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One CMO or several? The case for splitting the role

For years the chief marketing officer has been one person with one brief: own the brand and drive growth. Two announcements this week suggest some organisations now think the job is too big, or too varied, for a single leader.

Commonwealth Bank has replaced its group CMO with three CMOs. OpenAI has created a separate CMO role for its business customers. Here is what each has done, and what marketing leaders can take from it.

Commonwealth Bank: three CMOs and an in-house agency

Following the announced departure of group CMO Jo Boundy, Commonwealth Bank has introduced a new marketing leadership model with four senior internal appointments:

Di Everett, CMO Brand and Olympics, overseeing brand strategy and major partnerships, including Football Australia and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Katreena Tyson, CMO Business and Institutional Banking, covering marketing from small businesses to large corporate and institutional clients.
James Peereboom, CMO Retail Banking, leading marketing across everyday banking, home ownership and personal financial services.
Pat Crowley, Managing Director of CBAgency, the bank's in-house agency, which will expand to bring together creative, media, campaign planning and delivery, content and social media.

All four are internal promotions, report to Group Executive Marketing and Corporate Affairs Monique Macleod, and start in November.

OpenAI: a CMO for business

OpenAI has appointed Colin Fleming as CMO, Business, a new title focused on its enterprise push, according to Adweek. Fleming spent 13 years at Salesforce, finishing as EVP of global marketing, and two years as CMO of ServiceNow. The structure splits OpenAI's marketing into two roles, one for consumer and one for business.

What marketing leaders can learn

CBA has designed its structure around customer groups, with a dedicated brand role and a shared in-house agency to keep creative and media in one place. That gives a useful model for anyone weighing the same decision.

Before splitting the role, it is worth asking:

Who owns the brand as a whole? CBA has a CMO for brand and a group executive above all four leaders. Someone must hold that line.
How will priorities be agreed? Several CMOs will compete for budget and attention. Decide in advance how that is settled.
What stays shared? A common agency, data or planning process can stop a split structure drifting apart.

Inspired's take

Splitting the CMO role can bring marketing closer to each customer group, and for large organisations with very different audiences that may be the right call. But it only works if someone still owns the overall brand and the leaders have a clear way to agree priorities. A structure cannot fix a brand problem. Settle the story first, then design the team around it.

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