The Reputation Economy: Why the CMO Can’t Own It Alone

Zeno Group’s Clarity 2030 research found that 82% of marketing leaders now say reputation plays a bigger role in growth decisions – a clear shift from comms outcome to business input. Organisations believe reputation matters more than ever, yet almost none have built a structure capable of owning it.

Zeno’s own chief executive frames the shift in the same terms. “Marketing leaders increasingly recognise that reputation is not simply an outcome of business performance, it is an input to it,” said Barby Siegel, global CEO of Zeno Group.

This isn’t a comms problem. It’s a hiring and organisational design problem wearing a comms costume.

The belief is there. The structure isn’t.

Zeno’s data shows the gap up close: 92% of organisations say marketing and communications are integrated or share leadership, yet only 43% of marketing leaders treat communications as an ongoing strategic partner in shaping reputation, and just 28% are highly willing to let comms lead a major campaign. Proximity, not authority.

USC Annenberg’s 2026 Global Communication Report finds the same paradox from inside the profession: 91% of PR professionals say rising polarisation has increased communications’ strategic importance. Yet support for taking a public stand on issues unrelated to the core business has fallen from nearly 90% a few years ago to just over half today. Both more central and more cautious, exactly what you’d expect from a function gaining influence without a clear mandate for how to use it.

Why one hire can’t absorb this

Two structural facts explain why upgrading a single title – a broader CMO remit, a new Chief Reputation Officer – keeps failing to close the gap. Resources haven’t followed the mandate. Gartner has tracked marketing budgets flatlining at roughly 7.7% of revenue even as expectations keep expanding. A bigger job can’t run on a static budget.

And the work itself has become genuinely cross-functional. Zeno found marketing leaders judge reputational issues mainly by sales, revenue and customer response, while employee sentiment, investor reaction and geopolitical context, signals that live in HR, investor relations and legal, get far less attention. Reputation risk is now generated and interpreted in more places than any one function can see.

Trust adds a layer the org chart hasn’t caught up to

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer adds a wrinkle. Business is now the most trusted institution globally, with employees trusting “my employer” more than government or media, and business has overtaken NGOs on ethics for the first time. But that trust is conditional: 75% say CEOs are obligated to bridge divides and build trust, yet only 44% think they do it well.

High expectation, thin delivery, no single role structurally positioned to close it alone.

What this means for the hires organisations are actually making

• Design the structure before writing the brief. Integration on an org chart (92%) isn’t integration in practice (43%). Reporting lines and cross-functional authority need to exist before you look to hire.
• Hire for judgment, not just visibility. USC Annenberg describes comms shifting from storytelling toward strategy, risk management and executive counsel, where knowing when not to speak matters as much as knowing how. That’s a different profile than the campaign-first operators many searches still default to.
• Budget the mandate you’re hiring for. Flat budgets plus expanding remits are building the next departure into the appointment before it starts.
• Make cross-functional signal-sharing a design requirement. If reputation risk shows up in HR, legal, investor relations and the C-suite as much as marketing, whoever “owns” reputation needs a formal mechanism for seeing what those functions see – not just goodwill.

The honest brief

Siegel puts the stakes plainly. “Communications is no longer adjacent to the business. It is the business. We are moving from being managers of the message to drivers of strategic growth,” she said.

Every conversation about “finding a strategic reputation leader” is really a conversation about whether the organisation will redesign itself around that leader or hope someone impressive enough can bend the existing structure by force of personality. The organisations that get this right won’t be the ones who found the best person. They’ll be the ones who built a role worth finding one for.

Whether you’re hiring top Communications talent or considering your next career move, our team would be delighted to support you.

Amy Hayer is Managing Partner and Global Head of Healthcare & Communications. She has a proven track record in advising and counselling professionals on critical career choices across both the UK and the MENA region.

Hanson Search Group is a globally recognised, award-winning talent advisory and headhunting consultancy. Our expertise lies in building successful ventures worldwide through our recruitment, interim and executive search.