Marketing ROI 2026 - The Swiss Forum

Closed-door forum for senior & exec marketers.
Real numbers from real companies. No vendor pitches.

Sept  3, 2026
13:30–18:00 + Apéro

Marketing Has a Decision Problem — Not a Data Problem

Most companies have:

  • -> More data than ever
  • -> Better tools than ever.

Yet:

  • ROI is unclear
  • Cost-of-acquisition (CAC) increases
  • Decisions don’t improve

A closed forum for senior leaders who want to answer one question: Which marketing decisions actually drive growth and which don’t?

An Executive Forum — Not a Marketing Event

From Campaigns → Systems → Revenue

We explore how leading organizations are:

Run marketing like a continuous system

Embedding AI & Agents into daily workflows (not just pilots)

Driving measurable ROI at scale

Designed for Senior Decision-Makers

Executive audience only

Curated group of up to 50 participants

No vendor pitches

Real use case deep dives

Interactive discussions

What We Will Cover

From Data to Decisions
  • Marketing as a continuous system:
    CLV, CAC, segmentation, trade-offs
Experimentation: The Only Way to Know
  • Why most testing fails — and what works in practice
Where Marketing Data Lies & Agents Can’t Help
  • Attribution, dashboards, performance metrics often misleading
Pricing: The Most Underused Growth Lever
  • Why pricing decisions outperform campaign optimization
From Teams to Systems
  • How to organize marketing teams around decisions, agents and workflows, not channels
Insights Don’t Change Marketing Decisions Do
  • Why data rarely translates into action and what to fix

Designed for Senior Decision-Makers

  • CMOs, Heads of Marketing, Head of E-Commerce
  • Growth / Revenue Leaders
  • Digital & Marketing Transformation Leads
Speakers & Contributors
  • Marketing leaders from large enterprises
  • Executives driving data & AI transformation
  • Selected experts in marketing decision systems

👉 Final lineup announced shortly

Speakers

CMO & CCO, Chief Marketing, Branding & Communications Officer at Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB)
Jan-Hendrik Völker-Albert
International executive with 20+ years across multiple industries, specializing in communications, transformation, and Data & AI-driven marketing. Award-winning leader, lecturer, and strategist focused on using data, AI, and digital ecosystems to strengthen brands, optimize sales funnels, and drive growth.
Senior Partner & Member of the Board at Simon-Kucher & Partners
Daniel Bornemann
Partner and shareholder with 15+ years of international experience in strategy, sales, marketing, and pricing across B2B industries. Advises boards and leadership teams on growth strategy, go-to-market execution, profit optimization, and business transformation, with a strong track record in industrials, technology, engineering, and private equity-backed companies.
Chief Online Gaming and Chief Marketing Officer at Stadt Casino Baden
Brian Christner
Digital and gaming executive with 20+ years of experience in online gaming, digital marketing, cloud, and DevOps. Chief Online Gaming & Marketing Officer at Stadt Casino Baden Group, leading strategy for jackpots.ch, Switzerland’s leading online casino. Former IGT executive, Docker Captain, entrepreneur, cloud advisor, and university lecturer specializing in cloud, AI, DevOps, and digital transformation.
Associate Professor, Marketing and Business Analytics at Santa Clara University
Prof. Dr. Xiaojing Dong
Xiaojing Dong is Professor of Marketing Analytics at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. Her work focuses on AI-driven marketing analytics, consumer behavior, Bayesian modeling, and the application of large language models to business decision-making and customer intelligence. She combines academic research with practical insights into how AI is transforming enterprise strategy, marketing, and measurable business outcomes.
Co-Founder and CEO Nexoya
Marco Hochstrasser
Entrepreneur and Co-Founder & CEO of Nexoya, helping marketers make smarter decisions with AI. Former Swisscom leader and Cloud Foundry board member with deep expertise in software engineering, cloud architecture, and program management.
Founder and President High-Tech Connect
Ralf Haller
With 25+ years in high-tech, I’ve helped companies grow by combining data-driven marketing, strategic partnerships, and hands-on go-to-market execution. My journey from Silicon Valley to Switzerland spans roles in product marketing, business development, and leadership across AI, data engineering, legal tech, and IT infrastructure. I’ve built international teams, launched high-ROI campaigns, and focused on delivering measurable results and lasting market impact. With degrees in Electrical Engineering (KIT) and Data Science (MIT), plus executive education at INSEAD, I’m passionate about scaling AI-first platforms and driving technology adoption in Europe.

