Traditional marketing now represents an increasingly small share of the Chief Marketing Officer’s responsibilities. Business Insider’s list of the 25 most innovative CMOs of 2026, published on June 23, shows that today’s most influential executives are no longer limited to managing campaigns, approving ads, or overseeing media budgets. The selected leaders combine brand building, artificial intelligence, culture, data, customer experience, product, and business performance. Some even hold growth or strategy roles without formally carrying the CMO title.
The message for companies is clear: the modern CMO increasingly resembles an architect of growth rather than a traditional advertising executive.
Creativity Still Matters, but It Is No Longer Enough
Business Insider selected the 25 leaders from more than 100 nominations, along with candidates identified through its own editorial coverage. Its criteria included each executive’s influence on financial performance, the scope of their responsibilities, the scale of the brands they lead, and their contribution to the evolution of the profession.
The list features leaders from Disney, Unilever, HubSpot, American Express, PepsiCo, Hyundai, Samsung, Gap, Coach, Duolingo, Xfinity, Ulta Beauty, and New Balance, among other organizations.
What they have in common is not their industry or the size of their companies. It is their ability to influence multiple areas of the business.
Jon Gieselman, Xfinity’s chief growth officer, does more than oversee marketing. His responsibilities include product strategy, sales, acquisition, retention, and customer management. His role illustrates a major transformation: marketing is moving beyond communications and beginning to operate as a system that connects demand, product, and customer retention.
The CMO Must Understand the Infrastructure Behind the Idea
Leandro Barreto, CMO of Unilever, describes this evolution through an approach he calls “poetry and plumbing”: combining cultural creativity with the systems, data, and artificial intelligence required to operate it at scale.
The metaphor captures one of the biggest changes in the role. Poetry represents the idea, storytelling, purpose, and emotional connection. Plumbing includes technology platforms, automation, data models, content distribution, and measurement.
For years, many organizations separated these two components. Agencies handled the ideas, while technology teams managed the infrastructure. Today’s CMO must understand both worlds and prevent them from operating as disconnected functions.
Innovation is no longer only about producing a brilliant campaign. It also requires building the capacity to personalize it, distribute it, measure it, and learn from it.
Artificial Intelligence Moves to the Center of Strategy
AI appears across many of the profiles recognized by Business Insider. However, the selected executives do not stand out because they use generative tools in isolation. They stand out because they integrate AI into processes that produce measurable results.
Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot has promoted an answer-engine optimization strategy in response to the growth of searches conducted through artificial intelligence platforms and chatbots. His work reflects a reality affecting every brand: consumers no longer discover information only through Google or social media.
Kelly Mahoney has turned loyalty and personalization into growth engines for Ulta Beauty with the support of AI. As of January 2026, the Ulta Beauty Rewards program had 46.7 million members, accounted for approximately 95% of the company’s sales, and recorded a 70% retention rate.
These examples show that AI does not replace strategy. It expands the CMO’s ability to interpret signals, improve recommendations, accelerate content development, and manage relationships with millions of customers.
Technology is also beginning to reshape how power is distributed within companies. Mark Abraham, global leader of marketing, sales, and pricing at Boston Consulting Group, said during Cannes Lions that CMOs are taking a more direct role in artificial intelligence strategy, including budget decisions and ROI evaluation.
Culture Becomes a Business Variable
Innovative CMOs also share the ability to interpret cultural behavior before it becomes part of a trend report.
Manu Orssaud helped transform Duolingo into a brand built around internet culture and social media. His team uses community reactions and comments as a source of insight to develop ideas and adapt content in real time.
Fabiola Torres helped restore Gap’s cultural relevance through music, diverse talent, and content that positioned the brand as an active participant in the conversation rather than simply an advertiser.
Chris Davis turned New Balance into a brand desired by younger audiences without abandoning its heritage, while Asad Ayaz connected Disney’s biggest releases with experiences, communities, and entertainment platforms.
The pattern is consistent: these companies are not chasing every trend. Their leaders determine which conversations are credible for the brand and how those conversations can be translated into commercial value.
The CMO Must Also Speak the CFO’s Language
The pressure to demonstrate results explains another defining characteristic of the modern CMO: the ability to connect marketing with revenue, profitability, acquisition, and retention. Impressions, views, and engagement levels remain useful indicators, but they are no longer enough to defend budgets before executive leadership and finance teams.
The CMO must explain how an investment generates incremental customers, improves lifetime value, protects margins, strengthens preference, or lowers acquisition costs. Business Insider’s list specifically favors executives who deliver measurable results. It recognizes not only campaign visibility, but also marketing’s influence on company performance.
This shift requires the CMO to build a much closer relationship with the CFO and with the leaders of technology, eCommerce, sales, product, and customer experience.
What This Profile Means for the Mexican Market
For Mexican companies, the main lesson is that the scope of the position must evolve alongside expectations. A CMO cannot be held responsible for growth if they control only advertising and communications. They need access to first-party data, commercial intelligence, customer experience, digital platforms, eCommerce, and product decisions.
This also changes the type of talent companies should seek. The ideal profile will not necessarily be the executive with the most award-winning campaigns, but the leader capable of managing multidisciplinary teams, using artificial intelligence with sound judgment, and translating culture into business results.
Agencies will face a similar demand. They will need to work with leaders who expect more than ideas and production: technology integration, measurement, consumer intelligence, and the ability to connect creativity with business performance.
The risk is expanding the CMO’s responsibilities without providing the authority, budget, or access to information needed to succeed. Demanding growth while marketing remains isolated from sales, product, and technology only increases pressure without transforming the organization.
From Brand Guardian to Business Builder
The 25 leaders recognized by Business Insider do not represent a single leadership model. Some stand out for artificial intelligence, others for culture, personalization, product, entertainment, or loyalty.
What they share is a broader vision of marketing. The innovative CMO still protects the brand’s identity, but also builds the infrastructure that connects it with consumers, channels, and financial results. The role no longer ends when a campaign goes live. It continues through the customer experience, data, conversion, retention, and the insights that will shape the next decision.
