In an increasingly challenging corporate terrain, the CMO role is splintering into several new "species" of marketing leaders, according to a new Confessions of A CMO report by Worldwide Partners. While some critics proclaim the “death of the CMO,” the report found that CMOs today remain adaptive leaders despite mounting pressure from finance, tech, and shrinking tenures.
The report is based on 30 anonymised, candid interviews with CMOs and senior marketing leaders globally, which were run as open “confessional” conversations rather than formal surveys. Conducted from May to September 2025, it aims to find out the informal behaviours and adaptations that help CMOs remain influential.
These CMOs’ backgrounds spanned 14 industries, such as FMCG, retail, and tech, and hailed from five regions, including APAC. Participants were evenly split between men and women.
“The most valuable conversations in marketing happen off the record—between peers, without press or pretence. That’s where candour lives,” said John Harris, CEO of Worldwide Partners. “This project was born from a simple belief: no one needs another study about ‘what keeps CMOs up at night.’ We need to listen to what CMOs say to each other when they can speak freely. Together, we’re not just studying evolution. We’re taking part in it.”
Despite the growing scrutiny over marketing leadership, with some companies folding the remit into broader titles or even removing CMOs from the C-suite altogether, the report found that CMOs are being embedded across functions.
“For too long, we’ve been reading the obituary of the CMO,” said John Harris, CEO of Worldwide Partners. “But our research shows that the species isn’t extinct, it’s mutating. CMOs aren’t disappearing; they’re adapting into new forms of leadership built for turbulence, change, and complexity. This report is their field guide, and a study of evolution, adaptation, and the future of marketing leadership.”
The report made a case for the effectiveness of the CMO role basis a McKinsey analysis, which found that CMOs achieve 1.4x higher revenue when leading on customer-centric growth. Meanwhile, when the role is fully embedded into the leadership team, growth doubles.
“You want a CMO in cufflinks? You’re hiring the wrong guy. If your marketing leader looks like your banker, you’ve got a problem. Just like if your CFO walks in wearing jeans and a hoodie, call security,” confessed one anonymous CMO.
The report categorises these leaders into distinct “species” of modern CMOs.
One is 'chief mutiny officer,' the charismatic disruptor type—someone who survives through smart insubordination and weaponises cultural insight to deliver controlled shock, often through deliberately provocative campaigns. Its counterpoint, the 'chief missing officer,' works in the opposite direction: embedding brand and customer agendas into safer corporate priorities such as sales enablement or workforce upskilling, so marketing moves forward disguised as someone else’s business strategy.
The second cluster of “species” focuses on the emotional climate and narrative coherence. Specifically, the 'chief mood officer' uses tone and humour to keep tense rooms from fracturing while turning hostility into forward motion. The report noted that their survival advantage is “emotional thermoregulation” by absorbing, redirecting, and equalising tension. Similarly, the 'chief meaning officer' acts as a pollinator across siloes, condensing tech, complex data, and financial imperatives into simple stories that connect different functions to a shared sense of purpose.
There are also several emerging “species,” including the 'chief momentum officer,' who makes inaction appear more dangerous than experimentation, and the 'chief moments officer' that is characterised by CMOs who seize brief windows when risk-averse boards are open to bold moves. The 'chief mosaic officer' rounds out these archetypes, connecting fragmented teams and platforms to build a coherent operating “habitat” out of scattered initiatives.
Sydney-based agency and Worldwide Partners member, Five by Five Global, helped recruit CMOs to take part in the survey.
“Confessions of a CMO reveals how today’s marketing leaders are evolving to thrive under pressure. Through anonymous interviews with CMOs worldwide, the report uncovers a new taxonomy of agile specialists redefining leadership, creativity, and influence,” said Five by Five Global's managing director Mark Anderson.
Key takeaways for CMOs:
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Share ownership to protect ideas. Build with peers and sacrifice personal credit to help creative ideas thrive in politically volatile environments.
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Lead with steadiness and restraint in CFO-heavy rooms. Use data to make bold ideas appear more responsible than disruptive.
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Translate and share toolsets. Reframe marketing in the native languages of sales, finance, product, HR.
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Trade speed for pacing and pilots. Redefine risk so stagnation looks more reckless than moving forward.
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Treat timing as a weapon. Wait for windows for decisive moves that turn spikes of attention or openness into lasting shifts.
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Design for diffusion. Treat internal influence like a multi-channel campaign and build journeys.
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What looks like the decline of the CMO is actually “adaptive radiation." CMOs evolving into multiple specialised forms suggest a similar adaptation for the entire C‑suite.
