By Seth Matlins, Managing Director, Forbes CMO Network
While those looking for statistical relevance in a universe of only 50 will be disappointed, there are still some insights and facts—perhaps factoids—to be gleaned from the 2024 Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs list. Let’s consider the numbers in two buckets:
1. The CMOs
2. The companies they steward
The CMOs
The 50 CMOs recognized on this year’s list:
- 14 of the 50 are making their first appearance on this year’s, the 12th annual, Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs list.
- 29 of the marketing leaders who were on the 2023 list, are on this year’s as well. Turnover year-over-year results from various factors, including retirements, new positions, and scoring differentials.
- There were three CMOs eligible for induction into this year’s Forbes CMO Hall of Fame class. Two, Andrea Brimmer and Dara Treseder, both of whom would have appeared on the Most Influential’s list a fifth time, become the 20th and 21st CMOs inducted.
- This year’s list includes five CMOs from companies that are not publicly traded and, until last year, were not eligible for consideration. They are the marketing leaders from (alphabetically) Canva, IKEA, the National Football League, NBA, and New Balance.
- In 2024, on average, the CMOs recognized received four times more media mentions when compared to the universe of eligible CMOs.
- On average, the CMOs recognized appeared in high-profile media outlets almost three times as often as all other eligible CMOs.
- The media coverage of these 50 CMOs had positive sentiment scores that were 150% higher on average than the scores of other eligible CMOs.
- As Sprinklr’s report shows in greater depth, the data inputs and variables span 5 dimensions of influence: 1) CMO attention, sentiment, and salience; 2) CMO’s community visibility; 3) brand attention, sentiment, and salience; 4) campaign attention and salience; and 5) financial performance.
- While some highly influential CMOs steward brands attracting significant online attention, CMO and brand visibility do not move in lockstep. An influential CMO can drive significant attention for their brand(s) without garnering comparable levels of attention for their own social media presence; and some of the 50 CMOs recognized are able to command significant attention, again the table stakes of influence, while leading brands with smaller followings. Both types of CMO appear on this year’s list, but those CMOs who appear higher in the rankings are—typically—those who appear frequently in online coverage and conversations.
The Companies They Steward
Among conglomerates and even within categories, assigning a category to an individual company/brand can be challenging. As an example, while Ferrari is an automotive company, it’s also a luxury brand. The companies whose brands and businesses are stewarded by the CMOs recognized this year include:
- The world’s most valuable company by market cap (Apple, as of the close of markets on June 13th.)
- The world’s largest company (JP Morgan Chase), as identified in The Forbes Global 2000.
- The world’s largest retailer (Walmart) and the largest U.S. company based on revenues (also Walmart)
- The most valuable luxury and spirits company (LVMH)
- The world’s number one brewer (AB InBev)
- The world’s largest restaurant business (McDonald’s)
- China’s number one e-commerce company (Alibaba Group)
- The 1st (Netflix), and 2nd (Disney), largest media companies in the world, based on market capitalization, as of the time of this writing.
- All of the 50 CMOs recognized represent global/multi-national brands and businesses. This is the first year that has been the case.
- For the first time in many years, only 4 automotive companies are represented, a decline from 7 in 2022 and 5 last year. Also of note, for the first time, all of the automotive companies represented are luxury marques (alphabetically: Audi, Ferrari, Jaguar LandRover, and Porsche.)
As of the close of markets on June 7, 2024, the combined market cap of the 41 discrete and publicly traded companies represented on the list for whom data is available (i.e., neither private like Canva or New Balance nor, as Cartier or Taco Bell, for example, bundled into a holding company) is $10.58 trillion USD, reflecting an increase of nearly 15 percent versus the 2023 list.
- The average market cap across the 41 companies is $258 billion USD, an increase of 30 billion USD versus the prior year.
- Amongst those companies represented, Apple has the largest valuation at $3.02 trillion USD, and along with Meta, the other trillion dollar company ($1,250T USD) represents 40 percent of the total.
- Crocs is the smallest of the publicly traded companies, with a market cap of $8.92 billion USD, as of the close of markets on June 7th.
- Aggregated and reported estimates for the 9 privately or portfolio held companies add an additional $334 billion (USD) in valuation to the total. Of these, the NFL represents nearly half, with estimates of the league’s valuation at $142 billion (USD).
As for employees, on a combined basis, the 50 companies represented:
- Employ nearly 9 million people in over 150 countries around the world. This reflects roughly a 25 percent decrease versus the 2023 list and a 15 percent increase versus the 2022 list.
- Walmart is the largest employer, employing 2.1 million people, representing almost 25% of the total.
- Based on reported data, the privately held NFL employs the fewest among the 50 companies represented, with some 1,000 employees.
- In total, the companies represented by these 50 marketing leaders have been in business for a combined 3703 years, reflecting an average of almost 75 years.
- DoorDash, founded in 2013, is the youngest company represented on the 2024 list.
- The oldest individual brand to be found inside the companies on this year’s list is Stella Artois. Now part of AB InBev, the Belgian brewery was founded in 1366.
Geographically, the 50 companies represented are headquartered in 11 different countries around the world.
- 30 are U.S.-based, an increase of 4% versus the prior year. Of the 20 others, 14 are headquartered in countries across the E.U. which, together with the U.S., accounts for 88% of the total.
- Within the E.U., France and Germany headquarter the most represented companies, with 5 each. Headquarters representation across other countries breaks out as follows:
- United Kingdom: 3
- Australia: 1
- Belgium: 1
- China: 1
- India: 1
- Ireland: 1
- Italy: 1
- Netherlands: 1
You can read more about the methodology behind this year’s list and list-makers here.
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