PMI Survey

Agencies face new creative challenges to boost brand awareness – PMI Survey

By Ralph Tathagata

A recent survey has shown that about 97% of agencies face mounting pressure to deliver bold, fresh experiences that boost brand awareness and keep customers engaged in an increasingly saturated market.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) commissioned the online survey, which PSB Insights conducted from April 28 to May 6, 2025, among creative campaign professionals in the United States working at an advertising, marketing, creative, PR agency, or in-house agency/department.

The institute shared this at the ongoing Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025, disclosing that 97% of respondents faced at least one major campaign challenge in the last year, including: going over budget – 55%, overdue deadlines – 54%, and constraints on creativity – 47%.

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The survey, conducted among 130 U.S. marketing and advertising agency professionals, also found that a third of campaigns – 34% did not resonate with their target audience or generate new leads – 35%.

Menaka Gopinath, Chief Marketing Officer at PMI, said, “In a tough marketing climate, with rising demands, tighter budgets, and shorter timelines, the execution side of creativity has never been more critical. The survey reveals that 9 in 10 (90%) creative professionals agree: ‘Great creative campaigns do not happen without great project management.’”

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She said, “Today’s CMOs are juggling more platforms, priorities, and pressure than ever before, and it’s easy for even the strongest campaigns to lose focus and veer off-track. Effective project management provides the structure and clarity creative teams need to drive momentum, work collaboratively, and deliver results that align with business goals. By bringing order to complexity, project management empowers marketing leaders to stay focused on strategy and turn complexity into opportunity.”

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Pierre Le Manh, President and CEO of PMI, said, “Marketing matters more than ever, but it also has to perform in spite of its increasing complexity.”

He said, “Every dollar must drive measurable impact, and every great idea must scale. That’s where project professionals become a force multiplier. They don’t constrain creativity, they operationalise it. They fight waste, play an essential role in managing complex assets, teams, cultures, tech stacks – and turn ideas into results. Ultimately, they drive more execution efficiency and speed, which translates into more profit for both agencies and clients.”

Le Manh added, “This is why, despite the rise of AI and automation, agencies are doubling down on people. Nearly all (98%) say they’re growing their project management capabilities, primarily through talent, not tools. 32% are training current staff, and 28% are hiring—reinforcing the belief that successful campaigns begin with skilled, empowered professionals.”

The survey showed that project management professionals allowed organisations’ leaders to focus on driving growth (52%), ensured campaigns contributed positively to the brand over time (52%), got all the different parts of the campaign working together (50%), managed increasingly complex campaigns (45%), and ensured campaigns are long-lasting (45%).

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Project management professionals are no longer viewed as back-office schedulers; they’re emerging as team motivators and strategic leaders. While most agencies rely on them to keep projects on track (60%), more than half (52%) say their greatest impact lies in energising creative teams.

As creative work grows more complex, expectations for project managers are shifting. In-house marketing teams and agencies now prize strategic skills like innovative thinking (67%), growth strategy (60%), and adaptability (57%) over budget and resource management (49%). Project managers today aren’t just delivering campaigns; they’re helping teams evolve.

Yet the contributions of project managers often go unnoticed. Nearly half (48%) of creative leaders said project managers are the unsung heroes of campaigns, delivering critical, behind-the-scenes value, from steering complex activation to aligning teams and keeping everything on track.

The survey also found that sharpening project management skills gives marketing teams the edge. Teams led by certified project managers outperformed those without certification, delivering stronger results and audience-aligned campaigns.