A. Guttmann
Research Lead covering media
The role of chief marketing officers (CMOs) in the United States – statistics & facts
The CMO is dead. Long live the CMO. When Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, and Uber ditched the role of global chief marketing officer in 2019, it was a record scratch. More recently, similar moves sound like an orchestra. AB InBev – albeit in the United States only –, Starbucks, Etsy, UPS: Some of the largest corporations operating in the U.S. saw the position as redundant, scrapped it, and redistributed its tasks across the rest of the C-suite. However, not always for good. McDonald's famously reinstituted the position less than a year after removing it, hoping to boost sales during and after the pandemic. A year earlier, Coca-Cola brought back the global CMO role after a two-year hiatus. Other companies changed the job title with the ambition of expanding its capabilities. In 2024, Innocent – a juice brand run by Coca-Cola – altered it to "director for marketing and innovation."
