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Along with today’s rapidly changing advertising and marketing landscape, the role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is undergoing profound transformation. Once a critical pillar of organizational strategy focused on driving brand growth, the CMO’s scope of work has expanded considerably. Now, CMOs must navigate a steady stream of digital and technological innovation alongside evolving market conditions and a less than predictable consumer. This shift requires CMOs to transform into multifaceted leaders with responsibilities that go far beyond a legacy marketing role.
Indeed, today’s CMO is more than a marketer. They’re a cross-functional leader who’s able to unite their knack for strategic thinking with sound business logic to challenge the status quo and drive the brand forward. As such, brands that recognize and embrace the CMO in this evolving role are best positioned to unlock their full potential.
Historically, CMOs were brand stewards: They developed brand identity and voice, crafted go-to-market strategies, managed paid media efforts, and supported sales enablement while digging into campaign and market data to guide future strategies.
While these fundamentals remain central, the responsibilities of today’s CMOs have expanded to include leading the response to rapidly shifting market dynamics, evaluating when and where to implement new tech while staying rooted in meaningful areas of impact, and identifying which internal and external stakeholders to collaborate with to get the job done.
Indeed, modern CMOs have one of the most complex roles in an organization. They are expected to provide strategic guidance not only within marketing but also to consult across sales, finance, IT, product development and human resources. And, they must bridge the gap between consumer-facing activities and internal business priorities, ensuring alignment to deliver meaningful results.
A CMO’s ability to manage these expanded responsibilities can differ by industry. For example, CMOs in the B2B space may find themselves uniquely well-suited for this shift, given the demand to unify their strategic backgrounds with their legacy focus on producing business outcomes. Basis’ CMO, Katie McAdams, notes that “B2B marketing in our industry has shifted from being viewed primarily as a sales enablement and lead generating function to becoming part of the design, implementation, and oversight of the company’s overarching strategy. The role and expectation of marketing today is to bring the product and sales strategies together to build alignment and ensure a seamless go-to-market plan is implemented.”
An essential part of meeting these expectations for strategic excellence is effective communication with stakeholders. To communicate strategies and their outcomes effectively, CMOs must zero in on the most impactful stories they can tell, and back up those stories with meaningful data. As McAdams shares, “The amount of data that we have access to across all our campaigns can be overwhelming, and it takes time to understand what to focus on. Picking a few critical KPIs that you’re going to prioritize and speak to regularly is key. Otherwise, you’ll end up overwhelming your team and your other internal stakeholders with so many data points that they’ll just check out.”
Ultimately, today's CMO has evolved from a functional marketing expert into a strategic, multi-disciplinary leader, balancing a dual mandate: leveraging their marketing expertise while taking on broader business leadership responsibilities that are integral to the organization’s success.
Despite the promise that an evolved CMO presents, the same conditions that have made today’s CMO a dynamic leader with a multi-faceted toolkit have also put the role at risk.
Uncertainty surrounding the necessity of a CMO in today’s business climate has become evident as lines between the responsibilities of a CMO and those of other C-suite executives like the CFO and CTO have blurred. At the same time, profitability and cost-cutting demands have put the role under heightened scrutiny in several major companies. In recent years, Fortune 500 companies like McDonald's, UPS, and Johnson & Johnson have eliminated their CMO positions, often merging the role with other senior leadership roles like COO, and dividing out the responsibilities to address shifting business priorities in response to new technological and consumer demands. As a result of this trend, CMOs are now fighting to prove out the value of their team and their role within the organization.
While the outlook may seem grim, the deeper truth is that businesses’ critical need for CMOs hasn’t disappeared, it’s just recalibrating to meet the evolving challenges of the landscape. Considering that just 10% of Fortune 250 CEOs have a marketing background and only 41 of Fortune 1000 companies have a marketer on their board, this scarcity underscores the critical need for CMOs to provide the marketing expertise necessary for organizational success. If left unfulfilled, organizations will be left to feel the detrimental voids created by their absence.
