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Golin Study: Ceos Scale Back Visibility In 2025
(MENAFN- PRovoke)
CHICAGO - Golin's fourth CEO Impact Index captures a“Great Rethink” in executive visibility, as Fortune 250 leaders scaled back public engagement in the first half of 2025.
The findings show CEOs becoming more selective and strategic about when and where they communicate, a shift with clear implications for corporate communicators.
The semiannual study analyzed more than 32,000 data points across the top 250 CEOs on the Fortune 500, ranking them on eight dimensions of visibility including earned media, events, sentiment and employee engagement. It found a 30% drop in earned-media exposure and a loss of more than 1 trillion impressions compared with late 2024.
Half of all CEO coverage occurred in just two months - January and April - as political and policy uncertainty peaked following the start of President Trump's second administration. Golin describes the period as a“cone of retreat,” reflecting intentional caution rather than disengagement.
Even amid the pullback, CEOs became more deliberate about controlled environments. Event participation rose 23%, and LinkedIn activity increased by an average of two posts per CEO. Those who combined visibility with clear narratives around AI adoption, workforce development and collaboration ranked highest; those who focused narrowly on cost-cutting or reactive layoffs fell behind.
“The first half of 2025 proved to be a real testing ground for CEO communications,” said senior advisor Brian Besanceney. "The data show a rapid and intentional shift in CEO behavior with leaders pulling back from public engagement at the same time as policy complexity and technological transformation intensify. The CEO role is increasingly a high-wire act that requires a new level of strategic thinking and precision, because less communication is not necessarily more effective for business results right now."
Policy issues dominated the public agenda, accounting for more than a quarter of coverage, a six-fold jump in government-related content compared with 2024, while sustainability and DEI fell from the Index's top“megatrends” for the first time since 2023.
Golin recommends that communicators integrate corporate and government affairs, maintain active policy monitoring, and apply risk analysis to every public engagement.
The report also shows how AI is reshaping leadership storytelling. Mentions of AI among non-tech CEOs rose 36% in H1 2025. Top performers paired their AI narratives with visible commitments to employee training and human-AI collaboration, a pattern Golin associates with higher sentiment and engagement scores.
New CEOs faced additional pressure. Incoming leaders averaged 8% lower overall scores than incumbents, particularly on employee engagement and events - a gap Golin says underscores the importance of early, coordinated engagement planning.
The findings show CEOs becoming more selective and strategic about when and where they communicate, a shift with clear implications for corporate communicators.
The semiannual study analyzed more than 32,000 data points across the top 250 CEOs on the Fortune 500, ranking them on eight dimensions of visibility including earned media, events, sentiment and employee engagement. It found a 30% drop in earned-media exposure and a loss of more than 1 trillion impressions compared with late 2024.
Half of all CEO coverage occurred in just two months - January and April - as political and policy uncertainty peaked following the start of President Trump's second administration. Golin describes the period as a“cone of retreat,” reflecting intentional caution rather than disengagement.
Even amid the pullback, CEOs became more deliberate about controlled environments. Event participation rose 23%, and LinkedIn activity increased by an average of two posts per CEO. Those who combined visibility with clear narratives around AI adoption, workforce development and collaboration ranked highest; those who focused narrowly on cost-cutting or reactive layoffs fell behind.
“The first half of 2025 proved to be a real testing ground for CEO communications,” said senior advisor Brian Besanceney. "The data show a rapid and intentional shift in CEO behavior with leaders pulling back from public engagement at the same time as policy complexity and technological transformation intensify. The CEO role is increasingly a high-wire act that requires a new level of strategic thinking and precision, because less communication is not necessarily more effective for business results right now."
Policy issues dominated the public agenda, accounting for more than a quarter of coverage, a six-fold jump in government-related content compared with 2024, while sustainability and DEI fell from the Index's top“megatrends” for the first time since 2023.
Golin recommends that communicators integrate corporate and government affairs, maintain active policy monitoring, and apply risk analysis to every public engagement.
The report also shows how AI is reshaping leadership storytelling. Mentions of AI among non-tech CEOs rose 36% in H1 2025. Top performers paired their AI narratives with visible commitments to employee training and human-AI collaboration, a pattern Golin associates with higher sentiment and engagement scores.
New CEOs faced additional pressure. Incoming leaders averaged 8% lower overall scores than incumbents, particularly on employee engagement and events - a gap Golin says underscores the importance of early, coordinated engagement planning.
The firm concludes that corporate affairs leaders are operating in their“most pivotal moment in decades,” said Sarah Vellozzi, Golin's US corporate affairs managing director. Communicators are now expected to coordinate responses across political, technological and workforce changes where precision, credibility and control matter more than constant visibility.
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