“Our CFO has never had to go out and get customers; he's only bought them through acquisition,” shared a CMO from a $2.5 billion services company. The other CMOs in the huddle sympathized with the challenge of explaining marketing to a neophyte; they’d all been there.

Silently, I fumed.

How can you call yourself a CFO if you don’t understand the basics of marketing?

As a CFO, you have only a few investment levers to pull: acquisition, product/R&D, sales, and yes, marketing. And of these, ironically, acquisition is the riskiest. In this context, marketing is a far safer bet, consistently delivering a solid return. But how do you educate someone who doesn't realize they're ignorant?

Since the straightforward approach will probably fail, let's have some fun and sharpen your AI skills along the way. Here are five sneaky, AI-fueled ways to educate your CFO on the power of marketing:

1. Build a Financial Model Comparing Acquisition ROI to Marketing ROI Over a 5-Year Period

Turn your typical CAC-to-LTV ratios into visual storytelling. Use ChatGPT to help craft the narrative, then plug the numbers into a slick dashboard using Excel Copilot or Tableau Pulse. Nothing beats showing how $5 million in marketing can drive more value than a $50 million acquisition.

2. Build a Business Game That Can Only Be Won With Marketing Investments

Gamify the decision-making. Use AI tools like Inworld or ChatGPT+Unity plugins to create a simple simulation: players are given a fixed budget and must grow revenue over five quarters. Only those who balance brand investment, demand gen, and customer experience win. Bonus: sneak in a “CEO Mode” where the CFO sees how marketing reduces long-term CAC and improves valuation.

3. Give Them an Autographed Picture of Warren Buffett Saying, “Brand is a Moat.”

Use DALL·E to create a deepfake-y but tasteful image of Buffett with your logo in the background. Slap it in a frame and hand it over with a wink. Humor is a surprisingly effective trojan horse.

4. Create a CFO Hall of Fame Infographic That Showcases 5 CFOs Who Leveraged Marketing to Epic Success

Gemini 3 makes dynamic infographic creation easy. Prompt it to find CFOs who invested in marketing-led growth (think Salesforce, Adobe, or even P&G).

Hang it outside the CFO’s office like it’s the 1927 Yankees.

5. Create a Video of Your CFO Accepting the “CFO of the Year” Prize and Thanking The Marketing Department

Use Sora to script and render a 60-second awards speech with future-you beaming from the front row. Show it at the next leadership offsite with full Oscar-style gravitas. Who says you can’t manifest vision into reality?

Bottom Line

Educating the CFO doesn’t have to be dry decks and defensive meetings. With AI in your corner, you can reframe the marketing conversation and turn skeptics into believers, and budget-slashers into brand champions. So go ahead, get sneaky. Your brand’s future, and your budget, may depend on it.

Written by Drew Neisser