Is your marketing function stuck in the “back seat” of the C-suite? In an era when every company faces a growth imperative, the CMO’s responsibilities are finally poised for a definitive comeback. McKinsey’s pivotal study, “The CMO’s comeback: Aligning the C-suite to drive customer-centric growth,” reveals that the path forward isn’t just about better campaigns; it’s about a complete mindshift. The authors find that the modern CMO must transition from being an advertising expert to a general manager, maniacally focused on the profit and loss (P&L) and speaking the language of the CFO.
We interviewed study authors Robert Tas and Kelsey Robinson, who share how to prove marketing’s incremental value and secure the CMO’s position as the most vital driver of customer-centric growth.
Q: What was the inspiration behind this study’s focus on CMOs, and can you share a specific real-world scenario that made you realize this topic was so critical?
Robert Tas: The inspiration came from a group of Fortune 20 CMOs commiserating about their boards and CEOs not fully understanding marketing’s value, which led us to dig into the CEO-CMO gap. Personally, as a former operator, I’ve sat in that chair and received the call from the CFO to “cut the budget a little bit,” seeing marketing treated as a variable expense and the first on the chopping block. We set out to find a better way to connect marketing activities to business impact.
The comeback is about marketing resuming its rightful position as the growth engine for the company.
Kelsey Robinson: We repeatedly saw two scenarios. The first was a CMO who could show strong results by demonstrating brand awareness is up, web traffic is strong, I feel good about the return on my marketing dollar — only for the CEO to say, “The P&L isn’t where it needs to be. Do more.” This led to a scrutiny on the CMO that seemed disproportionate, especially when other factors like product, go-to-market, and sales were less measurable. The second scenario was the pressure to cut working media budgets, which we believe are really investments for growth. Leadership teams need conviction in a through-cycle mindset that avoids this downward spiral.
Q: You’ve titled this piece “The CMO’s comeback.” What exactly are CMOs coming back from? Can you describe the “back seat” and what factors led to this shift?
Robinson: The comeback is about marketing resuming its rightful position as the growth engine for the company. The “back seat” is a result of several factors. First, the role has experienced fragmentation at the executive level. The CMO was classically the single steward of the customer, but now we see chief revenue officers, chief commercial officers, and chief digital officers, meaning no single person at the C-level is truly responsible for the customer, period. This has led to the CMO role being played down and sometimes layered.
Tas: The marketing world has evolved at light speed, creating so many metrics and KPIs that it has caused confusion and relegated some CMOs to being viewed as just advertising. CEOs have missed the boat that a CMO with a real seat at the table can be a significant growth lever. The best CMOs are rising to the occasion as strategic thought partners who reimagine and transform the business.
Only 50% of CMOs are involved in strategic decision-making, but when they are, those companies are growing 1.4X faster.
Q: The study proposes that a CMO in a well-run company should be the “primary custodian of the customer.” What does this entail in practice, and what are the key differences between being a custodian and simply being a head of marketing?
Tas: Being the custodian of the customer means the CMO must be maniacally data curious and constantly looking to understand how the customer interacts with the brand in any way possible, in many cases, even being a data creator to build first-party data sets. They should be the most knowledgeable customer insights person in the entire company, translating those insights across the organization so every function is aligned. The shift to a custodian means they are the integrator at the C-suite table, helping to guide the entire enterprise to serve the customer’s needs.
Robinson: The data is clear: When companies enable the CMO to truly be the custodian of the customer, they see better growth. Only 50% of CMOs are involved in strategic decision-making, but when they are, those companies are growing 1.4X faster.
Q: Your research reveals a significant disconnect between CEOs and CMOs on how to measure marketing’s impact. Why do CMOs tend to focus on different metrics, and what can be done to bridge this gap?
Robinson: The disconnect is staggering. When asked about measuring marketing’s impact, 70% of CEOs cited year-on-year revenue and/or margin as top accountability metrics. However, only 35% of CMOs from those same companies had those metrics on their list. They are simply not on the same page. Bridging the gap requires education. CMOs need to take the time to explain the methodologies, like what we mean when we say “incremental ROI” or “investing to the marginal curve,” because the vast majority of leaders around the table did not grow up learning about marketing attribution and incrementality.
When asked about measuring marketing’s impact, 70% of CEOs cited year-on-year revenue and margin as a top accountability metric.
Tas: CMOs must take three fundamental steps. First, partner with the CFO. They should be the CMO’s BFF. They must jointly create a measurement framework and measurement ecosystem that is right for the business, showing the impact of marketing to the business’s growth strategies. This removes the “black box mystique.” Second, be consistent: Have a consistent set of metrics that everyone is aligned to and do not keep changing them. Switching measurement vendors because a new tool might be a little better can confuse the C-suite and destroy credibility. Third, Test robustly. Have major holdout tests to prove that if you turn off a marketing activity, something bad happens, and quantify the impact. This scrutiny is necessary to show that marketing spend is a true investment.
Q: One of the study’s key takeaways is that CMOs should adopt a “general manager mindset.” What specific behaviors or actions differentiate a general-manager CMO from a traditional marketing expert?
Robinson: The general manager mindset means you wake up every morning thinking about how what you and your team are doing ladders up to business impact. It’s more than communication; it’s a fundamental performance orientation.
Tas: The traditional marketing expert often focuses on brand metrics, but not one CEO said brand metrics matter unless they show revenue movement. A general manager CMO must speak the business language and be a business leader. Stop talking about brand versus. performance marketing and instead talk about marketing moving the business using the necessary tools. Be the ultimate customer insights engine. They must use tools like gen AI to reimagine the customer experience, understand how customers are changing their habits, and bring that knowledge to the C-suite. A final, crucial behavior is stopping things that don’t work. We need to be diligent with these dollars and build trust by saying, “Hey, I couldn’t spend the money because it wasn’t working, and here it is back.”
Q: How can CMOs move the CFO’s perception of marketing from a cost center to a strategic investment?
Tas: The most tangible first step is to collaboratively cocreate the measurement framework with the CFO. This builds immediate trust and credibility. The focus must be on incremental revenue; that is the standard we must hold ourselves to. You must show how your spending is driving impact to the business and helping the sales team, while simultaneously bringing in the right customers for growth.
Every company faces a growth imperative right now, and marketing should be your growth engine.
Robinson: One best-in-class CMO literally spent five months getting complete buy-in at a granular level on the metrics and methodologies, business line by business line, presenting a schematic that included metrics they could measure, those they were estimating, and clarity on where measurement methodologies weren’t mature yet. This extreme rigor and intentional focus on alignment, combined with education, was incredibly powerful.
Q: What is the main message from this research, and is it only for CMOs?
Robinson: The main message is for the trio of the CEO, CFO, and CMO. Every company faces a growth imperative right now, and marketing should be your growth engine. But when everyone is responsible for the customer, no one truly is. The trio must refocus, get on the same page, and figure out how to unlock marketing as that growth engine.
Tas: We have such an amazing opportunity now with generative AI and that, at the end of the day, the CMO should be the most knowledgeable customer insights person in the entire company. You have to demonstrate how marketing activities are driving business outcomes. When the C-suite and CMO are clearly connected and aligned on the definition of success, the companies are twice as better than their peer sets. The message is simple: The CMO needs to be a general manager that can demonstrate how marketing activities are driving business outcomes.
