What worth is the CMO and the general advertising division bringing to firms?
The quick reply is good-ish. CMOs are doing higher now than they have been a number of years in the past, per their CEOs, however their departments are nonetheless floundering a little bit.
Anna Adams-Sarthou, Director of Strategic Communications, Boathouse Group
Grappling with the more and more advanced exterior forces of political and financial disruption, technological advances and ever current aggressive threats, most CEOs don’t have any alternative however to spend the vast majority of their time targeted on exterior components. The push for development takes heart stage, driving reactive methods and absorbing consideration, usually making operational points like workforce, repute and worker morale a a lot decrease precedence.
That is clear in Boston-based Boathouse Group’s just lately launched 4th annual CEO Examine on Advertising and marketing and the Chief Advertising and marketing Officer (CMO). Boathouse developed the survey in 2021, with the intention of it being an one-off undertaking to reveal to the business the declining respect for Advertising and marketing in addition to the declining tenure of CMOs in firms. Now, 4 years into conducting this as an annual survey, the research reveals patterns of information on Advertising and marketing and the CMO, delving into CEOs’ strategic focuses and their expectations and assessments of their CMOs and Advertising and marketing Departments.
The analysis sampled 150 CEOs of excessive income—$250M-$1B+—firms with an nearly even mixture of private and non-private. Two thirds of the pattern dimension have been expertise, healthcare, banking/monetary companies, retail, shopper packaged items, prescribed drugs/biotech
The research probed how CEOs view their position and what takes up the majority of their time and thought processes, in addition to their views on their CMOs and advertising departments. Boathouse’s Director of Strategic Communications, Anna Adams-Sarthou, presents deeper insights on this Q&A with Bulldog Reporter:
Q: What are CEOs primarily involved with, and what sort of downstream impact does it have on their groups and their productiveness?
A: The impact is main, in that it’s very troublesome for CEOs’ methods to be realized. In actual fact, 87% of CEOs reveal they’ve but to completely notice their transformation technique, based on a Boathouse research of CEOs and CMOs.
The explanation? To start with, there’s a clear and important hole between firm priorities that impression monetary efficiency and organizational points.The info confirmed that CEOs’ high enterprise priorities are development and profitability, financials, and, from an organizational standpoint, their high priorities are tech/AI and productiveness/effectivity. Workforce was third on the listing of organizational priorities. What’s extra, CEOs view their high stakeholders as their C-Suites and their Boards, which is the place additionally they spend essentially the most of their time, with staff taking on a lot much less of their time and day after day consideration. A Gartner research from 2024 displays the identical: development tops the listing, cited by 56% of CEOs, adopted by expertise implementation (42%), the strengthening of the group’s working mannequin or company profile (36%), and monetary stability (25%). Staff should not a high precedence.
So it’s no marvel there’s a technique implementation downside – and sure additionally a morale downside, too. CEOs don’t spend sufficient time both speaking with their staff or prioritizing firm tradition, workforce improvement and worker retention. Staff are left making an attempt to implement a technique that has been delivered to them through a trickle-down impact with little context as to its objective and worth and, critically, what their position in realizing the technique actually is.
How does Advertising and marketing play into this?
In a considerably related vein, whereas CEOs are feeling more and more higher about their CMOs, they proceed to point out much less worth of their total advertising departments. 4 years in the past, solely 21% of CEOs rated their CMOs as “greatest in school.” That quantity has greater than doubled, with 45% of CEOs giving their CMOs that score in 2025. Conversely, on this yr’s research, almost 63% of CEOs charge their Advertising and marketing division “common” or “underperforming”—a big shift from final yr’s 51% score.
Whereas CMOs are higher aligning their very own time, work and priorities with that of their CEOs, what’s obvious is they don’t seem to be doing a great job main their very own groups.
It’s nice to see that CMOs are connecting higher with their CEOs and that there’s a stronger understanding of imaginative and prescient and technique. We all know, from our knowledge, that CEOs care about their CMOs serving as a trusted associate and advisor. Nevertheless, the truth that advertising departments should not considered in the identical “greatest in school” capability as their division leaders demonstrates a management hole between the CEO and firm staff and the CMO and their division staff/direct experiences.
