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What Makes the World’s Best CMOs?

marketing strategyIt’s a question any CEO would want to answer: How can I find — or develop — the world’s best Chief Marketing Officer?

Forbes, in partnership with Srinklr and LinkedIn, sought to rank the world’s most in influential CMOs.What is now required?

According to the report: “The explosion of channels like social media is fundamentally changing the way customers interact with each other, and how they interact with brands. It’s a double-edged sword for marketers. On the one hand, there are unprecedented opportunities to reach, engage, and listen to customers at scale. On the other, it puts power rmly in the customers’ hands, making it much more di cult for marketers to shape and control the conversation.”

It continues: “Leading CMOs have to inject greater humanity into their brands. They must orchestrate better, more personalized experiences for their customers. They have to be the eyes and ears of their enterprise – and increasingly capable of responding to what they see and hear. They have to be curious. They have to be courageous. They have to be in uential in every sense of the word.”

A top CMO not only understands social media; he or she uses it regularly. As the report states:

“Many Top 50 CMOs have built their network incrementally over the course of successive leadership roles in multiple companies. Establish a potent following at one brand and your fans will likely follow when you advance to a broader role elsewhere. Along the way, savvy digital marketers leverage their personal social media followings in service of the brands they lead, sharing corporate messages and accomplishments across networks cultivated over numerous years and roles.”

“This phenomenon is most apparent on Twitter – where you will nd 45 out of 50 of our top in uencers – but can also be observed on LinkedIn, where all our CMOs save lone holdout Phil Schiller have a presence. The deep engagement our top CMO in uencers evoke on these platforms underscores the increasing relevance of social media within companies and among C-level executives.”

Other key stats:

“TOP CMOS ARE PERSONALLY INVESTED IN SOCIAL: 45 of our Top 50 are on Twitter and 49 are on LinkedIn. Our Top CMOs are also more active on social, with 2x as many LinkedIn connections, 2.5x as many Twitter followers, and 2x as many posts as the average big-brand CMO.”

“THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IN THE RIGHT INDUSTRY AT THE RIGHT TIME: The tech sector – technology, telecommunications, and internet companies – dominates the list, accounting for 40% of the Top 50. Financial services follows with 18% of the list.”

“TOP CMOS DRIVE CHANGE AT THEIR COMPANIES: From a video campaign driven by drones to a CMO who took on three rebranding projects in one year, CMOs win in uence with their willingness to dive in and shake things up.”

See the full Top 50 list here.