Budget season has a familiar shape. Marketing arrives with a strong plan. Finance arrives with a spreadsheet. Twenty minutes in, the plan has become a number to be trimmed.
The ideas weren’t weak. The case was made in a language finance doesn’t trust.
That’s the problem we’re taking on at a private dinner Vivaldi and BOLD Awards are hosting in New York on November 12, with Jan Meurer, former Group President, North America at Kenvue. Here is how we think about it ahead of the evening. These are our views, not Jan’s.
It’s a capital allocation conversation
Vivaldi’s research across 60 categories, roughly 90% of US economic activity, shows every one is undergoing structural change. When categories shift that fundamentally, where a company puts its money matters more. That makes the marketing budget a capital allocation question, and capital allocation is what finance does for a living. Marketing too often presents its case in different terms.
1. Start with the decision, not the plan
Open with the decision you need and what it changes. A twelve-slide plan invites finance to find the weakest line. A clear decision invites a conversation about it.
2. Move money, don’t add it
The marketers who win don’t ask for more money. They show where existing money should go to yield higher profit. A request to add money asks finance to find funds. A proposal to move money shows you’ve already looked.
3. Use finance’s measures
Reach and awareness matter to marketing. Finance wants to see how they connect to profit and cash. Show the link first. This is also how you fund brand-building under short-term pressure. Say up front that it pays back over longer than a quarter, and agree with finance how you’ll both track it.
4. Build the relationship before budget season
The first time finance hears your case shouldn’t be the week the budget is set. The easiest budget conversations happen with someone who already understands how your team thinks.
What we’ll put on the table on November 12
Four topics:
- What loses a CFO in the first minute, and what wins one
- Moving money, not adding it: where existing spend should go
- Funding brand-building under short-term pressure
- Building the finance relationship before budget season
Jan Meurer will share what lands with a CFO, what doesn’t, and the arguments that change the conversation. Then the table opens up: what has worked for your peers, what hasn’t, and how they won back influence with the C-suite. Every guest receives a one-page summary of the most practical ideas the next morning.
The dinner is by invitation and limited to 15. If you lead brand, marketing or growth, express interest. Whether or not you can join us, tell us the hardest budget question you’ve been asked this year. We’d like to hear it.
