The European Marketer of the Year will be revealed in Vilnius

This year, the European Marketing Confederation, in partnership with the Lithuanian Marketing Association (LIMA), will host the European CMO of the Year award ceremony on April 23rd in Vilnius. The event will be held in English, and marketers from across the Baltics are invited to attend, learn, and connect with leading European peers. 

Read our interview with LIMA board member and event moderator Giedre Vilke.

Sign up for the event in Vilnius on April 23: https://cmosummit.lt/

How do you choose the CMO of the Year in Lithuania?

In 2025, Vaida Jurkonienė, Head of Marketing and Communications at Telia Lietuva was awarded CMO of the Year 2025 by the Lithuanian Marketing Association (LiMA).

The Chief Marketing Officer of the Year award has several dimensions, and it has evolved over time. Marketing is changing constantly, so in recent years we have put much more emphasis on financial knowledge, technology, and adoption than before.

At its core, we are looking for someone with real know-how in their field, but also for a visionary leader. Not someone who simply keeps doing things the old way, but someone who "stays on the edge of what is coming next." That is why technology has become such an important part of the evaluation.

Leadership is another key part. We look closely at how the person leads a team. We know results are never created by one person alone, so we are looking for a leader who enables the team to achieve them.

We have an open application process. First, we select the top 15 based on the materials they submit. We look at their results, impact on the company, know-how, technological leadership, and personal leadership, because the winner should also be a role model.

Then we conduct live interviews. At least three commission members take part in each interview, while the others review the recordings afterwards. After that, we narrow it down to the top 10 and choose the winner.

There are also two broader directions I am trying to strengthen. One is financial understanding, because "if you do not understand P&L, you are not a strategic leader." The other is international thinking. Even the theme of this year’s CMO Summit is outgrowing the market. If we want to reduce risk and adopt the best practices, we need to think beyond our home market.

That is why, although this is the Lithuanian Marketing Association, we think much more broadly. Lithuanians are creating value globally. This year, for the first time, our CMO Summit will be fully in English. Among the speakers are people from Vinted, talking about entering the US market, and Nordcurrent, one of the leaders in the global gaming industry built from Lithuania.

This year, for the first time, we have invited all the best CMOs in Europe, through the European Marketing Confederation, to hold their award ceremony in Vilnius. And together with that, on stage you are going to see the best CMO from Portugal, the best CMO from other countries, people driving major change in IKEA, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s,  and brands like that.

The European Marketer of the Year will be revealed during that event.

Many marketing managers complain that they do not have enough power within the organizations. How can marketers gain more influence inside organizations?

This is actually where my own journey began. When I joined the board of the Lithuanian Marketing Association, my goal was to improve the reputation of CMOs, strengthen dialogue with CFOs and CEOs, and help marketing earn a seat at the board table.

If marketers want to be seen as strategic partners, they need to speak the language of finance. They need to understand P&L, cash flow, and how their decisions affect the business. "A marketer should begin with the value being created." That is the right starting point.

In my view, this is still the biggest gap. Once marketers can speak that language, both CFOs and CEOs start taking them seriously.

I am equally direct about the limits of a purely creative background. If someone never develops broader business competencies, that person will never become a true C-level leader. C-level roles come with clear requirements, and business understanding is one of them.

When I talk to B2B companies, they often feel that agencies do not understand their business. Agencies tend to gravitate towards B2C marketing.

I would agree with that criticism, especially in B2B. Many companies have complex distribution models, multiple intermediaries, and long paths to the final customer. The more complex the business, the harder it is to build the right marketing strategy without really understanding how the company works.

Very few agencies ever see the full financial picture of a client. They are usually working with only part of the story. Their role is often limited to media planning, creative work, or communication strategy, but they are not deep enough inside the business.

And often agencies also say they do not get enough information from clients.

Yes, that is true. Agencies often receive incomplete briefs, too little data, and almost no real feedback after the campaign. So they do not know what worked and what did not.

When I worked with agencies, I treated them as partners. The account manager would come in, visit the office, and sometimes even sit with the team. We treated that person as part of the partnership, not just as an external supplier.

If companies want better results, they need to be much more open about their goals. That is how agency people begin to understand the business, hear the real problems, and become genuinely involved. Most mistakes come down to two things: incomplete information and weak communication.

That is why I believe companies need to build partnerships, not just transactional relationships. "The ones who do that well will win."

What have been the biggest lessons in your own career?

One of the biggest lessons was learning not to get trapped by perfectionism. When people are younger, they often want everything to be flawless and spend too much energy on details that others may not even notice.

Over time, I came to see that success often comes down to speed. "It is about entering the market faster, making the first move, and allowing yourself to iterate." That shift gave me more speed, less stress about small things, and more time to focus on what actually matters instead of getting lost in operational detail.

Maybe it is also a confidence issue. Younger people are often more afraid of making mistakes.

Yes, but culture also matters. Older generations grew up in environments where mistakes were often punished. Younger people are growing up in a different culture, where mistakes are more accepted. That changes a great deal. It makes people faster, freer, and often more creative, because they are less constrained by fear.

What do you look for in a strong future CMO?

Probably a balance between know-how and leadership. In my view, a CMO no longer needs to be hands-on in everything, but absolutely does need to understand how things should be done. That is essential if they want to lead real change.

A strong CMO needs to be a first mover, someone who stays close to what is coming next. Marketing used to be much more about creativity. Then it became highly analytical. But analytics mostly tell you what already exists. In the age of AI, it becomes even more important to balance data and analysis with vision.

You need someone who can ask: how should I build the team, shape the product, and lead the brand so it stays relevant? That is why visionary thinking and leadership matter so much. If you are the one driving change, people need to be willing to follow you.

And what about the expectation that marketers should be full-stack and do everything?

That depends very much on the size and stage of the company. In a startup, where one person may be the only marketer, yes, they need to be very hands-on and agile. But as the company grows, the role changes.

In a scaling company, leadership, delegation, and people management become much more important. "If you keep trying to do everything yourself, you will never scale." In a smaller company, what matters most is having the tools and capabilities to orchestrate everything. Later, the challenge becomes managing people and direction.

So there is no single universal definition of a good marketer. It always depends on what kind of company you are talking about and what stage it is in.

And finally, what has inspired you recently?

I am probably not a typical marketer in that sense. I tend to follow broader business material because I believe that creates the most value. In fact, I have just finished my capstone project for my Executive MBA, so the past two years have been deeply focused on learning about business, from supply chains to personal leadership.

But if I had to give one recommendation, it would be this: "Stay curious." Do not only read marketing material. Read broadly. If you want to understand business, you need to understand many different kinds of businesses.

That is where real value comes from: curiosity, open-mindedness, and the ability to ask better questions.

Marketing podcasts can still be useful, but the biggest impact comes from a broader understanding of business, not from simply repeating what everyone else is already doing.

Sign up for the event in Vilnius on April 23: https://cmosummit.lt/