What does it take to win the CMO of the Year Award? If we had to sum it up in three words: success, tenacity and personality. A jury who can judge it best – made up of CMO Council members and partners – decides who the winner will be.
The new CMO of the Year will be awarded on 15 October 2026 in Munich.
CMO of the Year 2025
The CMO of the Year jury, made up of 19 members from the CMO of the Year council and selected marketing and media experts from publishing houses, TV, academia and agencies, has come to a decision. For the first time, a duo was honoured at the Award Night: Yvonne Wutzler and Thorsten Mühl from Cosnova received the title "CMO of the Year" 2025.
As Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Digital Marketing & Experience Officer respectively, the two have played a key role in the success of the Essence and Catrice brands with their clear social media focus, creative content strategies and innovative channels, achieving a new sales record in 2024.
Already a shout-out for the CMO of the Year 2026! Because he or she has managed to achieve something extraordinary as a CMO through entrepreneurial success, a high level of innovation and a calculated willingness to take risks.
Would you like to take part in the CMO of the Year Award Night 2026? Then we look forward to hearing from you at info@cmo-award-night.com!
Impressions of the CMO Award Night 2025
Would you like to gain even more insights into the CMO Award Night 2025? Then feel free to take a look at our image gallery.
Top Ten 2025
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The Jury 2025
Who’s best qualified to evaluate a CMO’s performance? That’s right - other CMOs and partners.
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“Every portrait, every story, is a thread. Together they weave a tapestry that reveals not only our differences, but above all our shared humanity.”
Jimmy Nelson
From 6:30 pm on 14 October 2025, the doors opened for the CMO Award Night. Guests looked forward to an evening full of inspiration, interesting encounters and different perspectives.
Jimmy Nelson, world-renowned Dutch-Britisch photographer and storyteller, took us on a visual journey to the roots of human identity. With his powerful portraits of cultures and communities, he showed the beauty of true diversity and reminded us of the value of genuine connection in a digital world.
Previous Winners
How do you achieve the extraordinary and become CMO of the Year? These CMOs have shown us how it’s done!
Host and Partner
The Serviceplan Group is the largest independent, partner-managed and most broadly positioned agency group in Europe. Founded in 1970 as a classic advertising agency, the Serviceplan Group has been bringing together all communication disciplines under one roof ever since: from brand strategists, creatives, experience designers, marketing technology experts, CRM experts, data scientists, market researchers and PR consultants to sales specialists, everyone at the Serviceplan Group works together at the House of Communication – the only completely integrated agency model in Germany. The precisely coordinated interaction of a number of specialised agencies focused on Strategy & Consulting, Creative & Content, Platform & Technology and Media & Data makes the Serviceplan Group the leading agency group for innovative communication.
What connects us all is our passion for building and coaching fascinating brands. Brands that are economically successful and trigger emotions in the hearts and minds of the consumers — or in other words, BEST BRANDS.
And this is achieved through innovative communication, which means finding new ways into consumers’ hearts with creativity, media and technology.
This vision of turning brands into BEST BRANDS is something we live and breathe here at the House of Communication on a daily basis.
Quality marketer and solution provider for Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
At REPUBLIC, all customers are at the center of our actions and thinking. Understanding your challenges is the first step in our collaboration. Republic always takes a holistic view—the brand, the target group, and the market environment.
Our promise: media with meaning.
This is based on the quality media outlets F.A.Z. and SZ, which today reach more people than ever before, demonstrating their great importance for the republic. They appeal to the core of society: opinion leaders and multipliers with diverse interests.
Republic develops meaningful solutions for you in meaningful environments for upmarket target groups – and offers brands the security of successfully achieving their communication goals in credible environments.
Ad Alliance stands for effective cross-media brand communication in Germany. As the marketing unit of RTL Deutschland, it is responsible for the marketing of the media offerings of RTL Deutschland and the Bauer Media Group. In addition, Ad Alliance acts as a proprietary trader and service provider for selected brands and categories of Media Impact, the FUNKE Media Group and Warner Bros. Discovery Germany, and manages the video and addressable TV network of RTL AdAlliance. The approximately 500 media brands across TV, print, digital, addressable TV as well as selected streaming services such as RTL+ and HBO Max reach up to 99 percent of the population in Germany. Strategic consulting, data intelligence and innovative technologies ensure measurable advertising effectiveness.
Technology company The Trade Desk™ empowers brands and agencies to purchase digital advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can manage and optimise data-driven digital advertising campaigns across various ad formats and end devices. Integrations with major data, media inventory and publisher partners guarantee maximum reach for independent, data-based purchasing decisions. Enterprise APIs enable customers to make individual developments based on the cloud platform. Headquartered in Ventura, California, The Trade Desk has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Samsung Ads delivers Advanced TV advertising at scale. Its smart TV advertising solutions are built on a unique source of first-party data from millions of Samsung smart TVs worldwide. Samsung Ads provides a holistic view for advertisers, connecting linear, OTT and gaming to help brands see the total picture of modern TV consumption behaviour. Brands use its managed service and programmatic offerings to achieve incremental reach, complement linear TV campaigns, find difficult-to-reach target audiences, optimise advertising contacts and, most importantly, to measure results. Samsung Ads is the advertising division of Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading TV manufacturer.
Snapchat is a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family and the world. It is an alternative to traditional social media because people want to communicate with friends and family without the pressure of looking popular or perfect.
Snapchat empowers people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together.
The app opens directly to the camera and offers millions of augmented reality lenses for self-expression, learning and play. In Germany, Snapchat reaches 18 million active users monthly.
With its cross-platform news programmes and the largest business market share on TV, ntv is one of the most influential news and business brands in Germany. The channel, which is owned by RTL Deutschland, is known for its high proportion of live reporting and breaking news expertise. Since 1992, ntv has been offering its viewers the latest news from the worlds of politics, business, sport and society around the clock – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Institute of Marketing and Customer Insight (IMC) at the University of St. Gallen is a renowned research institute that specializes in marketing management and consumer behavior. Through a combination of in-depth research and practice-oriented teaching, the IMC provides innovative educational programs and contributes to the development of the next generation of marketing executives. It facilitates the exchange of knowledge between science and practice by collaborating with companies and offering a wide range of open and customizable continuing education programs.
The IMC's research is characterized by its relevance and quality, covering topics such as digital transformation, consumer psychology, and sustainable marketing. Additionally, the IMC regularly organizes events and workshops that serve as platforms for sharing best practices and building networks.
Further information and details on current projects can be found on the IMC's website: imc.unisg.ch
CAPITAL has been shaping German business journalism for over 60 years. The brand stands for credibility, substance in its research, journalistic excellence and a high level of expertise in the areas of finance, investment and asset accumulation. CAPITAL reports on developments in the economy from a variety of perspectives, accompanies companies and SMEs in their transformation, explains upheavals in the global economy and recognizes new trends at an early stage - from artificial intelligence to female leadership, sustainable investments and innovative energy concepts. The CAPITAL editorial team analyzes all of this not only in its monthly magazine, but also on all channels that decision-makers demand today: digital and mobile, as a newsletter, ePaper and podcast, as well as at events. CAPITAL is the most widely read business magazine in Germany today.
HORIZONT - Your News, Your Business. HORIZONT is the media brand for news from marketing, advertising, communications and media. With exclusive news, independent analyses and comprehensive reports, we provide marketing and communications professionals with information for their daily business - as a newspaper in print or digitally and updated daily on HORIZONT Online. We also organize congresses and events on the topics that move our industry.
Host and Partner of the CMO Award Night
