The Unspoken Truth About CMO Churn

The typical chief marketing officer spends just 39 months, or about 3.3 years, in the role before hanging up their boots and exiting through the revolving door. According to leadership advisory firm Spencer Stuart’s annual CMO Tenure Study, the number hit its lowest in a decade in 2023 across the top 100 brands in the U.S. The CMO seat is famously never warm for long, with chief executive officers spending double the time at the top. PwC puts the CEO tenure at an average of 6.9 years. While short tenure can be conflated to poor performance or a disconnect between the CEO and CMO, a closer look shows it’s often driven by career progression too. Spencer Stuart’s data from October 2022 highlighted that 77% of CMOs leaving the biggest ad spenders in the U.S. go on to “bigger and better” roles, including general management and alternative marketing positions at larger companies or even their own companies. Christine Hsu Evans, one of Adweek's Marketing Vanguard Award honorees, spent 21 months as CMO of Headspace before being promoted to president in July; longtime Mars Petcare CMO Leonid Sudakov was recently named president for growth, digital and platforms; and in February, Molson Coors elevated Michelle St. Jacques, a 2023 Brand Genius honoree, to the new role of chief commercial officer, overseeing sales, marketing, innovation and digital. Mark Evans has bucked the longevity trend. He served as the top marketer of U.K. insurance group Direct Line for nearly 11 years before stepping down in 2022 to become an executive coach. He still thinks opportunities are "limited" when it comes to CMOs stepping into the CEO role but said other avenues are opening up to brand leaders who pursue them. "It's mostly about giving yourself expanding possibilities and to hold the specifics somewhat lightly," he said, adding, "More CMOs are evolving their role to absorb accountability for ESG, and others are morphing into chief customer officer positions." The CMO evolution Scratch the surface and the CMO tenure conundrum becomes even more complex, with Spencer Stuart's dataset showing that Fortune 500 CMOs stay in situ an average of 4.2 years. That’s because while the top 100 U.S. advertisers skew B2C, the Fortune 500 list has equal representation of B2C and B2B. Within the Fortune 500, the average tenure for CMOs at B2B companies is longer at 4.4 years. Sarah Skinner, global managing director and EMEA CEO of executive headhunting firm Grace Blue, said she’s not experienced the renowned “high churn” but, like Evans, she has seen a shift in the skill set required of CMOs in a post-pandemic world. “The CMO role must now enable a more meaningful, personalized—and, therefore, valuable—relationship between the brand and consumer,” Skinner said. Hiring bosses no longer just want the CMO to be the brand custodian and storyteller. They now need to be digitally savvy, data-first, familiar with customer experience and able to build in-house marketing teams. “There’s been a shift in the skill set and, therefore, an increase in businesses looking for a new type of CMO," Skinner added. Rebuilding the CMO-CEO relationship If anyone can attest to how CMOs can climb the corporate ladder, it's Everette Taylor. The former Artsy CMO made the unusual leap to CEO of crowdfunding marketplace Kickstarter in September 2022. “I’m careful about perpetuating that the CMO tenure is shorter or not,” he said. “When there is misalignment in fit and under-performance, anybody’s time can be cut short.” Taylor can, however, speak to why CMOs may have a harder time settling in than other executives: a disconnect at the top. “C-suite members want to see more directly attributable results, which, to be honest, isn’t always fair—especially when it comes to brand work,” he explained. A 2022 report from U.S.-based ad agency Boathouse illuminates just how wide this chasm is, particularly between the CEO and CMO. It’s about working alongside your CMO when it comes to their strategy and making sure it aligns with your vision for the company.Everette Taylor, CEO, Kickstarter Just a third (32%) of the 3,000 CEOs asked said they trusted their CMO, in general. Fifty-eight percent blamed the CMO’s short tenure on failing to speak the language of the business or using too much "marketing jargon." Taylor believes a lack of understanding about the marketing function is contributing to this. “Marketing is tough, because many people in the C-suite think they understand it but they truly don’t," he said. "And unlike technical problems, which many C-suite members don’t have the expertise to give their opinion on, many freely give their opinions on marketing.” What We Can Learn From the Leaders Who've Lasted in the Ever-Evolving Role of CMO This, he suggested, makes the job harder for CMOs, who are finding themselves with a broader, increasingly abstract range of responsibilities. “If you want to point fingers, then marketing is an easy target, but it’s a short-sighted one,” he cautioned. Evans observed that things start to unfurl quickly if the brief a CMO receives is inherently unrealistic and not challenged early enough. "An optimism bias is often a CMO's undoing," he said. "Within the CMO coaching work I do, I encourage the use of a 'sat nav model' I've developed, which balances all the things that a CMO needs to take care of in the early days across commercial, strategic, team and personal imperatives. It's a helpful way to keep a balance whilst ensuring that the biggest fires are attended to." Stopping the revolving door Drawing experience from both positions, Taylor has some wisdom for CEOs in the hiring and firing seat, advising them to be more supportive and take time to learn the ins and outs of marketing. "It’s about holding every point of failure in an organization accountable, and not just marketing," he said. "It’s about working alongside your CMO when it comes to their strategy and making sure it aligns with your vision for the company. It’s about being a partnership, being one team." For Evans, the first year as a CMO is often one of survivalism. "In that sense, C-suite peers can help by giving their CMO counterpart air cover so that they can incubate the critical capability levers that take a while to nurture. Some patience from peers at least gives the CMO a shot at landing the bigger ideas," he added. This advice might just help CMOs keep their feet in those boots a little while longer. This story is part of The New Dynamics of Marketing Innovation special feature.

Leadership & Talent

The Unspoken Truth About CMO Churn

Lead marketers famously have the shortest tenure in the C-suite. Here's why.

Rebecca Stewart

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Rebecca Stewart