Whereas circuitously addressed within the research, do you assume Chief Communications Officers and their communications departments may additionally fall into this juxtaposition?
In all probability. As skilled communicators, I wish to assume that we do a greater job than most of speaking with our personal groups. On the finish of the day, a lot of an organization’s repute is constructed on robust worker sentiment, rooted in strong worker engagement and inside communications.
That stated, it actually begins with management and administration expertise throughout the board. With the ability to perceive the CEO’s imaginative and prescient and technique is step one, then with the ability to precisely translate that to your workforce, then operationalize the plan with digestible duties, motion gadgets and division of labor so your workforce is aware of what the expectation of every of them is, after which toeing the road between offering useful oversight, data and expectations—exercising good delegation—whereas not micromanaging. That’s actually the place the management expertise come into play, and it’s one thing that CCOs, CMOs, CEOs and everybody else in management positions in any firm ought to ensure that they handle along with making an attempt to push ahead “their model” of tasks.
What’s extra necessary in at present’s workforce, technical expertise or energy expertise?
The quick reply is that it most likely is dependent upon the position. Technical expertise are, in fact, invaluable. With out highly-trained professionals in particular, technical capabilities, most industries merely wouldn’t work and even exist. That features features like advertising and communications.
Nevertheless, as we get into the C-Suite, particularly the position of CMO, the success of any undertaking or imaginative and prescient is most steadily enabled by a wedding of energy expertise and technical expertise. A 2023 Mission Administration Institute research—which defines energy expertise as communication, problem-solving, collaborative management and strategic pondering – discovered that 90% of respondents agree that energy expertise assist them work smarter and 80% really feel their group locations worth on all staff possessing energy expertise. Realizing this and the info from Boathouse’s personal research, CMOs and their groups will discover essentially the most success, respect and talent to combine with one another in addition to with different groups within the firm by recognizing the twin crucial of doing the work and incorporating the interpersonal expertise—the facility expertise—within the course of. That’s the candy spot for effectivity and success.
What worth is the CMO and the general advertising division bringing to firms?
The quick reply is good-ish. CMOs are doing higher now than they have been a number of years in the past, per their CEOs, however their departments are nonetheless floundering a little bit.
Anna Adams-Sarthou, Director of Strategic Communications, Boathouse Group
Grappling with the more and more advanced exterior forces of political and financial disruption, technological advances and ever current aggressive threats, most CEOs don’t have any alternative however to spend the vast majority of their time targeted on exterior components. The push for development takes heart stage, driving reactive methods and absorbing consideration, usually making operational points like workforce, repute and worker morale a a lot decrease precedence.
That is clear in Boston-based Boathouse Group’s just lately launched 4th annual CEO Examine on Advertising and marketing and the Chief Advertising and marketing Officer (CMO). Boathouse developed the survey in 2021, with the intention of it being an one-off undertaking to reveal to the business the declining respect for Advertising and marketing in addition to the declining tenure of CMOs in firms. Now, 4 years into conducting this as an annual survey, the research reveals patterns of information on Advertising and marketing and the CMO, delving into CEOs’ strategic focuses and their expectations and assessments of their CMOs and Advertising and marketing Departments.
The analysis sampled 150 CEOs of excessive income—$250M-$1B+—firms with an nearly even mixture of private and non-private. Two thirds of the pattern dimension have been expertise, healthcare, banking/monetary companies, retail, shopper packaged items, prescribed drugs/biotech
The research probed how CEOs view their position and what takes up the majority of their time and thought processes, in addition to their views on their CMOs and advertising departments. Boathouse’s Director of Strategic Communications, Anna Adams-Sarthou, presents deeper insights on this Q&A with Bulldog Reporter:
Q: What are CEOs primarily involved with, and what sort of downstream impact does it have on their groups and their productiveness?
A: The impact is main, in that it’s very troublesome for CEOs’ methods to be realized. In actual fact, 87% of CEOs reveal they’ve but to completely notice their transformation technique, based on a Boathouse research of CEOs and CMOs.
