What We Can Learn From the Leaders Who've Lasted in the Ever-Evolving Role of CMO

Almost from its origins in the 1990s, the job of chief marketing officer has seemed on the verge of extinction. Conjured on the fly as technology officers shifted the balance of power among finance, sales and marketing departments, the idea of the CMO emerged as the ground under brand strategy decisions was experiencing a tectonic shift. In 2020, time spent in the CMO role hit its shortest point since 2009 and remained just as low in 2021. According to Stuart Spencer’s annual CMO Tenure study issued in May 2022, the average CMO spent just 40 months in the post in 2020 and 2021. In comparison, the consulting firm found CEO tenure is more than twice that of the CMO. So what's causing such a short CMO tenure? Lou Paskalis, former senior marketing leader at Bank of America and current president and COO of trade association MMA Global, said he believes it has to do with marketing executives being asked to do more, and increasingly different things, than ever. During the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers' dependency on social media and ecommerce increased drastically while they were stuck at home. As a result, CMOs and their marketing departments had to craft messages that demonstrated their brands' differentiation during a time of new expectations and demands from consumers. For Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer, the paradox of CMOs being asked to take on more while seeing their power diluted is due to fragmentation and a "siloed way of working." That fragmentation intensified during the pandemic as companies perceived the crisis as a way to reform departmental roles. "You're not only inspiring consumers; you have to inspire your colleagues in the C-suite," Rajamannar said. "You have to inspire your teams. You have to inspire the whole company because everyone in the company is a brand master." Adweek's 2022 CMO Awards recipients are not only inspiring consumers and colleagues, but they've also stayed with their brands—and their roles—through a period of upheaval unlike any before it in modern marketing. The job has morphed in the face of tighter integration and oversight by teams across social media, technology, finance and sales, but these leaders have adapted to respond to new consumer demands in ways that will redefine the course CMOs take through the rest of this decade. A fuller plate In the past, a CMO’s duties were concise. They included oversight of communication and brand identity, media buying and planning, and public relations. But the pandemic, in particular, created a sense of urgency to expand the CMO's purview to social media and ecommerce, and the old marketing commandment to "do more with less" became much more acute. At the same time, clearly defining a brand's identity and purpose was crucial. And yet, achieving those aims defied the easy data-driven models applied to all other business functions. “It’s a significantly more challenging, bigger job than ever before,” said Michael Diamond, a former Time Warner Cable CMO and current academic director and professor in NYU’s department of integrated marketing and communications. “And lately, they’ve had to do it all remotely.” Meanwhile, executive leaders in other departments have been exercising greater control and scrutiny. The chief revenue officer and chief technology officer have assumed more conspicuous seats at the C-suite table as quarterly sales numbers and enhanced engineering prowess have come to be viewed as prime measures of a successful company. On top of that, new centers of power have arisen that further limit the CMO's authority. For instance, the last two years have seen the chief growth officer take shape as an executive who operates between marketing and sales to meet shifting consumer demands, creating yet another C-suite rival for the CMO to compete with. Brands want to generate demand quickly, but driving brand affinity, awareness and loyalty—the typical hallmarks of the CMO’s mandate—takes time. And compared to counting sales figures and customer acquisitions, successes associated with brand identity are more nebulous. “Most marketers define being effective as having some kind of impact on customer experience or on profits and revenues,” Diamond said. “In order for you, as a marketer, to do that, the CMO has to orchestrate, influence and manage across lots of different touch points.” Despite the additional obligations, the bottom line in the CMO’s job is to “generate brand love,” according to Paskalis. CMOs simply have to do better when it comes to drawing the connection between affinity and growth. “Brand love makes performance easier,” he added. Keys to survival Solving the problems of performance by enhancing positive brand feelings is more than half the battle. And it’s one that Adweek’s honorees demonstrated clearly throughout 2021. It’s not just that these marketing leaders lasted through such a tumultuous moment; it’s also how they did it and the changes they ushered in at their companies. For example, Lauren Weinberg, Square’s global head of marketing and communications, created new content initiatives to shine a spotlight on the business software provider’s merchants, and promote diversity, equity and inclusion. For spirits company Bacardi, the pandemic meant people were no longer drinking in bars and restaurants. So under the marketing lead of John Burke, an 18-year veteran of Bacardi, the company shifted to making hand sanitizer, packaging existing products as “ready to drink” and leaning into ecommerce and local delivery. The qualities among our honorees vary widely, but their collective attributes are grounded in openness, an entrepreneurial spirit and a clear sense of brand purpose. Biljana Cvetanovski, a partner at McKinsey & Co. who advises major brands on their marketing strategies, identified several characteristics separating companies that struggle with retaining their marketing leads from those that seem cursed to cycle through an endless line of CMOs. “It comes down to how you, as a company, are allowing people to thrive and be empowered to instigate change while creating networks and ecosystems that support the work of marketing,” Cvetanovski said. “We've found that CMOs focusing on creativity and purpose are able to help brands outgrow their peers. It’s a simple idea, but many brands find it hard to develop the trust that is a prerequisite for that success.” Check out Adweek's 2022 CMO Awards honorees here.