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After working with hundreds of organizations over the last twelve months and leveraging technology platforms to assess just as many job descriptions we have identified the key competencies for modern, effective CMOs.
Here’s what CEOs seeking to drive sustainable growth, innovation, and competitive advantage need to consider about the new CMO profile for 2025 and beyond.
The era of the “performance-only” marketer is over. While the past decade saw a heavy emphasis on short-term, performance-driven tactics, many organizations have recognized the limitations of this approach. Over-reliance on digital performance marketing led to diminishing returns, increased price sensitivity, and eroded brand equity. In response, CEOs are gravitating towards CMOs who can balance both long-term brand-building and short-term performance marketing. 95% of the job descriptions we analyzed asked for both performance and brand marketing expertise.
The most effective marketing leaders are those who can drive immediate results through performance channels, while simultaneously investing in brand equity that contributes to both short and long-term growth. Research shows that companies balancing both approaches outperform those focused solely on short-term gains . For example, after suffering diminishing returns from a performance marketing-let strategy, Airbnb saw an increase of ~20% traffic when they shifted to an investment in brand.
While the art of brand-building has been forgotten as of late, growth in today’s economic environment requires refocusing on brand as a long-term asset, while also delivering immediate performance.
Seek CMOs with a proven track record in both brand stewardship and performance marketing. Mostly importantly, they need to understand how to integrate these disciplines for maximum impact.
Modern marketing teams are dynamic, tech-enabled, and strategically structured. The CMO’s ability to build and lead such teams is now a core competency. High-performing teams have reached across the martech stack—blending creative, analytical, and technical talent—to include roles in content strategy, demand generation, lifecycle marketing, product marketing, and data analytics.
Models with hybrid or matrix structures that combine centralized strategy with decentralized execution are gaining popularity, as they deliver both agility and consistency. AI, automation, and advanced analytics are embedded into team workflows, enabling hyper-personalization, efficiency, and data-driven decision-making. These complex leadership dynamics require CEOs to bring in marketing leaders who have experience leading and developing cross functional teams. Over 90% of the job descriptions we assessed required experience leading and developing teams.
The most impactful CMOs are not just team builders; they are talent incubators, developing future marketing and business leaders.
Prioritize CMOs who have built, structured, and scaled high-performing, tech-enabled marketing teams that drive both innovation and growth.
The modern CMO is both a growth architect and a brand steward. Today’s most successful organizations are asking marketers to look beyond awareness or engagement metrics and also be directly accountable for business outcomes. CMOs must have a proven ability to connect marketing activities to revenue growth, profitability, and shareholder value.
The most effective CMOs drive alignment with their CFO and C-suite peers around metrics such as customer lifetime value, ROMI, and brand equity. According to Deloitte, organizations with strong CMO-CFO collaboration are significantly more likely to achieve above-average revenue growth however, only 33% of sitting CMOs prioritize profitability as a KPI. While 100% of the job descriptions we analyzed noted the importance of revenue growth, 85% included a connection to revenue growth as a core competency for the CMO.
Insist on commercially driven CMOs who can demonstrate a track record of tying marketing investments to measurable business results and who are fluent in the language of finance and growth.
AI and new technologies are now table stakes for marketing leadership. According to the RRA Global Leadership Monitor, marketing leaders are ahead of their C-Suite peers in terms of AI adoption and implementation. 87% of marketing leaders surveyed suggested that they had a strong understanding of the implications of Generative AI and the skills needed for future c-suite members to leverage the technology effectively. Also, over half of marketing leaders surveyed have implemented or are piloting AI programs.
AI enables faster content creation, deeper insights, and automation of repetitive tasks, marketing teams are getting time back for more strategic work. Two years ago, we barely saw any mention of AI in job specs or dialogues with clients. Today it’s become central to CMO hiring criteria.
Of course, AI’s impact on marketing is not one size fits all—implementation progress varies widely.
Select CMOs who are not only comfortable with technology but have a proven ability to implement AI and martech solutions that drive bottom-line growth and competitive differentiation.
The CMO role is expanding into a true enterprise leadership position. The “CMO+” is a business partner who collaborates across functions, may manage a P&L, and, is increasingly seen as a pipeline to the CEO seat. Modern CMOs who have owned and managed revenue and profit outcomes, not just marketing budgets, bring a strategic lens to revenue growth . This new responsibility is additive to the marketing function and should not be at the cost of customer-centric, tech-enabled growth.
The CMO+ works closely with sales, product, finance, and technology, driving growth across the organization. As companies prioritize customer-centric growth and digital transformation, the CMO+ profile is increasingly becoming an archetype for future CEOs.
Look for CMOs with operational credibility, P&L experience, and a demonstrated ability to act as a business partner, these leaders are best positioned to drive enterprise-wide growth and may well be your company’s next CEO.
The CMO job specification in 2025 is not just a checklist—it’s a blueprint for business growth and transformation. CEOs who recognize and act on these new requirements will unlock the full potential of marketing as a driver of revenue, innovation, and enterprise value. Those who do not risk falling behind in a marketplace where the pace of change is only accelerating.
Going forward CMO roles are shaped by a mandate for digital analytics and leadership, seamless integration of brand and performance marketing, a relentless focus on transformation and agility, and the ability to drive cross-functional, commercially minded collaboration to deliver both growth and brand equity.
Jennifer Doidge leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Chief Marketing Officers practice in North America and is a leader in the Global Customer Activation & Growth practice. She is based in San Francisco.
Greg Hodge leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ European Customer Activation & Growth practice in Europe and is a member of the firm’s Global Marketing Officers practice. He is based in London.
Amanda Callahan leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Commercial Strategy and Insights for the firm’s Global Customer Activation & Growth practice.
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