership are the ultimate competitive edge.
• Break the cycle. Separate short-term delivery from long-term value creation, and put resources into both.
• Speak commercial language. Frame marketing’s role in business terms, not campaign terms.
• Prioritise with purpose. Manage the seemingly endless requests of marketing through the lens of impact, focus on what truly moves the business forward, and do fewer things brilliantly. See more in the ‘power of the pause’.