2026 Pulse Check: Recognition Is Back. The Influence Gap Isn't Closed.
FNN's latest Pulse Check surveyed 54 senior financial marketing and communications leaders, the majority holding CMO or Head of Marketing titles, across the US and UK. The results offer a snapshot of how the profession sees itself, and how its relationship with senior leadership is evolving.
Last year's pulse painted a more difficult picture. Just 50% of financial marketing leaders felt the C-suite understood their role, and barely half said they had strong influence on senior leadership. This year both figures have recovered sharply, back toward the levels recorded in 2022. The outlier in the data is effectiveness: self-assessed scores have fallen every year across all three surveys, now sitting at 91%.
Participation across meeting types tracked by the survey, 2026 shows improvement on 2025. Board meeting attendance nearly doubled since 2025, and regular access to C-suite and CEO strategy meetings both increased considerably. The recovery is uneven: access to budget and strategic planning meetings has improved but remains below 2022 levels.
Meeting access and strategic involvement are measured separately in the data, and the gap between them is where the most important finding lives. More than half of respondents say they are involved early in significant strategic decisions or sit in the core decision-making group. Nearly one in three is either notified once decisions are finalised or not included at all.
Download the Mini Pulse Report in PDF
Getting into the room is one thing. Shaping what happens there is another. We have been exploring that distinction across research, events, and the experiences of senior practitioners. These three resources go deeper.
Senior practitioners on what it takes
Our London Live event titled "Earning the Room" brought together senior communications leaders from HSBC, AXA XL, and BEYLA for a breakfast panel on creating genuine C-suite influence. The conversation covered what a seat at the table actually means in practice, how commercial fluency unlocks access that title alone does not, and how trust is built on the small things long before it is tested on the strategic ones. Read the recap >>>
What the talent data says about seniority, value, and what comes next
Our 2026 Salary Survey, produced with Opinium and The Works Search, found record pay rises sitting alongside record dissatisfaction and the highest intent to move in years. The experience cliff finding is particularly relevant here: professionals with the deepest strategic judgment are facing redundancy at six times the rate of their mid-career peers, even as organisations report needing exactly the skills that come with that experience. Read the article and download the full report >>>
What separates those who earn CEO trust from those who don't?
Hedley May's Top Team Dynamic report set out to understand what makes a senior leadership team truly work. For marketing and communications leaders, the findings offer something more direct: a window into exactly how CEOs decide who gets their ear, and what behaviors move a functional leader from the outer ring to the inner circle. Harry Friend, who leads Hedley May's corporate affairs practice, is candid about how rarely it happens and specific about what changes it. Read this article and report >>>
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