While CMO tenures remain shorter than other positions in the C-suite, the length of tenure is relatively stable, and even when a move happens, it’s often up and not just out. Nearly two-thirds of exiting CMOs are promoted or moved to a similar or bigger role elsewhere, with 9% promoted to CEO, according to Spencer Stuart’s most recent survey of the position.

But not everything is sunny for the CMO, even if the holders of the position have worked to build better relationships with their CEOs. While 72% of CEOs are confident in the CMO’s understanding of their company’s finances — up from 61% — overall CEO confidence in the CMO role has declined to 43%, according to the latest survey conducted by Boathouse.

“The CMO is building better trust with the CEO and the C-suite, while their credibility for growth and execution is declining,” said Boathouse CEO John Connors. “The CEO has spotted that a lot of CMOs are doing marketing ROI or marketing growth, not enterprise growth … the next challenge is how to prove enterprise growth.”

Boathouse’s “Fifth Annual CEO Study” surveyed 150 CEOs from top U.S. companies spanning industries including healthcare, tech, finance, CPG, retail and more from Jan. 6 to Jan. 26. The study began in 2021 to diagnose what was behind the declining respect for marketing and shortened CMO tenures.

“Five years ago, when we started the study, the CEO of the CMO had a real relationship issue,” Connors said. “Through their sheer IQ or EQ, they figured out how to bridge the CMO-CEO relationship divide.” 

That work has paid off: More than two-thirds of CMOs are seen as actively contributing or leading strategy, with nearly three-quarters of CEOs saying CMOs push the organization forward. Nearly 4 in 5 CMOs show a strong commitment to the CEO and board — the highest level in five years — and two-thirds have an effective partnership with CFOs on metrics and investment.

Yet there remains a gap between C-suite alignment and strategic impact of CMOs. Only 15% of CMOs receive an “A,” while 32% are rated “C” or lower, with more than half rated “average,” per the study. Plus, 40% of CMOs are rated “C” or below in their ability to drive strategy and growth. Overall, CEOs primarily view CMOs as execution leaders versus strategic advisors, with discussions more focused on metric and performance than strategy.

“CMOs tend to operate in their vertical. They operate alone, and they build the martech stacks and the platform relationships and all that. But they're not actually working that horizontally with other parts of the C-suite on the data,” Connors said.

Where CMOs go next

That siloed thinking presents both a challenge and an opportunity as artificial intelligence begins to rewrite rule books across organizations. CMOs are held four-times more accountable for AI ROI than any other executive, yet 46% of CEOs rate their AI capability as “C” or lower, per the study.

“AI is a great smoke screen for CMOs to use to elevate their enterprise growth, because I think they're going to have to start revisiting some new and old frameworks,” Connors said. “I think they can start to draw pathways to more enterprise growth as opposed to just marketing growth.”

The pathway forward for CMOs is two-fold, according to Connors. CMOs must de-silo their own departments, bringing social, earning, media and AI strategies together, and they must go back to a textbook definition of marketing that includes price, product, promotion and distribution, rather than just the promotions that have become a marketers’ main remit.

“They've been pushed in the last 25 years into the promotion bucket, and now they're going to have to start to show the data across pricing, product, distribution and customer experience if they're in fact going to drive enterprise growth,” Connors said.

As for the possible disappearance of the CMO role, the rumors of the position’s demise might be greatly exaggerated: 85% of CEOs believe the role will still exist five years from now. But no matter what it is called, C-suite marketers need to focus on growth.

“There are a lot of CMOs that have protected their job versus growing the company,” Connors said. “I think we have to get people into ‘grow the company’ mode, because I think the CEO is wise to it now.”

Clarification: This story was updated with details about when the survey was in the field.