CMO tenure drops to shortest in over ten years | WARC | The Feed

CMO tenure drops to shortest in over ten years

The time chief marketing officers in the US spend in one job has dropped to 40 months, the shortest in more than a decade, according to research from executive search consultants Spencer Stuart.

This is in contrast to CEOs, whose average time in office is double that. Stuart Spencer puts CMOs’ shortened tenures down to the pandemic. And, of course, not all CMOs who leave their jobs lost them last year or any year – many move to other companies.

Key findings

• The average time in post for a CMO at 100 of the leading advertising spenders in the US was 40 months in 2020, one month less than the previous year. The median was 25.5 months, down from 30 months in 2019.
• The proportion of female CMOs rose to 47% last year, up from 43% in 2019 and 36% in 2018. Women accounted for over half (52%) of the incoming class of CMOs, again, an increase on 2019.
• Diversity lagged behind, however, with ethnic minorities accounting for just 13% of CMOs, down from 14% the previous year; and 12% of incoming CMOs were from minorities last year, a significant decline from the 19% in 2019.

Final thought

“There used to be a time that I believe marketing was thought of as pretty pictures and storytelling. Now the role is better viewed as ‘an orchestrator for the business’” – Suzy Deering, chief marketing officer, Ford Motor Co.

Sourced from The Wall Street Journal