New Study Reveals Decline in CMO Tenure, Decreased Use of the Title

What’s happening 

The Representation And Tenure Of Fortune 500 CMOs In 2025 suggests that the uncertain state of the economy is part of the problem – marketing budgets are often the first to be cut – as well as the ever-changing nature of the job.

“The remit of the modern CMO has become a moving target – stretched between brand and demand, product and pipeline, digital and physical,” says Ian Bruce, VP, principal analyst at Forrester, in a blog post.

“In many companies, these priorities are being fractured among numerous executive leadership roles,” he observes.

Takeaways 

• The average CMO tenure has dipped from 4.1 years to 3.9 years over the past 12 months.
• Those in healthcare last longer (4.3 years) than those in energy or mining (3.2 years).
• CMOs are less likely to be at the top table: 58% of Fortune 500 companies employ a marketing executive who sits in the C-suite or reports directly to the CEO, down from 63% in 2024.
• Among Fortune 500 companies, just 49% of top marketers have the “chief marketing officer” tag, down from 55% last year; new job titles include chief revenue officer or chief commercial officer.

Why the CMO matters

Changes in CMO tenure and nomenclature have been a feature of the past 20 years as the marketing role has evolved to meet the challenges posed by digital and new platforms. A decade ago CMOs described their jobs as “relentless” even as they could envisage a remit that extended beyond the pure marketing function to strategy and business performance.

The fracturing of priorities observed in the Forrester blog can lead to fragmented accountability and a focus on short-term revenue objectives, before the need for a more strategic overview is reinstated at some point in the future, that’s under the guise of a chief marketing officer or some other title.