Sometimes you don’t need a large marketing team to accelerate growth – especially if you have a household name to give you a nudge in the right direction.

The reasons for striking a partnership with another brand are wide and diverse. From extending audience reach and brand attributes to product and services expansion, cultural and social alignment, improving commercial dividends and solving a customer pain point, the list feels seemingly endless and full of opportunity. But just what kind of external partnership are worth pursuing? And how do you shore up the best chances of success when you do partner with an external player?

One of the clear trends to emerge during 2020 was brands striking external partnerships. And if Deloitte’s recent Marketing Trends 2021 report is to go by, such partnership aspirations remain firmly in the spotlight this year as a way to drive growth, meet changing customer needs, lift cultural credentials and drive innovation.

​The rise of the chief growth officer should be a warning sign to CMOs that too many of them have sacrificed their positions driving real organisational growth and lost face in the boardroom.

It’s arguably the hottest new c-level job title many CMOs always wanted to have and are actually perfect for: Chief growth officer. So as we reached out to gauge insight into the appetite for such a job change locally, who better to ask than people already holding the job title.