CMOs are winning trust but still falling short in transforming companies, according to CEOs

Boston’s Charles River may be famous for rowing, but it can be a single-person or multi-person sport. And, as Boston agency Boathouse’s fourth installment of its CEO study on marketing and the CMO revealed, the team sport can yield better results for companies, while individual efforts can sometimes fall short. 

The big picture, the quantitative report that surveyed the CEOs of 150 companies in tech, healthcare, finance, retail and other areas, sheds light on a general improvement in relationship and trust between the CEO and his or her CMO, while still pointing out sizable gaps in a couple areas of execution, expectation and delivery, said John Connors, Boathouse’s CEO.

“The pattern towards ROI, data and performance over the last few years — coupled with CMO tenure still on the decline — has marketers trying to go into prevent defense and trying to figure out things where they can justify their existence and their expense and budget,” said Connors, “whereas just helping the CEO execute their strategy is sitting right in front of them. With all the news out there over the last four or five years about tenure, I think CMOs are wise enough to say it’s time to work on this.”

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