The plight of the CMO
Hello and welcome to Friday, where by the time you read this, Twitter has taken a significant action against the President, flagging and hiding a tweet of his:
And Minnesota police arrested Omar Jimenez, a CNN journalist who was reporting live, because they requested he move out of their way and said he did not. Funny thing how video evidence contradicts the police, as viewers can hear Jimenez say over and over “where do you want me to? Tell me and I’ll move there.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz quickly apologized, talking to CNN president Jeff Zucker, saying he “deeply apologizes for what happens...Totally unacceptable and totally inadvertent...they clearly had the right to be there. We want the media to be there to cover this. It is never acceptable for this to happen.”
While this isn’t necessarily a “news” newsletter, these two stories are pretty big and just wanted to make sure you saw them.
And now to pivot to today’s word vomit: the plight of the chief marketing officer. (I know, I couldn't think of a better segue. It’s been a long week, even at four days. Sorry.)
CMOs get an unfair rap. They typically don’t get a seat at the decision-making table. Sure, they’re in the C-suite, but since most don’t generate revenue or typically have a P&L, they often don’t have agency within their company.
But two reports this week—one from the CMO Council and one from Spencer Stuart—caught my eye that show not only the state of the CMO, but where the role is going.
According to Spencer Stuart, CMO tenure dropped two months, so the average CMO holds the role for 41 months (the median is 30 months). The revolving door nature of the role continues to spin.
(Graphic via Spencer Stuart)
Spencer Stuart also found that 60 percent of CMOs have held their role for 36 months or less. Which makes sense if people are basically playing musical chairs.
So what does this mean? For starters, it means that long-term thinking constantly gets uprooted, shifted and re-organized. A company cannot create marketing and advertising plans and then just pass the baton off to the next person. Teams are built with the idea that folks will stay for a while. When the leader of the team leaves, it has a ripple effect on the people that work for them.
It also means that the relationship between the client and the agency will be confusing. Again, with the lack of consistency at the top, directives changing so quickly can affect message creation and distribution. Not to mention that CMOs often travel with the agency they like, so if a CMO leaves company A to go to company B, they more than likely will take that agency with them.
That’s kind of what happened with Dunkin Donuts. The company hired Tony Weisman in 2017 and under his short 2-year stint as Dunkin’s CMO, the company essentially fired its 20-year agency Hill Holliday in favor of BBDO, but also hired Digitas as its media firm. Weisman previously worked for Digitas as CEO of DigitasLBI North America.
The point is this: a change agent came in to take the helm, blew things up (under his leadership, Dunkin Donuts became “Dunkin,” a Herculean rebranding task [think of all the signage and the branding on cups and napkins alone!), and left after 24 months. Lots of sugar was left in his wake.
Spencer Stuart also found that “there was a significant jump in the number of women in the CMO role in 2019,” from 36 percent in 2018 to 43 percent in 2019. Additionally, in 2018 there were literally zero new CMOs with racially and/or ethnically diverse backgrounds, according to Spencer Stuart. And now 19 percent of new CMOs come from diverse backgrounds.
Varying points of view are necessary, and the more that companies have people in charge that come from different backgrounds and world views, the better. Because it’s not about that “diverse” opinion at the table (which is important), it’s also the hiring that follows, the culture of inclusion that gets created.
CMOs are tasked with getting people through the doors via marketing and advertising. But that’s just a piece of the story, and as CMOs get more acquainted with data and tech, they’re being asked to do more: get people through the doors with creative, sure, but once there, continue to message and when they leave, target the hell out of them.
The role now means that in addition to creating the advertising plan (in tandem with their agency partners), they also have to understand the Dark Arts of ad tech; they have to sift through Big and Little Data to make decisions; they need to be equal parts performance driven and branding driven.
The good news for marketers, according to the CMO Council report, which surveyed 150 members, “Three quarters of chief marketers report they have gained stature and influence in the past year,” and “A substantial 83 percent say marketing is viewed as a vital contributor to business value by executive teams.” (Of course, I’d be curious if CEOs and CFOs agree with this assessment.)
If CMOs are getting more agency, companies are better served. But how is this reflected in their compensation?
First, the report found that “CMO compensation is directly related to reporting structure. Those making more than $500,000 annually are more likely to report directly to the CEO, and the highest paid CMOs have developed strong alliances with CIOs and CFOs.” All of this makes sense when framed against a company’s perception of the value of the CMO.
The report also found that 84 percent said their compensation is tied to business improvements in 2020. When this report was conducted, at the end of 2019, there was optimism around this. However, things look different now as we’re about to enter a depression due to a global pandemic.
Average compensation for CMOs:
(Graph via CMOCouncil)
With other teams coalescing around Chief Growth Officers and Chief Digital Officers and Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers, the corporate cabinet continues to evolve. The CMO role is no exception. This is the moment where they can take control of their futures, build processes and teams that reflect how a company should behave both internally and externally, how a company should engage with its consumer, and how a company can and should understand where their money goes.
Gorillaz, “Revolving Doors”
Thank you for allowing me into your inbox today, and every day. If you have tips, or thoughts about this newsletter, drop me a line! Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.
Some interesting links:
The Next Media Opportunity: Talent, Reputation and Lessons from Record Labels (Medium)
Here’s Why Men Are Pointing Loaded Guns at Their Dicks (Vice)
Amazon’s big breakdown, or how the pandemic brought the giant to its knees (NYT)
Access Denied: Faulty Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters (The Markup)
Google to make "page experience" a ranking factor in Search results (Axios)
They Predicted ‘The Crisis of 2020’ … in 1991. So How Does This End? (NYT)
Ramy Youssef Says His Hulu Show Isn't Built On Opposition To Trump Or Muslims — It's About Faith (BuzzFeed)