2025: A year of ideas, insight and in-person connection
by Zoë Francis-Cox
As we look back at 2025 it’s hard to believe just how much the CMA community packed into 12 months. It was certainly a year of ideas, insight, experimentation and importantly, getting back together in person.
The energy at our in-person events was a real highlight. We saw another epic B2B Content Marketing Summit alongside the first in-person Content Marketing Summit and International Content Marketing Awards since 2019. It was great to be in the room and witness such honest and practical conversations - from how to use AI and automation well, to turning insight into revenue, cutting through on LinkedIn and keeping creativity alive in a busy landscape.
Our Content Breakfasts continued to evolve too, and we enjoyed member drinks evenings including our first ever ICMA Shortlist Party, where members got an exclusive sneak peek at the shortlist over pizza and a glass of wine (or two!).
The International Content Marketing Awards really are the jewel in the CMA’s crown and they continue to go from strength to strength. With entries coming from over 25 countries and submissions up nearly 20% year-on-year. More than 150 independent judges across multiple time zones are now in the midst of the tough process, ensuring that every gold, silver and bronze has earned its place.
Listening to members, we added a new Best Use of AI category to recognise how quickly AI is becoming part of day-to-day content marketing. It’s exciting to see how agencies and brands are using these tools, not just to cut costs, but to unlock new types of work.
Early 2025, we refreshed and reinvigorated the CMA’s purpose and mission, launched a new membership pack and rolled out Glue Up, our new membership platform designed to make it easier for you to connect, collaborate and access CMA content. There’s more to come here as we add features and respond to member feedback.
We’re also about to introduce a new Freelance Membership to welcome more independent talent into the community and continued to develop the role of our CMA Champions who work inside member organisations to help colleagues make the most of what’s on offer.
Our footprint has become more global too. CMA Asia, led by Andy Edmonds, has hosted more brilliant activity in Singapore and we have enjoyed conversations in markets such as South Africa through partners like Dentsu Creative. The rise in APAC entries at this year’s awards shows how international our community has become.
Perhaps the quiet game-changer this year has been CMA Pulse - our quarterly survey and report. Thanks to your responses we’ve already built a clearer picture of what’s really happening in agencies and content teams, from new business pipelines and office life to tech adoption and client engagement.
One striking pattern from the latest report is the increasingly polarised marketplace - agencies that are either mainly project-based or mainly retainer-based, with less middle ground than before. That has major implications for growth strategy, pricing and the type of content you prioritise and we hope Pulse will continue to give you data to support those decisions.
As we look to 2026, a few clear themes are already emerging:
AI will quietly become part of our everyday toolkit rather than a shiny side project; from briefing and repurposing content to powering brand-trained GPTs and conversational websites where audiences can simply ask and get what they need.
The marketplace will remain polarised, with some teams leaning into fast, performance-led project work and others focused on longer-term programmes that prove value and deepen relationships, often through more flexible, subscription-style retainers.
Cutting across all of this, the real differentiation will still come from people - the cultures that make space for creativity and wellbeing, and the partnerships and communities, like the CMA, that help us share what is working, find collaborators and keep moving the industry forward together.
None of this would have been possible without our members, partners, speakers, judges, champions and the wider content marketing community, so thank you for being part of the CMA, sharing your challenges and successes and trusting us to facilitate those conversations.
We’re excited and busy working on our 2026 B2B and B2C Summits, a full programme of Content Breakfasts, the next phases of Glue Up, future Pulse reports and an even bigger, bolder and glitzier awards season.
We hope you had a restful break and we look forward to seeing you - in a room, on a screen or on a shortlist - in 2026.
Zoë Francis-Cox, CMA Chair and CEO Dialogue
Zoë’s an award-winning business leader with more than 20 years’ experience in print publishing, digital marketing and commercial strategy.
Passionate about people, culture and driving business growth. CEO of independent content agency Dialogue after leading exit from parent company in 2022.
Dialogue has a rich heritage of working with premium brands including Harley-Davidson, Bentley Motors, Canon, Rolls-Royce. Air Charter Services and Badrutt’s Palace hotel.
Board member and Chair of the International Content Marketing Association, patron of the International Magazine Centre. Committed Harley-Davidson rider and global road trip adventurer and private pilots licence holder for microlights!
