CMOs and CCOs Can Learn from Each Other Regarding Partnership with the CEO
Our Privacy Policy has been updated! The Conference Board uses cookies to improve our website, enhance your experience, and deliver relevant messages and offers about our products. Detailed information on the use of cookies on this site is provided in our cookie policy. For more information on how The Conference Board collects and uses personal data, please visit our privacy policy. By continuing to use this Site or by clicking "ACCEPT", you acknowledge our privacy policy and consent to the use of cookies. 

CMO+CCO Meter

A recurring tracker of marketing and communications leaders’ sentiment as to the impact they are having on their businesses and the value they are creating.

The relationship between the CEO and both the chief marketing officer (CMO) and chief communications officer (CCO) is crucial for business success. While the CMO role is complex, its main objective is to drive topline growth, making the CMOs’ effective collaboration with the CEO a crucial priority—particularly given the increasing strategic importance of marketing to the CEO and board. The CCO, meanwhile, safeguards corporate reputation and helps seize business opportunities. Their role includes preempting and mitigating issues that could harm the company; and managing outspoken employees, customers, and activist investors. This makes partnering closely with the CEO crucial for CCOs as well.

CMOs and CCOs Can Learn from Each Other Regarding Partnership with the CEO

February 24, 2025

The relationship between the CEO and both the chief marketing officer (CMO) and chief communications officer (CCO) is crucial for business success. While the CMO role is complex, its main objective is to drive topline growth, making the CMOs’ effective collaboration with the CEO a crucial priority—particularly given the increasing strategic importance of marketing to the CEO and board. The CCO, meanwhile, safeguards corporate reputation and helps seize business opportunities. Their role includes preempting and mitigating issues that could harm the company; and managing outspoken employees, customers, and activist investors. This makes partnering closely with the CEO crucial for CCOs as well.

Key Insights

Overall, both CMOs and CCOs characterize their relationship with the CEO as positive and productive, according to our CMO+CCO Meter survey in September/October 2024. However, the specific characteristics they highlight for each role and its relationship with the CEO are distinct. 

CMOs underscore the collaborative nature of their work with the CEO and describe it as a strategic partnership focused on business topics (Figure 1). Communications executives emphasize trust, aligning with their role as strategic advisors, which is another description they use to characterize their collaboration with the CEO (Figure 2).

 
Figure 1

Marketing executives highlight the collaborative character of their work with the CEO

Author

This publication is only available to Members. Please sign in to your myTCB® account to access it. To learn more about becoming a Member, click here. To check if your company is a Member, click here.

myTCB® Members get exclusive access to webcasts, publications, data and analysis, plus discounts to events.

More From This Series