Boeing, Nike, and Starbucks all replaced their CEOs in recent months. I studied major CEO departures in 2024 to see how differing comms strategies impacted public attention, criticism, and their bottom lines.
Check out 3 big lessons I learned from analyzing readership (unique visitors to articles) for 946 news articles across 151 national, local, and trade publications from March 25-September 23, 2024.
Keep it to one announcement and focus on the future.
Boeing announced the current CEO stepping down and then named the incoming CEO months later. Splitting the two announcements prolonged the news cycle and left room for criticism in between updates.
Starbucks and Nike announced the step down of the current CEO and the incoming CEO in tandem. This condensed the news cycle and consumers primarily read stories related to the next chapter.
Incoming CEO credentials and vision narratives attract readers.
While top-read articles focused on Starbuck’s private jet being used for the incoming CEOs super-commute, the fact that he was previously the successful CEO of Chipotle led the narrative, with articles calling him “Chipotle’s redeemer” and “the person to revive Starbucks.”
For Nike, the narrative around its incoming CEO trended positive, portraying the change as “a stabilizing force” and “the return of Nike Veteran Executive.”
Comms strategies have market impacts.
As with any major leadership change at a public company, there are market implications. Boeing saw a dip in stock price following news of the CEO’s step down, poor earnings, and the new CEO announcement.
Brands like Starbucks and Nike saw a jump in stock price following the announcement of changes in leadership, both doubling down on messaging around leadership’s vision and future growth.
See more Memo research in our Resource Center.