How is the CMO role evolving beyond marketing?

Joshua Spanier

Vice President · Google

Driving overall business growth

Joshua Spanier says CMOs must own the growth conversation for the business across everything they do, leading far beyond making marketing campaigns, because otherwise marketing gets relegated and business units take the work themselves.

The answer starts at 13:42.

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Marc S. Pritchard

Chief Brand Officer · Procter & Gamble

Driving growth and profit

Marc S. Pritchard says CMOs are becoming more responsible for actual growth and profit, describing that as part of how the role is evolving.

The answer starts at 22:45.

Jessica Apotheker

Managing Director & Senior Partner · Boston Consulting Group (Bcg)

Orchestration, art, science

Jessica Apotheker says she conceptualizes what marketers do in three buckets — orchestration, art and science — where orchestration links with the business, portfolio management and planning, art is the storytelling, and science covers analytics, insights and media activation.

The answer starts at 6:12.

Karen Spaeth Dvorak

Chief Marketing Officer · Starkey Hearing

Capability enhancers

Karen Spaeth Dvorak says CMOs are shifting from campaign runners to kind of capability enhancers, as they are stretched by AI and the need to move at the speed of AI, interest and what stops the scroll.

The answer starts at 40:56.

Rustom Dastoor

Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing and Communications for the Americas · Mastercard

Becoming an intelligence function

Rustom Dastoor says marketing can become an intelligence function rather than just a creative one, because it has close proximity to consumers and can use data and AI to influence product development and pricing.

The answer starts at 19:56.

Marvin Chow

VP of Consumer and AI Marketing · Google

Providing judgment

Marvin Chow says marketing leaders will still be needed to provide taste, judgment, and conviction in deciding what a brand or campaign should do, which he says has always been true regardless of technology.

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Khurrum Malik

VP of Business & Product Marketing · Walmart Connect

Impacting the balance sheet

Khurrum Malik says CMOs have an opportunity to impact the balance sheet and income statement if they can figure out which partners drive lifetime value for them.

Rachel Thornton

CMO, Enterprise · Adobe

Leveraging AI agents

Rachel Thornton says CMOs are asking how to use generative AI and agentic workflows to scale content, build campaigns, respond faster to customer signals and amplify their teams, while also treating agents as a new audience.