Platinum Jubilee: A CMO Perspective

On 6th February 2022, Her Majesty the Queen became the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, set to take place over a special four-day bank holiday weekend, will mark a major milestone in the reign of the Queen, celebrating her life and service.

Now, if we flip this on the head and look at influential leaders within marketing, the CMO is right up there. Many publications such as Forbes and Business Insiders annually rank them and rave about their accomplishments and contributions. For the marketing industry, the CMO is quite frankly the most important leader as they are responsible for developing brand awareness and customer experience. They are essentially the bridge between the brand and its customers, shaping the brand’s messaging and influencing our thoughts and values.

A successful “reign” of a chief marketing officer is as crucial for brands and marketers alike because with time comes experience, insight, and trust. Traditionally, CMOs have remained in their post for a lengthy amount of time and Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble, is a perfect example of this, as he has steadily made his way through the ranks and amassed nearly 40 years. This would have been considered a ruby jubilee, in a royal sense that is.

Another veteran in his own right is Phil Schiller, formerly Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple and now Apple Fellow. Phil helped to guide Apple’s products and marketing for 30 years helping to create one of the most popular computers in the world.

With marketing constantly changing and evolving, consumers’ needs, and expectations do the same. This could be the reason many CMOs don’t stay as long in their roles as we once used to see with exception of a few who have been in the roles just shy of 10 years. But why a decline, why don’t CMOs last?

Wsj.com reports that the average tenure of a chief marketing officer in their post stands at 40 months – this is just 3 years and 4 months. The CMO post has the highest turnover rate of all roles within the C-level suite with CEOs remaining twice as long.

On a brighter note, however, The Spencer Stuart study showed, that the proportion of CMOs are women and from racially or ethnically diverse backgrounds since 2016. For the first time, women in the latest study made up 51% of CMOs, up from 47% in 2020 and from 23% in 2016.

Of course, being a monarch and a CMO of a company are not one and the same, as their purpose historical background, and skills are completely different, except for well, leadership. A newly appointed CMO is expected to create great ads, enlist data technology tools, and know how to engage consumers off-screen, on-screen, and digitally through e-commerce and social media platforms. The expansive remit of the role makes the position tricky.

But fear not, dear friends for you too can extend your rule as a marketing monarch.

If you are a newly appointed CMO, Flock runs a CMO program, to ensure your first 100 are a success. This could also be for a CMO looking to inject a fresh perspective and make organisational change. Flock has supported many CMOs across the world helping them transform their marketing efforts. We have brought teams together through workshops, renewed and reviewed agency ecosystems, resolved scoping pain points, evaluated capabilities and appraised agencies and clients alike.

Contact us using the form below and we’ll get in touch to see where we can help.