Influencer mindset creeps into C-suite: CEOs to CMOs become Chief Publicity Officers?
CMOs are increasingly stepping out from behind the curtain — not just to speak for the brand, but to be seen, heard, followed. But are they building ego or equity?
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Once upon a time, marketing heads operated in the wings. They built brands, not personal fanbases. But in today’s attention economy, that dynamic has flipped. C-suite inhabitants like CMOs are increasingly stepping out from behind the curtain — not just to speak for the brand, but to be seen, heard, followed. On LinkedIn, on panels, on podcasts.
“People who are responsible for the brand actually believe they are bigger than the brand,” says Suhel Seth, Founder & Managing Partner of Counselage India. Seth's criticism is laced with characteristic bite. “These people erect statues of themselves every time they look in the mirror.” The problem, he argues, isn’t just vanity. It’s that this relentless self-branding distracts from the real work. “It undermines the brand,” he says, “and prevents genuine feedback. People are hesitant to critique someone who has built a demigod-like persona.”
He sees the same dynamic play out in the incestuous circuit of advertising awards. “If you look at the past 10–20 years of marketing awards, it’s the same set of people winning on a rotational basis — like a merry-go-round.” The startup world, too, hasn’t escaped his eye. “Startups today are too focused on personal brand-building — often at the cost of their actual businesses.”
He points to high-profile startup founders whose personal visibility, he argues, has at times overshadowed their core business focus. “Rather than concentrating on their business, they’re busy building personal brands — with no idea that this might actually be harming them too.”
But Seth’s not alone in spotting this shift.
Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Futurebrands India too, points out how marketing today is as much about storytelling the self as it is about storytelling the brand. “Unlike the past, there are now so many more avenues to present yourself publicly. As a result, people have started seeing self-promotion as part of the job.”
On LinkedIn in particular, visibility is currency — and being quiet can be read as failure. “Today, if you’re not on LinkedIn telling your story, it can feel like you’re not doing your job as a marketing leader,” he says.
There’s also, he notes, a performative pressure. “It’s almost become a requirement now: are you storytelling what you're doing?” And while that might help put a human face on the brand, it also has a trade-off. “You spend an inordinate amount of time presenting yourself, rather than doing the job you're supposed to do.” The bigger risk? Being overexposed and vulnerable to backlash. “You have to story tell in an honest way,” Desai says, “but that also leaves you vulnerable.”
The shift is cultural, not just professional. Lloyd Mathias, an angel investor and business strategist observes that this rise in self-promotion is not just an accident — it’s a result of the “influencer mindset” creeping into the boardroom. “Everyone sees themselves as an influencer. Your social media profile is now an extension of your identity.”
According to him, this trend was supercharged by startup founders — the Deepinder Goyals and Nikhil Kamaths of the world whose personal visibility often fuels investor confidence and saves big on ad spends. “Every time Nikhil Kamath does a podcast, Zerodha benefits from the rub-off,” he points out. Globally, he says, Elon Musk set the template for this by turning his personal Twitter into Tesla’s primary marketing engine.
And it’s not just founders anymore. CMOs too, says Mathias, are being “nudged—often by agencies—to be more visible on LinkedIn and Instagram.” Internal amplification—where employees are encouraged to like, share, and comment on orchestrated posts—has become common practice.
“There used to be a line between personal and professional,” he says. “That line has collapsed.”
But not everyone sees this as a crisis.
Anup Sharma, a PR and strategic communications consultant, believes this evolution was inevitable — and not necessarily harmful. “Earlier, CMOs were mostly behind the scenes,” he says. “Today, they are expected to be public-facing leaders, representing the brand in front of the world.” The reason? Consumers now expect transparency. When a marketing leader speaks at an event or shares updates on social media, it can make the brand seem more human, more responsive.
Sure, the risk of the individual overshadowing the brand exists — but Sharma thinks that’s not a problem if there’s alignment. “When a founder or CMO becomes popular for reasons that reflect the company’s purpose, values, and mission, they’re actually strengthening the brand.”
He cites examples like Aman Gupta or Richard Branson — people whose public visibility serves as a storytelling bridge for the companies they represent. “People don’t buy from companies anymore — they buy from leaders they believe in.”
Which raises the question — is this shift about self-glorification, or about trust-building in a digital age?
Harish Bijoor, Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc offers the long view. In the past, he notes, public communication came from the top — the CEO, the chairman. Marketers were second-line communicators at best. But over time, that changed. “Today, a marketer doesn’t just represent the organization and its work. Increasingly, they also represent their own personal brand.”
In theory, this duality should be synergistic. “Ideally, 1 + 1 = 3,” he says. But often, the equation tips in favour of the individual. “More often than not, the value accrues more to the individual marketing persona than to the brand.”
Still, Bijoor doesn’t dismiss the phenomenon as mere self-obsession. He sees it as a response to how attention and trust operate now. “In a world full of noise, we trust real human stories over faceless corporations,” he says. “It’s not about being publicity-hungry. It’s about being visible, credible, and trustworthy.”
He argues that platforms like LinkedIn aren’t just networking tools anymore — they’re arenas of digital trust. When CMOs use them well, sharing honest insights, failures or team wins, they aren’t just building ego. They’re building equity.
