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CMO v CEO

Perceptions of MarketingIn a recent study by Marketo, ADMA and Which-50

into how chief marketing officers (CMOs) view their

world in 2025, the authors also took the opportunity

to understand how marketers felt they are perceived

today and benchmark that against chief executive

officers (CEOs).

The bottom line: CMOs are more likely than CEOs

to believe marketing is poorly perceived.

CEOs provided much stronger responses to positive

statements about marketing throughout the study,

with far lower responses on negative statements

about marketing than marketing leaders themselves.

In fact, on each measure, marketers rated positive

statements about marketing more negatively than

CEOs and negative statements about marketing

more highly than CEOs.

Take, for example, the timeworn view of marketing

as “the colouring-in department”. While eight

percent of CEOs currently hold this view, 22 percent

of their marketing counterparts feel this is how they

are being perceived.

Other examples of a divide in the perception of

business impact: twice as many marketers (13

percent) as CEOs (six percent) felt they were

perceived as mostly event managers.

At the other end of the scale, 81 percent of CEOs

view marketing as a driver of revenue growth,

compared to 73 percent of marketers.

‘Colouring-in’ vs Driver of Growth

“ 81 percent of CEOs view marketing as a driver of revenue growth.

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What factors are holding back marketing maturityWe need more executive buy-in

CMO 31%

CEO 5%

37.5%

We need more budget

CMO

CEO 31.5%

We need more staff

CMO 13.7%

CEO 27.5%

When we asked marketers what was getting in the

way of building a better marketing team, budget

(28 percent) emerged as the top answer, followed

by a lack of management buy-in (25 percent) and

too few staff (20 percent).

Interestingly, CMOs are almost six times more likely

(31 percent) to identify executive buy-in as the core

problem compared to CEOs (5 percent) where

CEOs list executive buy-in as a key factor that sets

their marketing teams apart.

Building Marketing Teams and Budgets

“ CMOs are almost six times more likely than CEOs to identify executive buy-in as a roadblock to marketing success.

The skills-gap is an area of both agreement and

contention with CEOs doubling-down on the CMO

sentiment that staff shortages are a core marketing

problem, yet it appears the divide exists in an

understanding of what skilled staff cost, with CEOs

greatly underestimating the cost of marketing

full-time headcount and contractors according to

CMOs identified in budgeting questions.

When the attitudes of CMOs and CEOs about

new skills are compared, CMOs are much more

aggressive in their predictions around the changing

skill mix, with one exception: their views around

the emergence of machine learning and artificial

intelligence are very similar to those of the CEO.

CEOs aren’t quite as willing to let go of traditional

marketing skills. They are more likely to rate

currently popular skills like social media marketing,

influencer marketing, web and app development,

and digital marketing more highly.

There is also an evident misalignment on core

areas of marketing spend, with the CEOs believing

that the three key areas of marketing spend are in

paid social, direct marketing, marketing automation

and CRM.

This, compared to CMOs who rank search engine

marketing, traditional advertising, headcount

and contractors as their key areas investment,

signals an opportunity for greater connection on

business priorities.

At 45 percent, this was rated as the most

important factor with superior skills and executive

buy-in also important. The good news is that

CEOs and CMOs are in furious agreement on this

point — returning exactly the same scores on the

tools and technology measure.

Are CMOs Underspending on Technology?

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CEOs believe that technology accounts for 30

percent of marketing spend. Yet, for marketers,

the figure for technology spend is closer to half

that, with just 18 percent of marketing budgets

being assigned to tech investment.

CMOs do however take a keen interest in emerging

technologies with CMOs appearing more bullish

than their CEO colleagues when it comes to

the role machine learning will play in 2025. Over

60 percent of marketers say AI tools will be an

important part of their marketing technology stack

in 2025, while CEOs are slightly more conservative

with only 49 percent in agreement.

CEOs and CMOs are almost in complete

agreement that marketing automation, data

warehousing, analytics and visualisation, content

management systems and customer relationship

management technologies will feature in their

tech stack in 2025.

However CEOs and CMOs divide at the point

of grittier marketing technologies, deprioritising

technologies related to marketing attribution and

advanced or micro segmentation in favour of

customer experience management technologies,

compared to CMOs.

By 2025 CMOs and CEOs expect to be aligned

around the top three priorities: lifetime value,

customer retention and marketing-sourced revenue.

For more information on the findings of CMO v CEO: The Perceptions of Marketing or to pre-register for the Marketing 2025 report, contact Marketo directly here.

“ The number one factor that marketers believe sets their team apart is their investment in tools and technology.