Research from Forrester confirms a downward shift that many business leaders have failed to take seriously. Fewer than 60% of Fortune 500 companies now have a marketing leader reporting directly to the CEO, down from 63% in 2024.
The number of executives still holding the actual title of “chief marketing officer (CMO)” has slipped below 50%. While these percentages may appear marginal, they reflect a more consequential erosion of influence.
The traditional authority and centrality of the CMO is being quietly dismantled in plain sight. This is not just a change in reporting lines or nomenclature. It is symptomatic of a wider strategic misjudgement that risks undermining long-term brand value, customer trust, and market competitiveness. At a time when brands are navigating unprecedented complexity, economic instability, and social expectation, sidelining marketing is very risky.
Over the past decade, the role of the CMO has been steadily carved up. Newer titles have emerged, each assuming a fragment of what was once a unified portfolio. As responsibilities have splintered, so too has the strategic power once concentrated in the CMO’s office. Marketing now sits further from the centre of influence, relegated to execution rather than leadership.
Marketing has evolved far beyond its traditional creative brief and is no longer just about generating demand or managing campaigns. Marketing today sits at the intersection of trust, technology, purpose, and performance. It connects internal strategy with external perception, translating company values into experiences that resonate with all stakeholders.
Excluding marketing leadership from strategic conversations creates a vacuum in this space. Disconnected brand narratives, reactive communications, and inconsistent customer experiences are all downstream consequences of that exclusion. The risks manifest in reputational damage, declining relevance, and missed growth.
The fragmentation of the CMO role has also weakened internal alignment. When customer insight, data interpretation, channel strategy, and brand narrative are managed across separate leadership tracks, businesses lose the coherence needed to drive sustained performance. Clarity of voice and positioning becomes harder to maintain.
This trend is particularly concerning given the increasing scrutiny placed on companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Purpose is no longer optional; it is a business imperative. Stakeholders now expect consistency between what a company says and what it does.
Without a strong marketing leader at the executive table, ESG risks becoming superficial, performative, or misaligned with broader strategy. A capable marketing leader brings not just storytelling, but substance. They are responsible for aligning internal culture with external expectations, managing reputational risk, and embedding brand trust into every customer and stakeholder touchpoint.
South African companies are not immune to these shifts. In fact, many are navigating even more fragile trust dynamics — across economic lines, historical legacies, and increasingly vocal stakeholder groups. Local brands must manage global competition, social responsiveness, and technological adaptation simultaneously. Strong marketing leadership is not a luxury in this context. It is foundational.
Boards and executive teams must re-evaluate how marketing is represented at leadership level. Marketers must assert their value more boldly and speak in terms that drive business confidence
This shift also coincides with rapid advancement in data analytics, automation, and AI. These tools offer extraordinary insight into customer behaviour, but require strategic interpretation. The human judgement to turn raw data into commercially intelligent decisions still resides with leadership. Removing marketing from the top table means removing the function best positioned to make meaning of those insights.
The responsibility does not rest solely with the C-suite. Marketers must also show up differently. It is no longer enough to be creatively talented. The profession must consistently demonstrate impact in business terms; market share, revenue growth, and customer lifetime value. Influence is earned.
Within the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (Prisa), the repositioning of communication professionals as strategic advisors has become a core focus. As an institute, we are working to elevate professional standards and reinforce the strategic value of communications, PR, and marketing in the business ecosystem. This is about restoring rightful influence — through rigour, capability, and measurable impact.
The CMO role is not disappearing because it is obsolete. It is shrinking because its value is being misunderstood, externally and internally. The role must evolve, and into something more powerful.
Business leaders who fail to recognise this shift risk operating with a strategic blind spot. The brand voice, customer trust, ESG credibility, and cultural alignment that marketing leads, are uniquely positioned to manage, and cannot be divided across competing roles.
There’s still time to course correct. Boards and executive teams must re-evaluate how marketing is represented at leadership level. Marketers must assert their value more boldly and speak in terms that drive business confidence.
The need has never been greater.
The companies that succeed in the years ahead will not be those with the flashiest campaigns. They will be the ones with the clearest sense of purpose, the strongest customer alignment, and the courage to put marketing where it belongs… at the heart of business strategy.
• Howland is the CEO of Alkemi Collective and president of Prisa.
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