Amy Scissons, Russell Reynolds: The CMO Marketing Playbook

Amy Scissons is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Russell Reynolds Associates, a global leadership advisory and executive search firm. She brings more than 20 years of experience leading go-to-market strategy for professional services firms worldwide, and previously served as Chief Marketing Officer for Mercer's International Region, directing marketing operations across more than 100 cities in 41 countries.

Part of PR Agency Q&A Profiles. See also: Daniela Mancinelli, N6A, Jennifer Risi, The Sway Effect.

What is the top challenge marcomms teams face today?

Amy Scissons names budget accountability as the defining pressure on marketing and communications departments. Marketing leaders face sustained demand to prove measurable return, with lead generation and pipeline contribution increasingly the standard marketing is judged against, ahead of brand-awareness metrics alone. A Dun & Bradstreet survey found that 70% of senior marketers reported budget cuts in a single measured period, alongside a 76% rise in pressure to deliver qualified leads. The pressure has become structural rather than cyclical.

A second challenge sits alongside budget accountability: proving brand credibility in a saturated market where consumer loyalty is harder to earn and easier to lose. Scissons describes this as a category-wide problem, not one specific to professional services or executive search.

What did the industry learn about brand trust that still matters?

Brands earn durable trust by acting consistently rather than by managing messaging reactively. Scissons points to a broader shift in consumer expectation: audiences now expect companies to demonstrate accountability through action, not through statements alone. She calls this discipline a "sensitivity audit," a comprehensive review of messaging, customer service practice, and business strategy for consistency between what a brand says and what it does.

Marketing and communications teams that build sensitivity audits into a recurring practice, rather than a one-time response to a specific event, catch gaps before they become public credibility problems.

How has media strategy shifted for B2B marketers?

Digital channels now account for the substantial majority of multichannel marketing budgets, with Gartner's CMO Spend Survey placing the share near 80%. Scissons frames this as a permanent reallocation rather than a temporary shift: audiences expect personalized engagement, useful content, and direct value from brand communications, not broadcast messaging.

Social listening has become a core discipline rather than a supplementary tool. Marketing teams that monitor real-time sentiment and respond quickly build trust at a pace that quarterly brand-tracking studies cannot match.

What trends should marcomms professionals watch?

Scissons identifies four durable trends shaping the next phase of B2B marketing: deeper digitalization of the buyer journey, increased personalization at scale through data intelligence, and purpose-driven campaigns that connect brand values to measurable business outcomes. She expects some return to traditional brand-building tactics running alongside newer digital-first approaches, with the strongest marketing organizations building fluency across both rather than treating them as competing philosophies.

In B2B specifically, Scissons highlights four priorities: employer branding as a growth lever, buyer enablement content that shortens sales cycles, buyer-intent data informing outreach timing, and account-based marketing as the default model for enterprise sales motions.