Agenda

13:30 - 14:00

Opening: Why More Data Hasn’t Improved Marketing Decisions

- Most companies track more data than ever — yet decision quality often remains unchanged
- More dashboards do not automatically create better decisions
- AI can accelerate analysis — but it cannot replace judgment
- The missing link: turning information into evidence-based action

-> Setting the stage: why marketing must evolve from reporting and campaigns to systematic decision-making.

Speaker:

  • Jan-Henrik Völker-Albert, CMO, Zürcher Kantonalbank

14:00 - 14:30

Beyond Attribution: What Evidence Should CMOs Trust?

Most marketing teams have more data than ever — yet many strategic decisions are still based on assumptions..

A practical framework for making better marketing decisions

- Why attribution often tells only part of the story
- Which metrics actually predict business outcomes
- How to separate signal from noise in marketing data
- Real examples of decisions that changed budget allocation and results
- Building a marketing organization that learns instead of reports

-> Practical lessons from combining engineering thinking, data and marketing leadership to improve decision quality.

Speaker:

  • Brian Christner, CMO, Stadt Casino Baden

14:30 - 15:15

From AI Hype to Measurable Marketing ROI

- How AI, experimentation, and data analytics are changing business decision-making
- Why many AI and A/B testing initiatives fail to create measurable impact
- How companies can build real data-driven experimentation systems
- The role of LLMs and behavioral analytics in understanding customer decisions

-> Most companies talk about AI transformation — very few can actually measure business impact.

Speaker:

  • Prof. Dr. Xiaojing Dong, Professor for marketing analytics, book author, Santa Clara University

15:15 – 15:45

Break & Networking

15:45 - 16:15

Pricing Beats Campaign Tweaks: The ROI Lever Marketing Underuses

- Why pricing is often the most powerful profit lever
- The hidden cost of underpricing
- Measuring willingness-to-pay instead of guessing
- How leading companies use pricing experiments to drive growth
- When a 1% price change matters more than a 10% marketing budget increase

-> Practical examples showing why pricing decisions often create more value than campaign optimization.

Speaker:

  • Daniel Bornemann, Simon-Kucher und Partners

16:15 - 16:45

90-Day Marketing Operating System: Decisions, Experiments, Budget Moves

- Why marketing teams are structured around channels instead of business decisions
- Building a practical experiment pipeline that drives learning
- Creating a decision cadence for budget allocation and prioritization
- Which metrics belong in executive reviews—and which don't
- A practical 90-day roadmap any marketing organization can implement

-> A step-by-step framework for turning marketing into a decision system that continuously improves performance.

Speaker:

  • Marco Hochstrasser, Co-Founder and CEO, Nexoa

16:45 – 17:30

Panel Discussion: Who Owns the Growth Algorithm: the CMO, the CFO, AI, or the Platforms?

- Who Will Win — Data scientists or traditional marketers?
- Will marketing become a data science discipline?
- How must organizations evolve to stay competitive?
- What capabilities will define future CMOs?

-> Linking technology, organization, and leadership

Panelists:

  • Moderator: Ralf Haller, President, High-Tech Connect
  • Brian Christner
  • Prof. Dr. Xiaojing Dong
  • Jan-Hendrik Völker-Albert

From 17:30

Networking Apéro Riche

Continue the discussion in a relaxed setting with fellow senior marketing leaders.

- Curated peer group
- High-quality exchange
- Premium catering

-> No mass networking — focused conversations at eye level

Why This Matters Now

Marketing is becoming one of the most leveraged functions in the enterprise.

Those who :

  • build systems
  • use AI & agents effectively
  • prove impact

👉 will outperform competitors significantly

Those who don’t :

👉 will be reduced to cost centers

High-Quality Peer Exchange

Meet a curated group of senior marketing leaders.
No mass audience.
No noise.
👉 Focused, high-value conversations.

Participation

CHF 790
Includes :
  • Full program
  • Curated peer group
  • Networking apéro
Note :
Limited seats to ensure quality discussions.
Request Your Invitation

Apply to join the Marketing ROI Summit 2026.

This event is designed for senior marketing decision-makers.

High-Tech Connect

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