Building internal buy-in: strategic storytelling for CMOs

How CMOs secure executive buy-in through strategic campaign storytelling

Contests, social media activations, and prize promotions are some of the best ways to deliver impressive marketing numbers and create a positive brand image. However, inside many organizations, these ideas often stall. Not because they are poorly framed, but because they lack a compelling business case that decision-makers can stand behind.

Strategic storytelling for CMOs comes in handy here as it ensures the campaign isn’t framed as a fun activity to boost visibility, but as a strategic growth technique. When the narrative is strong, it becomes easier to secure internal buy-in for campaigns without friction.

Why promotional campaign ideas get rejected

Even when a campaign has a high chance of being a successful marketing endeavor, CMOs still encounter internal resistance for several reasons.

Social media campaigns are seen as low-value engagement gimmicks

When a person doesn’t look at prize promotions through a business lens, they can seem like surface-level engagement tactics. Stakeholders can hear “giveaway,” and assume it’s something that just brings short-term attention with no lasting commercial impact.

This perception is promoted by the fact that campaigns are often introduced through their mechanics. But when it comes to decision-makers, what matters is why the campaign should go ahead, not how it works.

Legal/compliance risk feels bigger than the reward

Promotional campaigns usually have a compliance hurdle, especially when operating them across borders. You need to deal with terms and conditions, privacy requirements, and region-specific promotion rules. The latter can be quite tricky to navigate without promotion specialists, so legal teams will rush to block the effort when the possible wins aren’t clearly spelt out.

Executive alignment is crucial to get the legal team on your side. Inform them early that you’ll be working with a promotions agency for management compliance and fulfilment, with their role being to ensure that the campaign runs without risk exposure.

Stakeholders don’t see a path to ROI

In most cases, executives don’t reject an idea because they don’t like it, but because they don’t understand how it leads to revenue. If you don’t have a clear value chain, the promotion can even seem like just engagement tactics to executives.

When trying to get internal buy-in for your campaigns, show the problem you are trying to solve or the marketing effort that can be replaced with campaigns. Talk about things like leads captured, cost per acquisition, and the pipeline impact.

Storytelling reframes the campaign from “giveaway” to strategy

Promotional campaigns win approval because executives understand the business case. Strategic storytelling for CMOs helps make this case by shifting the discussion from a “fun idea” to a “strategic growth initiative.”

Lead with the problem, not the promotion

Don’t start with “We want to do a sweepstakes on Instagram.” If you do, stakeholders will evaluate the idea based on their preferences and familiarity, rather than logic and impact.

A better approach is to start with the pain points. Mention things like rising customer acquisition cost, the need for more first-party data, or the struggle to generate warm leads without increasing ad spend. This will make your campaign sound like a logical response that’s actually needed.

Introduce the campaign as the solution

Now that you’ve highlighted the problem, position the promotion as a deliberate mechanism that solves it. Tap into the strengths of promotions, such as the ability to gather first-party data from participants who are genuinely interested in the brand’s products or services.

Instead of asking them to approve a contest, show them how the initiative supports the company’s growth targets. This will make internal buy-in for campaigns easier, as they are based on business logic.

Make it measurable

Telling them about the possible outcomes isn’t enough, so support it with numbers. Show them your project outcomes on how the campaign will boost engagement. Instead of “We expect good engagement,” go for something like “We expect 7,500 qualified leads at half our normal cost per lead.” This measurability will earn stakeholder confidence and make it easy to get their buy-in.