Dive Brief:
- CMOs are better demonstrating marketing’s value to company leadership, but the role is getting saddled with steeper workloads in 2026 while confidence in resources remains a mixed bag, according to a new survey from The Conference Board.
- More than two-thirds, or 67%, of CMOs reported that their CEO’s assessment of marketing’s impact on business has grown, up from 55% who said the same in June 2025 survey data. However, the number of CMOs who see an impact from their team declined three percentage points, to 74%.
- Half of CMOs are confident in budgetary resources, a 10 percentage-point jump, but sentiment worsened around team support, where 42% felt well-equipped compared to 52% in June. Overall job satisfaction for the role has remained relatively stable but concerns around recognition are mounting in an uncertain industry environment.
Dive Insight:
CMOs are doing a better job of showing how marketing drives business performance to top brass, but these improvements come at the cost of juggling more tasks, per The Conference Board. Artificial intelligence-related disruption, higher expectations and external market conditions are all factoring into the growing workload challenge for both marketing chiefs and chief communications officers, who were also assessed in the report.
Contrasting with other analyses of CMO resources, The Conference Board identified improved feelings around budgets versus June of last year, with 50% of marketers satisfied that their allocations are enough to meet 2026’s challenges. On the other hand, the share of CMOs who are confident they are well-equipped by their teams plunged 10 percentage points in less than a year. At the same time, 51% of CMOs are satisfied with their workload, down six percentage points. These findings do not dispel the notion that CMOs are being asked to do more with less, an issue that has been amplified in the AI era.
That said, 79% of surveyed CMOs are either happy or very happy with their roles, with no meaningful change compared to The Conference Board’s June data. The belief that CEOs are appreciating marketing’s value more is in tension with broader CMO concerns around recognition. Fifty-seven percent of CMOs said they are satisfied by their level of recognition, down significantly from 70% in March of 2025, when sentiment peaked.
The Conference Board’s latest biannual CMO+CCO Meter was conducted in February and polled 67 CMOs and 100 communications chiefs for its findings. CCOs were notably worse off, with 34% satisfied with their workload, a 20 percentage-point spiral from last June. Fewer CCOs also believe CEOs are seeing the benefits of their communications teams at 54% versus 65% in the prior period.
These insights arrive as marketers are again contending with deep global uncertainty that could affect factors like budget allocations in the future. The Iran war, for example, could have a significant impact on ad-spending priorities, and marketing teams tend to be among the first to experience cuts in an economic downturn. If the Middle East conflict is not resolved quickly, up to $49.9 billion could be shaved off of global ad growth in 2026, according to recent estimates.
