Forbes Ranks World’s Most Influential CMOs, Featuring Preeminent Chief Marketing Officers Who Are Challenging the Status Quo to Create Lasting Impact

Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John Tops 2021 Ranking

#MostInfluentialCMOs

NEW YORK – September 29, 2021 – Chief Marketing Officers at the world’s largest technology, entertainment and fitness companies are among the executives that dominate Forbes’ 2021 ranking of The World’s Most Influential CMOs. Developed with research partner Sprinklr and data from LinkedIn, the ninth-annual World’s Most Influential CMOs list for 2021 provides a comprehensive look at the top 50 marketing leaders who are challenging the status quo, creating a lasting impact within business and culture, and disrupting their respective industries.

At the top of this year’s list is Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John, who took the helm of Netflix’s marketing department last year following her leadership roles at powerhouse brands including Endeavor, Apple and Uber. Saint John is followed by Stephanie McMahon, Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer at WWE; Dara Johnson Treseder at Peloton, who climbed 20 spots since last year’s list to secure the No. 3 spot; and Raja Rajamannar, the longtime marketing leader at Mastercard. More than half of the honorees on this year’s list are women and around 20 percent of the list are CMOs who come from diverse backgrounds. 

“With marketing, influence and attention are often related, making chief marketing officers mavens of both,” said Marty Swant, Editor, CMO Network at Forbes. “And during the Covid-19 pandemic, the CMOs on this year’s list have quickly embraced wielding both to navigate some of the biggest problems and opportunities facing businesses today. Whether they’re advertising vaccines, leading conversations around racial inequality, fighting climate change or keeping up with the pace of technological innovation, it’s no secret that influence is increasingly tied to far more than a company’s own objectives.”

"We are proud to partner with Forbes for the fifth consecutive year, highlighting the world’s leading marketers who unify customer experiences and have emerged across industries to be champions of the customer,” said Ragy Thomas, CEO & Founder, Sprinklr. “Congratulations to each of the 2021 Most Influential CMO honorees who are shaping the future of marketing.”

• For the complete list and more, please visit: The Forbes 2021 Most Influential CMOs.

• For Sprinklr's insight into the five influential CMOs who demonstrate the power of unifying customer experiences, please visit: CX Unifiers: Lessons from 5 of Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs.

• To follow the conversation on social, use: #MostInfluentialCMOs

To coincide with the Most Influential CMOs ranking, Forbes is hosting a virtual list-launch event today, Sept. 29, at 11 am ET. The event will feature discussions with Saint John, McMahon and Rajamannar along with the following additional speakers: Mayur Gupta, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Ganett; Ann Lewnes, CMO and EVP, Corporate Strategy and Development at Adobe; Marisa Thalberg Executive Vice President, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Lowe's; and Mark Abraham, North America Leader for Marketing, Sales and Pricing at Boston Consulting Group.

Earlier this month, Forbes kicked off CMO Summit virtual event series, a four-part event convening industry leaders who are driving innovative and meaningful change as businesses recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s theme, “The Great Convergence,” spotlights how CMOs are balancing rapid innovation with collaboration as marketing becomes more and more integrated with everything from technology and revenue to diversity and sustainability.

The World’s Most Influential CMOs List launch and virtual event is presented by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Adobe.

Methodology
This year, 530 CMOs and brands were eligible for consideration, and 389 CMOs (or CMO equivalents) were fully scored and ranked. The CMOs in the top 50 were those who showed strength on a mix of 15 different indicators, including three AI-driven metrics.

Scores are based on three datasets:  brand performance as measured in the Sprinklr Benchmarking platform, which aggregated more than 4,507,402,411 brand-related social media shares, likes, retweets, and comments; personal influence as measured in the Sprinklr Listening platform, which aggregated more than 490,204 news, blog, web, and Twitter mentions about or from eligible CMOs; and industry and internal influence as measured by our research partner LinkedIn, which analyzed more than six million profile views and connections and almost seven hundred thousand LinkedIn engagements.

For the complete list and more, please visit: The Forbes 2021 Most Influential CMOs.

For Sprinklr's insight into the five influential CMOs who demonstrate the power of unifying customer experiences, please visit: CX Unifiers: Lessons from 5 of Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs.

About Sprinklr
Sprinklr is a leading enterprise software company for all customer-facing functions. With advanced AI, Sprinklr's unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform helps companies deliver human experiences to every customer, every time, across any modern channel. Headquartered in New York City with employees around the world, Sprinklr works with more than 1,000 of the world’s most valuable enterprises — global brands like Microsoft, P&G, Samsung and more than 50% of the Fortune 100.

About Forbes
Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 150 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 45 licensed local editions in 76 countries. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements.

Forbes recently announced plans to go public through a business combination with Magnum Opus (NYSE: OPA), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which is expected to close in Q4 of this year or Q1 of next year. 

Originally published on the Forbes newsroom.