diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e103058666c78afa638e507fa9473ea149373acc..f709343c1fcb25b06fcfb6442f584994de72defc 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ target_link_libraries(opendht
         ${FMT_LIBRARY}
 )
 if (NOT HAVE_MSGPACKCXX)
-    target_link_libraries(opendht PUBLIC MSGPACK_TARGET)
+    target_link_libraries(opendht PUBLIC ${MSGPACK_TARGET})
 endif()
 if (Jsoncpp_FOUND)
     target_link_libraries(opendht PUBLIC PkgConfig::Jsoncpp)