Whereas the chief advertising and marketing officer (CMO) put up isn’t about to vanish tomorrow, it’s unimaginable to disregard the mounting proof of its regular erosion.

As ADWEEK reported in August, the common CMO tenure slipped from 4.1 years in 2024 to three.9 years in 2025. Final yr, 63% of Fortune 500 firms had CMOs—however in 2025, that determine had dropped by 5%.

It will get worse. A McKinsey paper launched in June famous that “CFOs typically view advertising and marketing as a price middle slightly than an funding.” And 2025 knowledge gathered by advertising and marketing agency Boathouse reveals that 14% of CEOs admit to having considered eliminating the CMO’s place.

Scary? Very a lot so. However regardless of the numbers, CMOs themselves are usually not as fatalistic about their futures.

Throughout a roundtable dialogue at ADWEEK Home: Promoting HQ on Thursday, ADWEEK chief model and neighborhood officer Jenny Rooney invited three main CMOs to problem the notion that entrepreneurs are an endangered species within the C-suite—and help that counter-narrative with explanation why CMOs nonetheless matter.

Alison Hiatt of Vera Bradley, Uzma Rawn Dowler of Main League Baseball, and Christie Sclater of Clinique recommended methods CMOs can convey their relevance to CEOs below strain to chop prices and more and more seeking to AI as a panacea. Listed here are a number of of them.

Be greater than a marketer

In the present day, a CMO’s job tasks stretch far past the standard boundaries of promoting and promotion, however CFOs and CEOs typically don’t totally recognize that. So it falls to the chief marketer not simply to advocate for what they do, but in addition to translate it.

“The CMO function, in my thoughts, is sort of a get-shit-done officer,” Dowler mentioned. “The ‘C’ and the ‘O’ are there, after which within the center you need to simply put no matter it is advisable to put in there, as a result of our roles are usually not simply advertising and marketing.”

Market to your clients, not your self

Outcomes-obsessed and more and more skeptical chief executives could also be extra prone to query the considering behind, or validity of, an promoting marketing campaign or advertising and marketing technique. It’s most likely a good suggestion to remind different company chiefs that they don’t must get the thought.

“If they’ve [skeptical] opinions about sure issues, it’s okay—you need to remind them, ‘Hey, this really isn’t meant for you,’” Dowler mentioned. “However we now have all this knowledge and analysis to point out that it’s going to resonate for the those that it’s meant for.”

Get forward of AI

As generative AI will get extra superior, the C-suite can be much more prone to query roles just like the CMO and artistic director, and even the advertising and marketing division general. Rightly or not, it would fall to the CMO to clarify AI’s place, and advertising and marketing’s place above it.