Chief marketing officers and CEOs may be misaligned. Could a field trip to a ‘festival of creativity’ bring them closer together?

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

A new McKinsey & Co. study finds that CEOs and their chief marketing officers (CMOs) are becoming increasingly disconnected, and the gap between CEOs’ and CMOs’ perceptions of the marketing function appears to be widening: Nearly two-thirds of chief executives say they are comfortable with modern marketing, up from just half in 2023; meanwhile, only 31% of CMOs believe their CEOs are comfortable in the marketing world, down from four points from a year earlier.

That may be part of the reason CMOs and other creative leaders I met at Cannes Lions last week suggested that chief executives consider spending some time at the annual festival of creativity.

To be sure, most marketing executives aren’t suggesting CEOs come to Cannes Lions for a deep dive into marketing tactics and metrics. Rather, they feel corporate leaders would benefit from being immersed in an environment that celebrates and inspires groundbreaking multimedia work and its creators.

A creativity immersion experience

“I would love to bring CEOs to the basement of the Palais so they could see the work and draw inspiration from that,” says Valerie Vargas, senior vice president, content creation and advertising, AT&T, referring to the conference center where Cannes Lions winning entries are exhibited. Vargas also recommends that someone from the head of advertising or marketing hand-pick a series of talks for the CEO to attend, sparking ideas and new ways of thinking about problem-solving. Finally, she suggests the marketing team organize a dinner for the CEO and their agency creative team—people who usually don’t get to meet with the company’s top executives.

Others believe a trip to Cannes could help CEOs understand the role that creativity will play as companies adopt generative AI tools and other technologies to increase productivity—making it harder for many companies to boast an operational or information technology edge. “We’re moving to a world where creativity is the single most important differentiator among brands,” says Zach Kitschke, global chief marketing officer of Canva, the design software company.

David Droga, vice chair of Accenture (and most recently CEO of Accenture Song), goes one step further: “Creativity is going to drive the outcomes of AI,” he says. “That’s what creativity has done every time it has been infused into a new technology.” He cites the example of modern photography, a technology that was invented and advanced by chemists and scientists but flourished and took on new energy in the hands of artists and other creatives.

Marisa Thalberg, executive vice president and chief customer and marketing officer for retailer Catalyst Brands, contends that Cannes may not be right for every CEO but says it’s important for chief executives to understand the value for attendants. “For me, Cannes is a uniquely valuable few days, not only for the creative and business inspiration but for the concentrated opportunity for learning, connections, and idea generation,” says Thalberg. “I can make more happen in a few days that would otherwise take weeks . . . or never happen at all.”

Can Cannes bring CEOs and marketers together?

CEOs, are you disconnected from your marketers? Marketers, what don’t your chief executives understand about your role? Send your thoughts to me at [email protected], and I’ll try to work the answers into my newsletters.

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