Phil Schiller of Apple was the most influential chief marketing officer (CMO) in the world this year, according to recent research from Forbes, Sprinklr, and LinkedIn.
The ranking was based on three criteria: brand performance as measured by an analysis of social media shares, likes, retweets, and comments; personal influence as measured by an analysis of news, blog, Web, and Twitter mentions; and industry and internal influence as measured by an analysis of content on LinkedIn. (See more, below, regarding methodology.)
Schiller, who stepped down from his role over the summer, was found to be the most influential CMO globally based on the study's criteria.
Stephanie McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment ranked second; Fernando Machado of Restaurant Brands International ranked third; Jens Thiemer of BMW Group ranked fourth; and Olivier Francois of Fiat Chrysler Automobile ranked fifth.
Industry breakdown
Tech was the industry with the most CMOs on the list (16 out of 50), followed by Financial Services (5) and Restaurants (5).
About the research: The ranking of the world's 50 most influential CMOs was based on three criteria: brand performance as measured by an analysis of 832,404,704 brand-related social media shares, likes, retweets, and comments; personal influence as measured by an analysis of 130,489 news, blog, Web, and Twitter mentions; and industry and internal influence as measured by an analysis of more than two million profiles views and connections on LinkedIn and more than 600,000 engagements on the platform. The assessed time period was February 15 to June 30, 2020. See the full report for the complete methodology.
