CMO Tenure Study: Women outnumber men for first time in CMO role

Women

Diversity

Average CMO tenure ties last year, remaining at lowest level in more than a decade

Average CMO tenure remained remarkably low at 40 months, tying last year as the lowest level in more than a decade. However, median tenure, at 28 months, inched closer to the pre-pandemic 2019 level of 30 months. We expect the continued turnover has been the result of companies attempting to improve their overall diversity, and has been compounded by the ongoing pandemic, which has put pressure on many sectors.

Disconcerting is that the gap between CMO tenure and CEO tenure, which continues to climb — CEOs now stay in their roles more than twice as long as CMOs. Boards were reticent to change CEOs during a crisis. In 2021, average CEO tenure was more than double the CMO tenure at 85 months. We anticipate that as this new class of CMOs (some of whom already fit culturally as they were promoted into the role) will enjoy longer run rates in the future. Yet, we expect continued, intense pressure on marketing leaders to drive profitable growth and meet changing transformation demands and resultant volatility.

More companies looking outside their organizations for CMOs

We also saw a spike in external hires of CMOs compared to internal promotion in 2021. External hiring is often a sign that CEOs are looking for fresh and innovative thinking from their marketing teams as the “old way of doing things” just isn’t enough anymore. External hires increased to 45% in 2021 from 37% in 2020. Even when organizations hired first-time CMOs, they were more likely to look externally.

Among first-time CMOs, 30% were hired externally, almost double the 16% in 2020. Other organizations looked to external talent to upgrade capabilities around creative, brand, product, media, acquisitions, the customer journey, customer experience, marketing technology, CRM and e-commerce. Some companies were driven to look externally for talent to help build their team’s diversity.

Fifty-five percent of CMOs were promoted from within, which is down from 63% in 2020 and 64% in 2019. In light of this trend and after weathering the pandemic and subsequent “Great Resignation,” CMOs may need to increase their focus on succession planning. We are pleased to see a renewed focus from many top CMOs, taking to heart the need to have disciplined plans in place to have their backfill ready, which also minimizes unexpected departures of those a level below.

CMO Tenure Full Data

"-" denotes data not available.