CMOs, you got an A. Well, about a quarter of you did.
For the fourth time, independent marketing agency Boathouse conducted a survey of CEOs to get a sense of their opinions of CMOs and the overall marketing functions at their companies. When asked to grade their CMO using an academic scale, 24% of the 150 CEOs of US companies surveyed from Jan. 7 to 24 gave them an A. That’s similar to the 26% who gave out As in last year’s CEO survey, and up from 16% the second time Boathouse ran the survey in 2022.
Close to three-quarters (71%) of CEOs gave their CMOs either an A or a B.
While the results reveal some improvements in the ways CEOs view their top marketers, there are also several “areas of concern and disconnects” when it comes to how CEOs think of CMOs and marketing in general, according to Boathouse’s CEO study.
“The CMO is trending up and marketing is trending down, which is a contradiction,” John Connors, Boathouse co-founder and CEO, told Marketing Brew. “The CMO…got smarter in Covid about how to build better relationships, and yet I think marketing continues to be less trusted.”
Good grades: The share of CEOs who say their CMOs are “best in class” is on the rise, steadily growing from 21% in the first study to 45% this year. Additionally, Boathouse tests CEO perceptions of CMOs’ “soft skills,” like understanding of business goals and ability to collaborate, and found that CMOs are at a high point across all of those areas:
- Sixty-five percent of CEOs said their CMO “understands the business goals of the company,” up from 60% in the third survey.
- A similar share, 61%, said their CMO “is performance minded,” up from 58% a year ago, and 57% said their CMO “solves problems effectively,” up from 49%.
- Half (50%) said they have “great confidence” in their CMO, 53% said they’re “easy to collaborate with,” and 56% said their CMO “supports me in driving my long-term vision,” all up from the last survey.
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Less than half of CEOs said their CMOs share their values, are on their side, and put the CEOs needs before their own, but those areas saw growth from the previous survey, too.
Trust fall? While CMOs showed improvement in terms of soft skills, “CMO A grades have dropped in nearly all important areas of the business,” and the share of CEOs who said the overall marketing capabilities of their company are “average” or “underperforming” increased from last survey, Boathouse found.
- The biggest drop in A grades was for CMOs’ relationships and trust with the rest of the C-suite.
- There was also a grade drop for innovation and the ability to drive company growth, among other areas.
- But there was a greater share of CMOs receiving As when it came to having trust and positive relationships with their CEOs.
About half of CMOs don’t play a core role in driving their company’s growth strategies, CEOs said: 49% said their CMO is “on the periphery” of growth strategy, while 51% said their CMO is “at the core,” according to the report.
Keep in touch: Some of these issues could be addressed by earlier and more frequent communication between CMOs and CEOs, Connors suggested. For instance, he said his team advises CMOs to check in with their CEOs as early as the first round of creative ideation to make sure their work is in line with the CEO’s strategic vision.
“The CMO and marketing should spend more time going to the CEO and saying, ‘Are we interpreting your strategy well?’ and less time just racing off to the market and keeping the CEO at arm’s length,” Connors said. “CMOs tend to want control…Why don’t you want to make the CEO a teammate?”