New Zeno Group research among senior marketing leaders in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and India reveals a disconnect between how business growth is created and how companies manage it. Reputation, stakeholder response, and how companies are interpreted by people and machines increasingly shape growth alongside traditional marketing, challenging long-standing boundaries between marketing and communications.

The study, the latest installment of Zeno’s Clarity 2030 research platform on the evolution of communications, surveyed 140 senior marketing leaders across APAC. 90% say reputation plays a larger role in growth decisions, making reputation increasingly a business decision variable rather than a communications issue alone.

But influence over reputation is not yet equally shared. While 71% say communications manages a broader range of audiences, stakeholders, and issues than marketing, 59% say marketing has more CEO influence on reputation-related issues. Just 27% say influence is shared, compared with 14% who say communications has more influence.

The findings point to a clear shift: from alignment to co-ownership of growth, with marketing and communications sharing accountability for business outcomes.

“The old division of labor between marketing and communications no longer matches how growth happens,” said Barby K. Siegel, global CEO, Zeno Group. “Reputation and growth now influence each other continuously. Stakeholders shape outcomes in real time, and AI is changing how businesses are discovered and understood. Companies that continue to manage these forces in silos risk solving only part of the growth equation.”

The Growth System Has Converged. The Operating Model Hasn't.

The APAC findings reveal forces shaping business growth:

Reputation Matters More, But Influence Remains Uneven. Reputation is increasingly a business decision variable rather than a communications issue alone. While communications brings the broader stakeholder lens, marketing often has the stronger CEO voice on reputation-related issues, underscoring the need to bring both together.

The CMO Mandate Is Expanding Into Shared Territory. 90% expect the CMO role to become broader, substantially different, or fundamentally redefined by 2030, with mandates expanding across AI transformation (71%), growth strategy (68%), corporate reputation (62%), and discoverability/GEO/AEO (62%). As those responsibilities converge, 62% point to cross-functional influence as an important capability for the future.

Permission for Communications to Lead is Ahead of the Operating Model. 52% view communications as a strategic business partner and 51% as a reputation and risk advisor, yet its role remains fragmented across media relations, execution, crisis response, and support as needed. At the same time, 60% are highly willing to let communications or PR take the overall lead on a major campaign, suggesting permission to lead may already exist even if the structures to support it do not.

AI Search Investment Is Rising, But Credibility Investment Lags. 66% are investing in AI search optimization, yet only half are significantly concerned about AI misinterpreting their brand. Despite 73% saying earned media is more effective than paid media in shaping AI answers, only 39% are investing in earned media to improve AI search discoverability. Being found is only half the challenge; brands also need to shape how they are understood.

The convergence is already happening. CMOs are moving further into reputation, AI interpretation, and stakeholder territory, while communications leaders are moving further into business strategy, growth, and performance.

The opportunity is to stop treating that convergence as functional overlap and start treating it as a shared advantage.

About The Research

Clarity 2030 is Zeno Group’s ongoing research platform examining the forces shaping the future of communications, marketing, reputation, and business growth.

The APAC study is based on a survey of 140 senior marketing leaders across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and India, conducted August 24–September 4, 2026.