Marketing leaders tend to have bloated and ever-expanding digital Rolodexes. It is impossible to reach the top levels of your field without building professional connections.
However, marketers are also spoiled for choice when it comes to membership-based networking groups, which makes it difficult to choose the best one.
First, there is the issue of scale and scope. Marketing member associations exist for every subspecialty, but some serve as large umbrella organizations. Need to choose one? Want to join a few? Another way to separate your options is to consider your goals. “Do I need to learn?” To vent? Want to get along with people from big brands? Looking to add an impressive institution to your LinkedIn profile?
For many people, it is beneficial to belong to multiple groups at once. Ashley Kramer, chief strategy and marketing officer at technology company GitLab, takes a more-is-more approach. She is a very enthusiastic virtual member of her weekly networking organization CMO Coffee Talk and her local group for CMO Coffee Talk in Seattle, where she lives. “I encourage team members at all stages of their careers to explore ways to connect with colleagues in a format that is comfortable for them, whether in-person or remotely,” she says. luck. “These networks are great for brainstorming ways to solve problems and communicating best practices.”
Scott Crady, CEO of marketing and communications firm Magnitude, says he's recently been drawn to organizations that don't focus solely on marketers, such as the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Conference Board. Director, CFO, CEO. “I've always continued to learn from people who are different from me because they bring new ideas and new perspectives,” he explains. Crady added that as technology, including AI, transforms industries and the way companies go to market, marketing professionals need to be constantly building their networks, no matter how they do it.
Networking associations for CMOs range from free and inclusive (think LinkedIn) to expensive and ultra-elite (the prestigious World Fifty Group is invite-only and declined to share information for this article). , but most groups fall somewhere in between. It has a high annual fee and membership is limited to chief marketing officers and senior marketers.
Making the price of admission worthwhile may lie in understanding what you have to offer, rather than what you need to get, say marketing experts interviewed. luck. Laura Maness, global CEO of Grey, a 100-year-old advertising giant owned by WPP, said she was never one to collect names and contact information like they were on baseball cards. talk.
“My interest is in building and deepening genuine relationships with like-minded people. [and] You’re learning from other people’s experiences,” she says. Organizations that have allowed her to do this include Chief (see below), her The Post, which is made up of former athletes turned executives, and the Women's Purpose Community.
So where are your people? Here are the top networking organizations for top-level marketing professionals.
National Advertisers Association (ANA)
Founded in 1920, ANA has 1,600 member companies representing approximately 20,000 brands, said CEO Bob Lyodick. “We cover the world of marketing,” he boasts. That's why ANA has 50,000 active members.
Marketing executives can find their corner of the ANA world in the CMO Growth Council, a community of more than 600 current chief marketing officers. This council's forums are perfect for networking online or IRL, and members may share specific interests such as brands, media strategy, technology, artificial intelligence, agency management, etc. You can connect with
ANA wants to improve the marketing industry, and many CMOs are fully committed to strategic initiatives, Liodice explains. For example, some of his CMOs participate in the Media and Measurement Leadership Council, an offshoot of the CMO Growth Council. “Media is perhaps the area of greatest interest among our members as it dominates how brand resources are properly spent and media development in the industry is changing dramatically.” CMO Councilors Serving on a committee is one way to help others understand how media and its metrics are changing.
Members have access to ANA's digital magazine, professional development content, podcasts, and webinars. Membership includes local events and all training courses, but national conferences are an additional fee.
Fee: Annual membership for corporate customers is available at three levels depending on company size. Approximate costs (from large corporations to small shops) are $13,000 (Platinum), $9,500 (Gold), and $4,000 (Silver).
Club CMO
Club CMO is a 15-year-old organization run by marketing executives. “Our core philosophy is to be a safe place for CMOs to discuss the challenges and solutions they are seeking,” said Nerissa Sardi, Director of Executive Management. In practice, this means members can attend events without worrying about vendor sales pitches.
