CMOs Are Becoming Board-Level Political Animals
US Bank's CMO Michael Lacorazza on earning board influence, Fox closing upfronts first with pricing growth, and Penske swallowing Vox — power is consolidating at the top of the media and marketing stack.
US Bank CMO Michael Lacorazza's conversation about board-level influence lands differently when you read it alongside Fox closing the upfront season first, with what they called market-leading pricing growth and no rollbacks. And alongside Penske Media acquiring the remaining Vox Media brands to create a new PMX division.
These are not unrelated events. They are all about who controls the room where money moves.
Lacorazza's point — that CMOs need to speak the language of risk, revenue, and governance to earn a seat at the board table — reflects a real shift. Marketing used to justify itself through reach and recall. Now it has to justify itself through attribution, margin contribution, and competitive moat. That is a harder argument, but it is the right one.
Fox closing upfronts first is a signal that some traditional media still commands premium pricing when it can offer scale and certainty. Advertisers paid it. That tells you something about demand for predictability in a chaotic inventory environment.
Penske absorbing Vox is consolidation for leverage — more inventory, more data, more surface area to sell against.
The through-line: marketing leadership at every level is becoming a negotiation for power. Who controls the budget, who controls the inventory, who controls the narrative inside the organisation. The CMOs who survive the next three years are the ones who treated it that way early.