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The revolving door of the marketing C-suite has been greased.
In 2020, chief marketing officers (on average) stayed put for a little more than three years—the shortest amount of time since 2009, according to corporate headhunting group Spencer Stuart.
The company recently released its annual survey on CMO tenure, which tracked the C-suite movement of the 100 most advertised brands in the country. It found:
- Average CMO tenure dropped to 40 months in 2020, down from 41 in 2019.
- Median tenure fell to 25.5 months, the lowest ever recorded, from 30 months in 2019.
- The average CEO tenure is about six and a half years, for comparison.
“The market has spoken and there is a shelf life at some point,” Greg Welch, who leads Spencer Stuart’s North American marketing, sales, and communication teams, told Marketing Brew. But that doesn’t mean it’s enough time to have an impact. “Three plus years is not enough. When we're talking about moving brand metrics and transitioning into a direct-to-consumer world, it takes time first to build traction.”
If you’ve followed the headlines, this data isn’t surprising. Some notable moves from the past month include:
- Burger King’s Fernando Machado taking a gig at Activision Blizzard.
- Dollar Shave Club’s Kristin Harrer joining Vans.
- KFC’s Andrea Zahumensky leaving after—you guessed it—3+ years.
+1: The research also found that almost half (47%) of the CMOs in the study are women. But only 13% of CMOs come from diverse backgrounds. — RB