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New data exposes shrinking CMO tenure; mid-size brewers rethink marketing as US drinking declines; Diageo closes Guinness Open Gate in Baltimore.
CMOs are burning out faster than ever — and the instability is hitting brand teams hard. Plus, Diageo pulls the plug on Guinness's flagship US experiential asset.
In this episode:
The FMCG Marketing Daily is a concise briefing for FMCG and CPG marketers, brand managers and CMOs, hosted by Marco & Klara. New episode every day.
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Also from Marco & Klara: The Digital Commerce Daily · The Health Marketing Daily
The essential morning briefing for brand leaders in fast-moving consumer goods. Hosted by Marco and Klara — two senior strategists with decades of experience inside global CPG companies and consultancies. Every episode covers retail media and distribution shifts, brand and competitor moves from Unilever, Coke, Nestlé, and challenger brands, and the macro and regulatory forces reshaping the category. Authoritative. Analytical. No noise. Built for brand managers, trade marketers, CMOs, and agency directors who need to stay ahead.
Marco: Good morning — and we've packed this one with stories worth slowing down for.
Klara: We do. The pressure building on CMOs right now — there's new data on that today, and it's striking.
Marco: Then we're looking at what's happening to mid-size beer brands as drinking habits shift.
Klara: And Diageo is closing the Guinness Open Gate brewery in Baltimore.
Marco: Let's get going.
Marco: CMOs — the most senior marketing leaders in a company — are burning out faster than ever, and a new study has the numbers to prove it.
Klara: To understand why this matters, you need to know that CMO tenure — the time a Chief Marketing Officer stays in their role — has always been shorter than other senior executives. But it's been getting shorter still. And all the while, the job has been getting bigger.
Marco: The study describes a "pressure cooker" dynamic. CMOs are being asked to deliver sales growth this quarter while also protecting the long-term health of the brand — two things that often pull in opposite directions. Add in performance media, data platforms, and technology integration, and you've got one person expected to master everything at once.
Klara: And when that person cracks and leaves, the whole marketing organisation feels it. Agency relationships get reset. Multi-year brand campaigns get shelved. A new CMO arrives with new priorities, and suddenly everything that was built over three years is up for review.
Marco: For brand managers watching this from the middle of the organisation, this is your data point. If your CMO is likely to be replaced every couple of years, your brand-building programme is vulnerable — unless you've built the case for it in a way that survives leadership change.
Klara: I'd slightly reframe that though. The instability isn't just a top-floor problem. It creates anxiety all the way down — teams hedge their bets, avoid bold moves, wait to see which way the new leader leans. That caution is where brand momentum quietly dies.
Marco: So the real action item here — document your strategy in terms that outlast any one person. Brand vision, evidence, results. Make it institution knowledge, not personal knowledge.
Klara: Right, on to our next story.
Marco: American adults are drinking less beer — and mid-size brewers are scrambling to figure out what that means for their marketing.
Klara: To set the scene: beer has been a volume business for decades. Sell a lot of cans, run a lot of TV ads, repeat. The big players — AB InBev, Molson Coors — have the scale to ride out dips in demand. Mid-size brewers don't have that cushion. When volumes fall, the pressure lands fast.
Marco: And volumes are falling. Alcohol consumption in the US has been declining steadily, and there's no sign of a bounce-back. Mid-tier brewers are responding by tearing up the old playbook. Instead of chasing mass reach — getting your ad in front of as many people as possible — they're shifting toward community-based marketing, occasion targeting, and identity. Basically: who is drinking this, when, and why does it matter to them?
Klara: Which is the right instinct. You can't out-spend AB InBev. So you stop trying to win on reach and start trying to win on relevance. Find the people who actually connect with your brand — real ale fans, local sports communities, whatever it is — and go deep rather than wide.
Marco: I'd push slightly further than that though. This isn't just about tactics. It's about accepting that the category is structurally smaller than it used to be — and building a business model that works at lower volumes, not one that's constantly chasing growth that may not come back.
Klara: And that mental shift is hard. Most marketing teams are built to grow. Shifting to "how do we stay relevant in a shrinking market" requires a completely different set of questions.
Marco: And it's not just a US story — European brewers are watching the same consumption trends. The playbook being tested in America right now is coming here too.
Klara: Our third story is up next.
Klara: Diageo is shutting down its Guinness brewery and visitor experience in Baltimore — and the decision says more about brand strategy than it does about one building.
Marco: To understand why, you need to know what the Open Gate site actually was. It wasn't just a factory. It was a deliberate investment in what marketers call experiential brand building — creating a physical place where consumers could spend time with the brand, not just buy it. Guinness opened it in Baltimore specifically to deepen its cultural roots in the US market, going beyond pubs and supermarket shelves.
Klara: That kind of investment is expensive and slow to pay off. You're not selling cases of stout out of the visitor centre — you're building the sort of brand attachment that makes someone choose Guinness over everything else on the bar for the next twenty years.
Marco: Which is exactly why closing it is such a loaded signal. Diageo is under real volume pressure right now, and when that happens, the long-term bets tend to get reviewed first. But here's what should give brand managers pause — experiential investment is arguably most valuable when a category is under pressure, not least. If people are drinking less overall, the brands they feel something for are the ones that survive.
Klara: I'd look at it slightly differently though. Not every brand has the margin to keep a physical visitor experience running while volumes are falling. At some point, you have to make hard choices about where your money does the most work. A brewery tour in Baltimore is a beautiful brand asset — but it can't be untouchable.
Marco: Fair enough. But the question every brand manager should sit with is this: when resources get tight, are you cutting the things that keep your brand meaningful — or the things that actually need cutting?
Marco: Today's thread — when consumer behaviour shifts, every layer of the organisation feels it, from the CMO's job security all the way down to which brewery stays open.
Klara: So look at one assumption your brand is still making about your drinker — and ask yourself honestly when you last checked whether it's still true.