CMO Insights: How to Become and Be a Successful Chief Marketing Officer

Deloitte Digital shares its latest insight into the experiences and behaviours of CMOs and senior marketing executives (SMEs).

The study surveyed 38 chief marketing officers and 34 senior marketing executives in the UK (72 total). The respondents had a wide range of experience with half having 11 or more years of experience in marketing, and nearly a quarter of the CMOs having more than 20 years. The organisations were across six key industries and ranged from an annual revenue of less than £5 million up to more than £50 billion and were a mix of B2B and B2C.

The findings include; how the role of CMOs and SMEs has changed over the past five years, key skills and personality traits that are most useful to marketeers, how the role is perceived to change in the next two years, biggest opportunities of generative AI in their role, outsourcing creative work, and key challenges in the role.

You can find the full report here, with key takeaways below:

• Half of CMOs surveyed said that the CEO is their most important strategic partner, followed by chief technology officer (11%). Meanwhile, senior marketing executives say that their counterparts in sales are their main strategic relationship (26%), followed by operations (18%).
• Economic conditions was ranked as the top issues amongst CMOs and SMEs, followed by digital transformation and customer acquisition and/or retention.
• Both CMOs and SMEs spend approximately 70% of their time working with people outside of marketing, with CMOs only spending a quarter (28%) of their time with marketing colleagues.
• Leadership is ranked as the most useful skills for both CMOs and SMEs , followed by communication and strategic thinking.
• CMOs rank the biggest changes to their role in the last five years has been the use of AI within the role (18%), while SMEs say the biggest challenge is different working patterns (i.e. remote or flexible working).
• CMOs perceive the biggest change to their role in the next two years will be the greater need to prioritise sustainability and social responsibilities in marketing and brand strategies (23%), meanwhile SMEs rank the biggest change as being an increased pressure to demonstrate marketing’s impact on revenue (23%).
• Both CMOs and SMEs believe that the biggest opportunities of Generative AI for a role will be content creation (25%), followed closely by improving operational efficiency (22%) and improving customer experience (21%).

William Grobel, director in Deloitte Digital, commented, “The roles of a CMO and senior marketing professionals are becoming increasingly diverse as they work alongside a variety of stakeholders inside and outside of their business, often requiring skills that go beyond traditional marketing. Our research has revealed that both CMOs and senior marketing executives are focused on navigating challenging economic conditions, whilst still investing time and money into transformation. This demonstrates the significance of the marketing function, which is not only close to the everyday running of a business, but also a catalyst for growth. Creating great customer experiences remains at the heart of these roles, but it is clear that CMOS and SMEs are doing so much more on a daily basis.”