The Evolving Role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in Sports

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research which investigates the role and impact of the chief marketing officer (CMO) (Sharma et al., 2022). Industry research has clearly identified the role that ‘marketing’ has as the ‘engine’ of business growth providing data-driven insights about customers. As such, the individual tasked with combining strategic, tactical, and operational oversight of marketing is a crucial role. The CMO who can develop, maintain, and grow an organizations’ profitability and sustainability is a key component of any top management team. The irony here is that despite the perceived importance of the CMO role, many businesses appear to be unconvinced of the strategic benefits of having a CMO in their c-suite. Indeed, according to SpencerStuart (2024), the average tenure of Fortune 500 CMOs in 2023 was 4.2 years (compared to the average of 4.6 years for all c-suite functional leaders). The high turnover of CMOs within the business hierarchy may be in part due to a failure to demonstrate (a) an understanding of the emotional intensity of fan loyalty (tribal) and club brand perception and (b) how they in fact make a difference to the ‘bottom line’ of the business. Accordingly, the problems of running a sporting business are much like those found in any other business. To Syzmanski and Kuypers (1999), clubs are like any other commercial enterprise, that is, they must generate revenues by selling their product to the paying customers; engage in advertising, marketing, and promotion, and invest in facilities which enable them to distribute and sell their product in the ‘right’ environment (Syzmanski & Kuypers, 1999). Smith and Stewart (2022) raise an interesting paradox here for the CMO, whose focus is upon bolstering the commercial success of their club brand but simultaneously acknowledging a tension between their club as a business and their club as a social institution. In this uneasy balance, CMOs (and their fellow executives) are faced with the challenge of extracting commercial value from their club brand without compromising the intrinsic ‘integrity’ and persona of the club. The pressure that CMOs will receive from club ownership is that they will see ‘marketing’ as a critical element of club commercial success that will ultimately then enable support of ‘on-pitch’ ambitions.