Whereas the chief advertising officer (CMO) submit isn’t about to vanish tomorrow, it’s not possible to disregard the mounting proof of its regular erosion.
As ADWEEK reported in August, the common CMO tenure slipped from 4.1 years in 2024 to three.9 years in 2025. Final 12 months, 63% of Fortune 500 firms had CMOs—however in 2025, that determine had dropped by 5%.
It will get worse. A McKinsey paper launched in June famous that “CFOs usually view advertising as a value middle moderately than an funding.” And 2025 knowledge gathered by advertising agency Boathouse reveals that 14% of CEOs admit to having thought of eliminating the CMO’s place.
Scary? Very a lot so. However regardless of the numbers, CMOs themselves will not be as fatalistic about their futures.
Throughout a roundtable dialogue at ADWEEK Home: Promoting HQ on Thursday, ADWEEK chief model and neighborhood officer Jenny Rooney invited three main CMOs to problem the notion that entrepreneurs are an endangered species within the C-suite—and assist that counter-narrative with explanation why CMOs nonetheless matter.
Alison Hiatt of Vera Bradley, Uzma Rawn Dowler of Main League Baseball, and Christie Sclater of Clinique steered methods CMOs can convey their relevance to CEOs beneath stress to chop prices and more and more trying to AI as a panacea. Listed below are just a few of them.
Be greater than a marketer
At present, a CMO’s job tasks stretch far past the normal boundaries of promoting and promotion, however CFOs and CEOs usually don’t absolutely respect that. So it falls to the chief marketer not simply to advocate for what they do, but in addition to translate it.
“The CMO function, in my thoughts, is sort of a get-shit-done officer,” Dowler mentioned. “The ‘C’ and the ‘O’ are there, after which within the center you need to simply put no matter that you must put in there, as a result of our roles will not be simply advertising.”
Market to your prospects, not your self
Outcomes-obsessed and more and more skeptical chief executives could also be extra prone to query the pondering behind, or validity of, an promoting marketing campaign or advertising technique. It’s most likely a good suggestion to remind different company chiefs that they don’t have to get the thought.
“If they’ve [skeptical] opinions about sure issues, it’s okay—it’s a must to remind them, ‘Hey, this truly isn’t meant for you,’” Dowler mentioned. “However we’ve got all this knowledge and analysis to indicate that it’ll resonate for the people who it’s meant for.”
Get forward of AI
As generative AI will get extra superior, the C-suite will probably be much more prone to query roles just like the CMO and artistic director, and even the advertising division total. Rightly or not, it is going to fall to the CMO to elucidate AI’s place, and advertising’s place above it.
