Arthur Goldstuck | CEO | World Wide Worx | Editor-in-chief | Gadget.co.za | mail me |
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) used to be the rock star of the boardroom. Once, the role determined how a company presented itself to the market. It also carried the authority of being the customer’s voice in an executive team dominated by finance and operations. The death of the CMO is now a growing concern.
According to research by consulting firm Forrester, that authority is rapidly fading. A report titled “The Representation And Tenure Of Fortune 500 CMOs In 2025” shows that marketing heads who are members of large company executive teams or report to the CEO are found at only 58% of Fortune 500 companies. That figure is down from 63% in 2024. Although it may not sound severe at first glance, it reflects a significant downward trend.
Decline in status and titles
Equally concerning for marketing executives, the proportion who carry the title of CMO has dropped from 55% to 49%. This shift encapsulates their decline in status. The death of the CMO is evident in these shrinking numbers.
A key factor, according to Forrester, is that the digital age fractured the customer journey. It carved marketing into countless channels. Data science promised clarity but created silos. New titles, such as Chief Growth Officer, Customer Officer and Digital Officer, chipped away at what had once been the CMO’s hallowed turf. Slowly, the glamorous position became precarious.
Global implications of the decline
“The representation and tenure of CMOs and senior marketing executives in the Fortune 500 have declined year over year, driven by increased business volatility,” say the authors of the report.
While the study focuses on American companies, its implications are global. These findings are also likely to resonate among South African corporations.
In a single year, Forrester reports, more than a fifth of these companies changed their marketing leadership. Retail and wholesale firms led the exodus, with nearly one in three CMOs replaced. Energy and mining were steadier, with turnover of only 7%. Clearly, industry context often decides whether the seat is secure or expendable.
The decline in companies that place their top marketer on the executive team or give them direct access to the CEO marks a profound change. It demonstrates how marketing is valued inside the largest corporations.
Healthcare saw among the steepest declines. Energy and mining stood out as an outlier with a modest rise. The sector with the highest representation of CMOs, financial services and insurance, recorded the biggest drop. It fell from 91% to 80%.
Impact of business models
Business models also tell another story. Business-to-business (B2B) firms dropped from 48% to 42%. Consumer companies slipped from 84% to 79%. These shifts confirm that the traditional CMO role is being eroded in industries where transformation and short-term pressures are greatest.
Gender and leadership trends
There is one bright statistic. Women now make up 55% of senior marketing leaders in the Fortune 500. In financial services, they hold two-thirds of the posts. Accordingly, in energy and mining, however, they remain a minority, at one in three.
Marketing has opened its doors to female leadership, even as the role itself is being diluted. That said, the gender gap in tenure has closed entirely. Male longevity in the role dropped, while the number for females edged up. Both now stand at 3.9 years.
Tenure underscores the insecurity across sectors. The average CMO in healthcare lasts more than four years. Energy and mining reduce the figure closer to three. In B2B companies, the average falls to three and a half. In environments where marketing strategies need years to pay off, such brevity leaves little room for sustained impact.
In Forrester’s most recent surveys, nearly half of marketing leaders said they expect a recession in the coming year. Marketing budgets are often the first to be cut. The threat of economic contraction sharpens the risk.
A shrinking role in an expanding field
The fortunes of Fortune 500 CMOs have declined over the past year, amid economic uncertainty and a renewed debate about the role and mandate for marketing executives.
Yet marketing has never been more central to business growth. Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and personalised engagement now shape how companies reach their markets. These are marketing imperatives. However, the role built to lead them is shrinking in influence and in lifespan. The paradox could not be sharper.
Furthermore, the skills and technologies most critical to competitive success sit under a title that fewer companies see fit to maintain.
The awkward position of the modern CMO
It leaves the CMO in an awkward position. More women are taking on the job than ever before, but they inherit a role with less authority.
Companies demand sharper outcomes from marketing while granting its leaders less power. Tenures shorten, representation in the boardroom falls, and the death of the CMO becomes clear as survival hangs on a title that no longer guarantees a voice at the table.
Volatility and churn among Fortune 500 CMOs drove overall declines in tenure in the past year.
This conclusion from the report sends an ominous message about the death of the CMO. The rock star of the boardroom still has a place on stage. Yet the applause is fading, and the spotlight is shifting elsewhere.
