Less Than 1/3 Of The World’s Top CMOs Are Active On Twitter

Brands may talk a big game when it comes to being social, but it turns out very few of the CMOs from the world’s top companies are on Twitter.

In an attempt to find which of the world’s biggest brands have a CMO presence on the social network, we researched Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands of 2014 to identify the companies that have a CMO or a top-level marketing executive actively tweeting. Much to our surprise, less than a third of Interbrand’s top 100 global brands have CMOs with active Twitter accounts.

Only six brands – Apple, GE, HP, Coca-Cola, SAP and IBM – have CMOs with 10,000 or more followers.

Of Interbrand’s Top 100 global brands, 42 had CMOs or top-level marketing executives with Twitter accounts, but only 31 of those accounts were active. Even more surprising, only six brands – Apple, GE, HP, Coca-Cola, SAP and IBM – have CMOs with 10,000 or more followers.

For the 31 active accounts, the median follower number was approximately 1,500. Across the board, follower numbers for the active accounts ranged from only 33 followers to Apple CMO Phillip Schiller’s 159,000 followers.

The Prez and I both tweet from iPhone. https://t.co/Urud1L7KM3 — Philip Schiller (@pschiller) May 18, 2015

Here are the top ten CMOs from Interbrand’s list of global brands who are most active on Twitter, based on followers numbers and activity levels.

Top 10 Global Brand CMOs Most Active on Twitter

1. Phillip Schiller with Apple (Followers: 159K)

2. Beth Comstock with GE (Followers: 70.1K)

3. Antonio Lucio with HP (Followers: 27.3K)

4. Marcos de Quinto with Coca-Cola (Followers: 25.9K)

5. Jonathan Becher with SAP (Followers: 16.3K)

6. Jon Iwata with IBM (Followers: 14.4K)

7. Blair Christie with Cisco (Followers: 8.4K)

8. Ann Lewnes with Adobe (Followers: 7.2K)

9. Chris Capossela with Microsoft (Followers: 6.1K)

10. Frédéric Tardy with AXA Group (Followers: 4.9K)

Of these top 10 CMOs who are on Twitter, nearly all tweet both personal and professional content – only HP’s Antonio Lucio’s tweets were primarily of a professional nature. When analyzing the most common keywords from the accounts, the words “digital” and “marketing” showed up most often.

pic.twitter.com/Xjs27qcqU5 — Antonio J Lucio (@ajlucio5) May 12, 2015

It didn’t take long to dig through Interbrand’s list to identify ten brands lacking a CMO presence on twitter.

Within the top 26 companies ranked by Interbrand, we found ten that do not have a CMO active on the social network. On the flip-side, all ten of these brands have a significant presence on Twitter, with many owning multiple brand accounts, and more than half with primary accounts that have over a million followers.

Top Global Brands With CMOs Not on Twitter:

1. Google (Followers: 11.3M)

2. Toyota (Followers: 501K)

3. Mercedes Benz (Followers: 1.32M)

4. Disney (Followers: 4.32M)

5. Gillette (Followers: 68.4K)

6. H&M (Followers: 5.81M)

7. Nike (Followers: 4.99M)

8. American Express (Followers: 820K)

9. Pepsi (Followers: 2.86M)

10. IKEA (Followers: 350K)

In March, Neustar released a comprehensive report outlining CMO activity on twitter. According to Neustar’s research: “CMOs are attuned to the value of their ‘personal brand’ and love to talk about and share lists of how influential CMOs compare and stack up.”

Unfortunately, from our research, many of the world’s top CMOs are missing out on a real opportunity to be more influential, both on a consumer level and within their industry.

By not having a Twitter presence, these CMOs are failing to participate in one of the most ubiquitous and significant marketing channels available, while at the same time, often being charged with leading their own brand efforts on the very same platform. While obviously it’s not the CMOs direct responsibility to tweet for its brand, it seems they would want to take part in any conversation their brand is leading.