A silver lining to the recent scrutiny? As brands reimagine or even reinstate the CMO—for example, McDonald’s quickly walked back their decision to eliminate the role—we’ve seen more hiring of first-time CMOs, particularly those promoted from within, to usher in a new era of leadership with the skillsets to match. Women have also been edging ahead, making up the majority of marketing leadership in six out of the nine industries analyzed by eMarketer.
The increasing complexity of the marketing ecosystem has placed a premium on technology. To maximize ROI, CMOs are increasingly investing in martech and adtech tools to improve efficiency and drive better results. However, these investments often fall short of their potential—not because they’re ineffective, but because the people using these platforms haven’t been adequately trained to do so. In fact, companies use just 56% of their martech investments, and 34% report that those tools underperform.
This underutilization underscores the importance of aligning technology with talent. CMOs should not only ensure their teams are equipped with the right tools, but also that there’s a plan in place to develop the skills to use them effectively. Upskilling and ongoing training are critical to closing the gap between tech investment and outcomes.
Interestingly, when asked how they would allocate an additional $1 million, CMOs most commonly said they would invest it in talent development. This reflects the growing recognition that people—not just technology—are key to unlocking the full potential of marketing innovations.
CMOs who successfully balance the implementation of technology with talent development drive both innovation and efficiency, ensuring their organizations stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.
The pressure to deliver measurable business results is at an all-time high, with brands often prioritizing short-term revenue growth over long-term brand-building strategies. Caught in the middle are CMOs, whose legacies lie in carefully crafted long-term brand strategies but are now primarily tasked with producing revenue gains. The pandemic accelerated this trend, with the percentage of CMOs reporting that marketing is primarily responsible for revenue growth jumping almost 9% from February of 2020 to March of 2023. Alongside this, 75% of CMOs now rank short-term company commercial growth as their top priority.
However, this shift has come at a cost. A reported 41% reduction in brand-building spend from Spring 2023 to Spring 2024 indicates that CMOs are diverting resources from long-term initiatives to meet immediate performance goals. This creates a tension between achieving short-term wins and safeguarding the brand’s future equity—and long-term job security.
To navigate this challenge, CMOs must collaborate closely with CEOs, CFOs, and other senior leaders to align marketing strategies with broader business objectives. By advocating for the critical needs filled by marketing and demonstrating the impact of marketing on both short-term revenue and long-term growth, CMOs can secure the resources and support needed to strike this delicate balance.
Modern CMOs have a unique opportunity to challenge outdated practices and redefine industry norms. As change agents, they can ask bold questions, rethink standard strategies, and drive transformative initiatives that set their organizations apart. This approach requires CMOs to push boundaries, disrupt the status quo, and champion innovation—all while maintaining alignment with organizational goals.
“Basis has embraced large-scale brand initiatives as part of its repositioning strategy,” says McAdams, “and the success we’ve seen showcases how a challenger mindset can lead to significant market differentiation.”
To succeed as challengers, CMOs need strong support from key stakeholders within their organizations. Disruption often involves risk, and having the necessary backing is essential to ensuring these efforts lead to meaningful progress. McAdams shares that her partnerships with Basis’ President, CEO, and CFO are critical: “Aligning the full leadership team with our go-to-market plan and the investments required to make the big splashes we’ve envisioned has allowed us to move faster and capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves.”
Ultimately, CMOs today can benefit from acting as disruptors—but to do so effectively, they'll need to cultivate the internal relationships necessary to ensure that their disruptive strategies can succeed.
Marketing has always been a tool for differentiation, but the modern CMO will elevate it into a strategic force that drives measurable business outcomes. By embracing expanded roles as cross-functional leaders, CMOs are uniquely positioned to unify internal priorities, align with organizational objectives, and deliver value in an ever-changing landscape.
Success for today’s CMO hinges on their ability to balance innovation with talent development, short-term gains with long-term growth, and tradition with transformation. As the business landscape continues to evolve, CMOs will remain critical to shaping the future of their organizations—and the industry as a whole.