As CMOs, we live in a world of constant pressure. Expectations for pipelines keep rising, yet budgets and resources rarely increase at the same pace. We’re asked to deliver more impact, faster, and to prove it with measurable results that the board and executive team can see in black and white. That’s why every strong demand generation strategy today has to balance speed with accountability.
The challenge isn’t that we don’t know how to run great marketing. It’s that the traditional model of large-scale campaigns, stretched over six to twelve months, often doesn’t match the speed at which businesses now need outcomes. By the time results materialize, the window of opportunity has often shifted.
Meanwhile, CEOs and boards aren’t asking for plans. They’re asking, “What’s working right now?”
The Shift CMOs Need to Make in Demand Generation Strategy
The old playbook: annual planning cycles, long ramp-up times, and campaigns that take quarters to validate, no longer reflects reality. What CMOs need today is the ability to move fast, test and validate quickly, and bring wins to the table in weeks, not months.
This isn’t about abandoning strategy. It’s about pairing long-term vision with short-term proof points. It’s about showing marketing’s impact in real time, while continuing to build the broader brand and demand generation strategy that sustains growth.
Introducing the Demand Strike
At Demand Frontier, we’ve started to rethink how we approach go-to-market campaigns. One of the models that has emerged from this work is what we call a Demand Strike: A human-led, AI-powered campaign sprint designed to deliver tangible pipeline impact quickly.
The concept is simple:
- Target with precision. AI surfaces the accounts most likely to engage right now.
- Build fast. Campaign creative, content, and outreach messaging are developed and launched in days, not months.
- Deliver real outputs. Within two weeks, you see meetings booked, opportunities created, and insights you can use to scale.
Think of a Demand Strike as the way to inject speed and focus into your demand generation strategy. A sharp burst of activity designed to show value immediately.
Why CMOs Are Responding
In conversations with peers, I’ve found Demand Strikes resonate for three reasons:
- Fast validation. They give you proof points you can take to your CEO or board in weeks.
- Low-risk, high-reward. You don’t need to re-architect your whole demand generation strategy, just carve out a small sprint to test.
- Immediate alignment with sales. Demand Strikes produce real conversations and real meetings, bridging the gap between marketing activity and revenue impact.
Proof in Action
In one of our early Demand Strikes, we worked with Cellebrite to reshape how they brought an offer to market. By running a focused sprint, tight targeting, crisp messaging, and rapid campaign execution, they were able to generate immediate opportunities that otherwise would have taken months to surface.
That kind of speed isn’t just nice to have. For CMOs navigating tough markets, it can be the difference between defending marketing budgets and growing them.
What This Means for the Future of Demand Generation Strategy
As AI reshapes every part of our discipline, I believe the ability to test, learn, and prove impact in sprints will become a core part of every CMO’s toolkit. Long-term strategy will always matter, but the days of waiting quarters to show impact are gone.
Demand Strikes are not just a campaign tactic. They’re a new way of thinking about how marketing can prove value to the business, faster.
A Call to Action
We’re continuing to run Demand Strikes with a select group of CMOs who want to experience this approach firsthand. If you’re looking for a way to show pipeline impact quickly and want to see what a Demand Strike could look like for your business, I’d be happy to share more.
Sometimes, all it takes is one well-aimed strike to prove what marketing can do.
