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Highlights
- CMO-CIO relationships are often not as effective as other C-suite relationships.
- However, a CMO-CIO partnership is critical to an organization’s success.
- To improve the CMO-CIO partnership, these two leaders need to align their departmental goals and build trust.
On this page
A strategic partnership
A CMO-CIO partnership can be an enabler of growth for an organization.
Chief marketing officers (CMOs) regularly collaborate with their C-level colleagues, whether that’s the CEO, the CFO, or COO. But there is another collaboration that can also drive growth, and it’s hiding in plain sight: the CMO-CIO partnership.
Let’s start with what CMOs and CIOs have in common. Both are strategic, influential executives. Both are held accountable for an organization’s growth and success. But the similarities end there. Their jobs are vastly different, and their business outcomes align with their business functions’ distinct operational performance metrics. For example, CMOs are measured by how well marketing campaigns are run, while CIOs are measured by how well technology implementations serve business needs.
The two functions (marketing and IT) have been on a collision course since the internet revolution of the early 2000s. While still led by creativity, marketing has become a digital discipline—one that requires technical intelligence and effective collaboration with IT.
However, effective partnerships between CMOs and CIOs remain a challenge. According to a study by the Institute for Real Growth (IRG), less than half (46%) of the CMOs said they had effective collaboration with their CIO counterparts. That’s much lower than CMOs’ relationships with other executives in the C-suite. You can read about that study and more in our joint report with the IRG, “The Future of Growth: Unlocking the CMO-CIO Partnership.”
Our research into the dynamics and business outcomes of CMO-CIO partnerships, conducted with the help of IRG and supplemented by a decade of our own insights, underscores the CMO-CIO partnership’s significance. High-performing partnerships enjoy higher growth than their Fortune 500 counterparts, and the best have a marketing return on investment (MROI) in the top performance tier, according to independent benchmarks. The reverse is also true—dysfunctional partnerships between CMOs and CIOs strongly correlate with flat growth and poor performance.
A desirable reality
The roles of CMOs and CIOs are quite different.
Marketing focuses on end customers’ relationships and experiences with the brand, making it an outward-facing function that attempts to shape external perceptions and sales. IT is effectively an inward-facing function that must meet the core needs of the organization, protect the organization, and maintain continuity of operations.
The reality is that marketers must rely on their IT counterparts now more than ever. The continual pursuit of better customer engagement, the increase of stringent data privacy regulations, and the adoption of martech solutions accelerated by AI and generative AI (GenAI) have made marketing and tech convergence one of the most important topics for C-level executives across industries and geographies.
The power of partnership between a CMO and a CIO is an objective, quantifiable, and desirable reality. To get there, organizations will need to dismantle the barriers that stand in the way and embody the characteristics of good partnerships.
Our joint research with IRG confirms that the day-to-day collaboration between CMOs and CIOs is challenged by infrequent communication, siloed teams, resource and budget limitations, internal resistance to change, and a lack of respect and trust, among others.
A new model
Deliberately partnering to align goals and achieve common objectives, with an emphasis on immediate feedback, is a first step that CMOs and CIOs can take.
And it can lead to more growth and long-term efficiency for an organization. CMO-CIO partnerships can best create growth by following a three-stage process:
- Strategic collaboration: While both leaders will do their specific jobs, they must jointly decide on budgets, staffing, and discrete measurements such as KPIs to determine results.
- Continuous transformation: Execute disciplined change management processes for staffing, goals, reporting, and budgeting by creating the internal changes required to influence customers and others outside the company. This must be an ongoing practice that prioritizes collaborative and creative problem solving.
- Combined operations: Work and operate together on a regular basis. This should incorporate lessons learned, socializing, and expanding the process across the organization. Be sure to include leadership and associates at all levels.
A trusted partner
For some organizations, strengthening the CMO-CIO partnership might be straightforward.
But for most, it can be overwhelming. Like any change management initiative, a trusted third party can serve as an expert advisor and objective partner.
That partner needs to have knowledge about both the CMO and CIO roles and should be able to serve as a translator to bridge the domain gaps between the two functions these leaders oversee. The partner also should have proven, evidenced-based methodologies and enough staff and technical resources to meet an organization’s needs.
It’s also important for the partner to understand an organization’s existing systems and what change might look. One way to measure how well a partner can do that? Ask about the transformations they’ve been involved in and how they defined practical plans and delivered them.
When a partner regularly engages with CMOs to help organizations build their brand, create customer value, and drive growth, and also have expertise in your businesses and systems, that partner is in a unique position to help elevate the CMO-CIO partnership.
