The title of a Chief Marketing Officer, or that of a CMO, is not just handed over to anyone with the bare minimum skills. The job of a CMO requires effective and enhanced communication skills, creative levels of thinking, marketing and media-related talents, and additional dedication and passion. This is exactly why a chief marketing officer is also known as a global marketing officer because besides being the corporate executive of an organisation, he/she has numerous other responsibilities that hold massive value.
With a severe face-off of competition in the market, becoming a successful CMO is not at all easy.
This article will provide insights into the following topics:
- World's Most Influential CMOs in 2020
- Powerful Lessons From The World's Most Influential CMOs
Here is a list of some of the world’s most influential CMOs that might inspire and help you out:
Phil Schiller - Former Senior Vice President of World Marketing at Apple; Current Apple fellow
Since the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in 1997, Philip. W. Schiller, or commonly known as Phil Schiller, has been a prominent and important personality at the company. He is mainly responsible for leading the App Store and Apple events and thanks to his amazing skills, he has handled the company’s marketing and management for 30 years now.
He has helped the company create one of the best computers all over the world, the one that just catches your eye the moment you see it, known as the Mac. He has also played quite a major role in the creation and development of iTunes and the iPod.
Phil very recently adopted the title of Apple Fellow in August 2020.
Stephanie McMahon - Chief Brand Officer of WWE
An incredibly famous wrestling professional, McMahon is also an American businesswoman who along with appearing as an on-screen influencing figure, also appears as an occasional wrestler on both the SmackDown as well as the Raw brands.
Coming from the McMahon family, a well-reputed and widely known family in the world of wrestling, Stephanie started working for WWE from quite a young age and gradually worked her way up to the position on which she is as of right now.
Due to her great on-screen presence, she has also appeared on many shows like The Howard Stern Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, etc.
Apart from winning numerous championships and accomplishing titles as a wrestler, she has also been awarded many other honours like the Most Powerful Women in Cable honouree by the Cable magazine which she won 4 times, the Henry Crown Fellow, the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award, and so many more.
Fernando Machado - Global Chief Marketing Officer at Restaurant Brands International
After working as the CMO of one of the most popular fast-food brands worldwide at Burger King, Machado has progressed to overseeing marketing and management at other international food brands such as Tim Horton’s and Popeye’s, earlier this year.
His creative style in advertising and a greatly apt sense of marketing at Burger King has earned him a giant leap of success in his life and career.
Machado recently interviewed for Forbes, giving 5 important lessons and tips related to marketing during the global pandemic going on.
Oliver François - Current President and CEO of Fiat brand; Chief Marketing Officer at FCA
Former CEO of Lancia Spa, Francois is also a member of the Group Executive Council at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). His integrity and hard-working and a creative attitude towards marketing and business-related activities have very righteously earned him the title of Chrysler’s Don Draper.
He has also been awarded many respectable titles including the title Grand Brand Genius by AdWeek, Marketer of the Year by AdAge, Most Influential CMO by Forbes and many more. Besides this, Francois has also been a part of several remarkable commercials and campaigns.
Julia Goldin - Global Chief Marketing Officer at Lego
Being the CMO of the company, Goldin is responsible for leading and managing the creation of the LEGO play experiences that attract, inspire, educate, and motivate the kids. She has an intensive talent when it comes to communication, marketing, creative production and developing the brand through content, for which she is acknowledged widely.
Goldin has also acted as global CMO at Revlon and has also held many senior as well as regional marketing roles at the Coca-Cola Company, with whom she worked for 13 years.
With the brand she is currently working with, Goldin has very generously announced the company’s $50 million donations to various children charities.
Ann Lewnes - Executive Vice President; Chief Marketing Officer at Adobe
Ann handles the work related to communications and marketing on an international basis, for one of the most well-reputed multinational computer software companies, named Adobe. Be it the company’s branding strategy or marketing campaigns, Lewnes’ creative and clever skills have always helped the company to stand out in some way or the other, by updating or installing new features, etc.
She even oversaw one of the biggest virtual campaigns named the “Honour Heroes”, and her passion for media and creativity are quite evidently reflected in numerous other marketing campaigns of the company.
She worked for 20 years with the Intel brand for about 20 years as a very prominent Vice President of Marketing before working with Adobe.
Lewnes has also achieved several titles and has been inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame.
Lorraine Twohill - Chief Marketing Officer at Google
An Irish marketer, Twohill works as the Chief Marketing Officer at one of the world’s most popular multinational technology companies specialising in internet-related services and products, Google.
Her holistic and creative approach towards media, team working tactics, and her broad vision towards the company help bring it further in the market.
Chris Capossela - Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft; Executive Vice President of Consumer Business
Capossela besides being the CMO of Microsoft is also a board member of the global non-profit organisation called Worldreader, that offers the population of that of a developing country free access to a library of digital books by means of mobile phones or e-readers. Besides, he is the Corporate Vice President of the Consumer Channels group of the company, and that of Microsoft Office’s marketing leadership group.
He also works as Bill Gate’s speech assistant.
The chief marketer wrote an essay around the month of April this year, on the lessons of the pandemic.
Conclusion
In order to become a greatly influential CMO, one also needs to have strong leadership qualities, the ability to lead fearlessly but with an accepting and humble attitude. Although the skills of planning and executing, communicating, and marketing are of utter importance, experience matters a lot too.
The title of that of a CMO does not come off easy at all, for even the world’s most influential and respectable CMOs did not start off with big. They started with small steps of immense hard work and passion and an unending sense of determination to reach where they are right now.
To get big, you have to dream big. And not just that, you need to have faith and belief in yourself before anybody else. That is crucial to anyone’s dreams and goals for if you don’t believe in yourself, then it is most likely for you to not reach your aim.
Co-author: Khushi Shah
Khushi has just passed her school and is now studying at PDPU. Apart from writing, she likes to sketch and dance. She also has other blogs where she posts proses and poetry.
