How to Speak the Language of the CFO and the Board

Framing advertising as financial performance, not marketing spend

ABOUT THIS SESSION

Advertising through a financial lens

Ian Whittaker, Managing Director and Founder of Liberty Sky Advisors, examines why advertising is frequently misunderstood at board level and how marketers can reframe it within a financial context that CFOs and investors respond to.

Drawing on corporate reporting structures and investor expectations, the session explains how marketing sits in the Profit & Loss statement as an operating cost and why that accounting classification makes it more vulnerable to cuts than capital expenditure.

The session provides a framework for repositioning advertising as an intangible capital investment, with practical guidance on building a credible business case for sustained marketing spend.

What you’ll learn

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Why advertising gets cut

Marketing is classified as operating expenditure (OPEX) in the Profit & Loss statement, meaning it is recognised in full as a cost in the year it occurs.

Capital expenditure (CAPEX) such as IT or infrastructure is deferred and written down over time. This accounting difference means that cutting marketing spend delivers an immediate P&L benefit, making it a more visible short-term lever for CFOs under pressure to deliver quarterly results.

How to reframe advertising as investment

Advertising functions as intangible capital expenditure — it builds brand value, reduces price sensitivity, and supports long-term profitability — but is not treated as such by accounting standards.

The session examines how to make this case credibly to boards and CFOs, drawing on what investors actually look for when appraising the long-term value of consumer-facing businesses.

What CFOs and CEOs are under pressure to deliver

CEOs and CFOs face increasing pressure to deliver short-term results against a backdrop of persistent inflation, changing corporate priorities, and faster executive turnover.

Understanding those pressures — and what a credible business case looks like from the CFO’s perspective — is the starting point for a more productive relationship between marketing and finance.

How to build credibility with finance

The session covers five practical areas: understanding your company’s financial statements, knowing how your industry is viewed by investors, working with detailed data rather than estimates, developing a clear narrative, and presenting the investment case with confidence.

WATCH THE SESSION

How to Speak the Language of the CFO and the Board

Presented by Ian Whittaker, Managing Director and Founder, Liberty Sky Advisors.

Download the presentation Read Marketing is an Investment

THE SPEAKER

Ian Whittaker

Managing Director and Founder, Liberty Sky Advisors

Ian Whittaker is Managing Director and Founder of Liberty Sky Advisors, an advisory firm focused on helping marketing and media businesses communicate their value to financial markets. He has spent more than two decades as an equity analyst covering the advertising and media sector.

This session draws on his work with the IPA and Google on The X Effectiveness Equation (2025), examining why advertising is misunderstood at board level and how marketers can change that.

Ian

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