The explanation? To start with, there’s a clear and important hole between firm priorities that impression monetary efficiency and organizational points.The info confirmed that CEOs’ high enterprise priorities are development and profitability, financials, and, from an organizational standpoint, their high priorities are tech/AI and productiveness/effectivity. Workforce was third on the listing of organizational priorities. What’s extra, CEOs view their high stakeholders as their C-Suites and their Boards, which is the place additionally they spend essentially the most of their time, with staff taking on a lot much less of their time and day after day consideration. A Gartner research from 2024 displays the identical: development tops the listing, cited by 56% of CEOs, adopted by expertise implementation (42%), the strengthening of the group’s working mannequin or company profile (36%), and monetary stability (25%). Staff should not a high precedence.
So it’s no marvel there’s a technique implementation downside – and sure additionally a morale downside, too. CEOs don’t spend sufficient time both speaking with their staff or prioritizing firm tradition, workforce improvement and worker retention. Staff are left making an attempt to implement a technique that has been delivered to them through a trickle-down impact with little context as to its objective and worth and, critically, what their position in realizing the technique actually is.
How does Advertising and marketing play into this?
In a considerably related vein, whereas CEOs are feeling more and more higher about their CMOs, they proceed to point out much less worth of their total advertising departments. 4 years in the past, solely 21% of CEOs rated their CMOs as “greatest in school.” That quantity has greater than doubled, with 45% of CEOs giving their CMOs that score in 2025. Conversely, on this yr’s research, almost 63% of CEOs charge their Advertising and marketing division “common” or “underperforming”—a big shift from final yr’s 51% score.
Whereas CMOs are higher aligning their very own time, work and priorities with that of their CEOs, what’s obvious is they don’t seem to be doing a great job main their very own groups.
It’s nice to see that CMOs are connecting higher with their CEOs and that there’s a stronger understanding of imaginative and prescient and technique. We all know, from our knowledge, that CEOs care about their CMOs serving as a trusted associate and advisor. Nevertheless, the truth that advertising departments should not considered in the identical “greatest in school” capability as their division leaders demonstrates a management hole between the CEO and firm staff and the CMO and their division staff/direct experiences.
Whereas circuitously addressed within the research, do you assume Chief Communications Officers and their communications departments may additionally fall into this juxtaposition?
In all probability. As skilled communicators, I wish to assume that we do a greater job than most of speaking with our personal groups. On the finish of the day, a lot of an organization’s repute is constructed on robust worker sentiment, rooted in strong worker engagement and inside communications.
That stated, it actually begins with management and administration expertise throughout the board. With the ability to perceive the CEO’s imaginative and prescient and technique is step one, then with the ability to precisely translate that to your workforce, then operationalize the plan with digestible duties, motion gadgets and division of labor so your workforce is aware of what the expectation of every of them is, after which toeing the road between offering useful oversight, data and expectations—exercising good delegation—whereas not micromanaging. That’s actually the place the management expertise come into play, and it’s one thing that CCOs, CMOs, CEOs and everybody else in management positions in any firm ought to ensure that they handle along with making an attempt to push ahead “their model” of tasks.
What’s extra necessary in at present’s workforce, technical expertise or energy expertise?
The quick reply is that it most likely is dependent upon the position. Technical expertise are, in fact, invaluable. With out highly-trained professionals in particular, technical capabilities, most industries merely wouldn’t work and even exist. That features features like advertising and communications.
Nevertheless, as we get into the C-Suite, particularly the position of CMO, the success of any undertaking or imaginative and prescient is most steadily enabled by a wedding of energy expertise and technical expertise. A 2023 Mission Administration Institute research—which defines energy expertise as communication, problem-solving, collaborative management and strategic pondering – discovered that 90% of respondents agree that energy expertise assist them work smarter and 80% really feel their group locations worth on all staff possessing energy expertise. Realizing this and the info from Boathouse’s personal research, CMOs and their groups will discover essentially the most success, respect and talent to combine with one another in addition to with different groups within the firm by recognizing the twin crucial of doing the work and incorporating the interpersonal expertise—the facility expertise—within the course of. That’s the candy spot for effectivity and success.