The association has 32 chapters around the world, most of them in the United States, but the largest chapter is in London. Despite its name, this club is open to all of your company's most senior marketing leaders. Annual membership fees include his programming online, including his quarterly networking dinners with local chapters, special events, and his CMO Author Series, which features interviews with writers on marketing-related topics. Prices do not include tickets to the association's annual fall summit.
If you haven't heard of Club CMO, it might be because it used to be called The CMO Club. Salesforce acquired the association in 2020 and spun it off two years later, keeping its name. Club CMO merged with marketing event company Brand Innovators in 2022, and has approximately 2,000 members.
Fee: $2,200 per year. The association is currently running an early bird sale for $1,100.
chief
Chief is the largest private membership organization for women in senior leadership positions, defined by the organization as vice president and above. Marketing and advertising leaders make up only 13% of chief members, and of those, about 3% are CMOs. If you're a woman in marketing and want to connect with executives from other departments, check out Chief.
Chief claims that its 20,000 members include several Fortune 500 executives. For an additional $1,000 per year, Chief+ members receive full access to all of the organization's clubhouses (with reservable meeting rooms) in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. This is a useful perk for the jet set. Members participate in programs for women in leadership, including monthly roundtable discussions and interviews with female founders who have defied the odds to build large, sometimes industry-redefining companies. You are invited to do so. Events will be held online and in person.
Fee: $5,800 for vice president-level executives and $7,900 for U.S.-based executives.
conference board
Ivan Pollard, former CMO of General Mills, leads the Conference Board's Marketing and Communications Center (M&C Center). The umbrella organization describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, but its marketing subsidiary says its mission is to serve marketing leaders and senior executives in corporate communications and consumer research.
As a research organization, the M&C Center provides its members with the latest news and insights on the business environment, providing information and advice tailored to CMOs. What makes this center stand out is that the rest of the conference board is a part of it, drawing from all parts of the larger organization, including economics, public policy, ESG themes, human capital, and geopolitics. It's about having the ability to derive insights. Non-profit. Conference Board experts will also be available to answer members' questions. Similar to Club CMO, the center has a no-sales environment policy when it comes to networking events.
Fee: The Conference Board declined to release prices for this article. Please contact your organization for more information.
CMO Council
Founded in 2001, the CMO Council is one of the oldest and largest digital-age networking groups for marketers. “Our core mission and mission is to highlight and identify the big strategic needs, challenges, pains and requirements facing today's senior marketing executives,” said Brian, who leads business development at the organization.・Mr. DeRose said.
The council is known for its international reach and deeply researched white papers inspired by conversations with top marketers around the world, DeRose added. Of the organization's 16,500 members, just over half (55%) are based in North America, with the remaining members split primarily between Europe and Asia-Pacific, with a small number also in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Paid members have access to a regional advisory board comprised of approximately 50 CMOs from the region's largest and multinational companies. You can also attend in-person and online networking events, and access services like pay-as-you-go coaching from marketing leaders and personalized compensation benchmarking. The council's most intimate gatherings are called “inner dialogues,'' where groups of 15 to 20 members are invited to socialize and exchange stories from the field.
Fee: Marketers can join for free and gain access to white papers and other content for a short period of time after publication. Premium membership is $149 per year. Corporate membership is $3,500 per year.
American Marketing Association (AMA)
The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a large organization with 75 chapters in the United States and Canada, commonly associated with early career professionals and academia. But CEO Benny Johnson said the organization offers training, networking and conferences to marketers at all career stages. “We offer programs for everyone: students, graduate students, faculty, researchers, CMOs, executives, agencies, and in-house,” he says. These are “all the roles that make up the modern market,” he added. Events include networking happy hours, webinars, large-scale events like the Disruptor Conference, and more.
Johnson says the appeal for CMOs is meeting and learning from experts at other levels and disciplines in the vast marketing industry. A proven CMO, he updates students and alumni and builds relationships with academics seeking research opportunities. That research, in turn, provides information to experts. “There are opportunities for relationships everywhere, up and down, back and forth,” Johnson says.
Annual membership fee includes membership in more than 65 chapters across the United States and access to a members-only marketer toolkit. Conferences and national events are expensive, but members receive discounts.
