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According to leading marketers presenting at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity today (19 June), in order to be seated at the top table, marketers must demonstrate their ability to support the entire success and expansion of their company.

Former Burger King CMO and current NotCo CMO Fernando Machado remarked, “I see myself as the right hand arm of the CEO.” “I participate in ESG [environmental, social, and governance], diversity and inclusion, recruitment, culture—all those things that marketers may not have participated in earlier. We would have been more tightly confined to the marketing division in the past.

Although he maintains that the fundamentals of marketing are unchanged and that CMOs must master the fundamentals before they can advance to this position, he asserted that since joining Unilever in 1996, there has been “a big shift” in the job of the CMO.

He said that “the CMOs I know and admire are also doing that” as a result, and he claimed to have sought to change his leadership style. They go above and beyond the 4Ps and develop into a stronger fighting force for the business. He thinks that marketers need to put themselves in a situation where they can learn new things all the time.

“Things won’t turn out so well,” he continued, “if the CFO is constantly the CEO’s right arm. You must be a part of that mix, and if the business has a marketing strategy, that will automatically happen.

He said that “the CMOs I know and admire are also doing that” as a result, and he claimed to have sought to change his leadership style. They go above and beyond the 4Ps and develop into a stronger fighting force for the business. He thinks that marketers need to put themselves in a situation where they can learn new things all the time.

“Calling it CMO – fine. It’s what you do with it. It’s how you shape the CMO.”

Mark Kirkham, PepsiCo

Mark Kirkham, CMO for worldwide beverages at PepsiCo, concurred that marketers must “fight to have a seat at the table.” Furthermore, he asserted that despite disagreement over whether the title of chief marketing officer (“CMO”) is still appropriate for the top marketer in an organisation, it “should be protected” because, in the words of the CMO, “ultimately, our job” is to ensure that the consumer is present in every conversation. However, he added that the role has “evolved” at the same time.

“Call it CMO, that’s OK. What you do with it matters. How you design the CMO matters. I’ll probably get in trouble for saying it, but Jane [Wakely, PepsiCo’s chief consumer and marketing officer], jokes that she ought to be the chief grin officer.

“A CMO is a GM [general manager] who understands a hell of a lot about marketing, which gets back to that growth attitude, I believe Raja [Rajamannar, Mastercard CMO], remarked a few years ago. In the end, I believe we do need marketers at the highest levels in organisations. You need to clarify what the CMO performs and what impact they have. We should be battling for a place at the table.

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