Decision-Maker Moves Index 2026
Based on 2,700+ senior marketing appointments tracked across every major sector, Pearlfinders Decision-Maker Moves Index highlights where agency review windows are opening, the sectors generating the most opportunities, and the brands most likely to be reassessing their supplier relationships right now.
Agency Growth & New Business
Decision-Maker Moves Index
Know which sectors to target, which companies to call, and how to frame your pitch.
What else is happening at a company when a new decision-maker joins
Based on 1,014 companies where Pearlfinders analysts identified a new senior marketing appointment alongside other intelligence about that organisation.
Companies with a new senior hire tracked
1,014
With additional intelligence on the business
Average other changes happening simultaneously
1.67
1 in 7 companies has 3 or more at once
Most common business context
Sales up
29% — new hire walking into a growth mandate
Strongest indicator of agency opportunity
Stale pipeline
No new products launched — 3× more common alongside new hires
What else is changing at these companies
Other significant business changes happening at the same time — present in more than 5% of companies. Click any item for a pitch angle tip.
What makes these companies distinctive
Business changes significantly more common at companies with a new senior hire — above 1.5× is meaningful
Agency work most likely to be needed
Based on what Pearlfinders analysts specifically flagged as likely agency requirements in their company intelligence reports — and how much more often each comes up when there's a new senior hire vs when there isn't
New CEO vs new marketing leader — a different brief
CEO arrivals bring more strategic upheaval and financial pressure; marketing hires bring more execution focus
New senior hires tracked month by month
Each one a potential review window opening in 60–90 days
New senior marketing leader
New CEO or equivalent
New junior decision-maker or senior influencer
Where marketing investment is moving — sector share of appointments
Each sector's share of total senior appointments month by month. Finance leads consistently; FMCG Food has cooled significantly; Apparel is surging. Use this to decide where to concentrate your BD effort.
Consistently dominant sector
Finance
~13–18% of all moves every month
Biggest share gainer
Apparel
5.9% → 11.4% share over 12 months
Biggest share loser
FMCG Food
11.8% → 4.2% — structural cooling
One to watch
IT & Comms
Spike to 8.4% in Jun '26 — highest in 12 months
External vs internal hires — how open is the door?
70% of all senior marketing appointments went to an outside candidate. The breakdown by sector tells you where you're most likely to get a hearing — and where companies tend to look inward first.
Overall external hire rate
70%
1,905 of 2,706 went outside
C-suite external rate
67%
Companies look outside even at chief level
Most open sector
Finance
81% external — highest of any major sector
Most insular sector
Auto
57% external — tends to promote from within
External hire rate by sector
Blue = external hire · Green = internal promotion
External hire
Internal promotion
Where decision-makers are arriving from — and what it means for your pitch
When a new marketing leader joins from a different sector, they bring their previous world with them — its agencies, its approaches, its blind spots. That shapes both the opportunity and how you should frame it.
Most travelled route
Retail → Leisure
13 moves — the single most common cross-sector pipeline
Most cross-sector destination
Pharma / Health
75% of known external hires arrived from a different sector
Most insular destination
Finance
Only 35% crossed sector lines — hires mostly from within finance
Surprise route
IT & Comms → Finance
7 tech marketers crossed into financial services
Specialist disciplines — what roles are actually being hired
Of 2,706 appointments, 65% are brand and general marketing roles. The remaining 35% are specialist disciplines — and where they concentrate by sector tells you exactly which agency capabilities to lead with.
Specialist Hires
While the majority of appointments are Brand & General Marketing, here is the split of specialist remits by job title
Where disciplines concentrate by sector
Sectors hiring a discipline at 2× or more the overall average — your strongest pitch signals
Discipline trends: H2 2025 vs H1 2026
Which specialist areas are growing their share of appointments — and which are shrinking
Sector opportunity score
Appointment volume × external hire rate — a composite measure of where genuinely open doors are most concentrated
Priority targets — most new senior hires
Companies with multiple new senior marketing joiners in the last 6 months — highest probability of a broad agency review
The 90-day review window — your live pipeline
Senior marketing decision-makers typically review agency relationships within 90 days of joining. Here is where the pipeline sits right now.
ACT NOW
Review window open
266
Appointed 60–90 days ago. Supplier reviews happening right now.
WARM UP
Window opens in ~1 month
267
Appointed 30–60 days ago. Start building relationships today.
ON RADAR
Window opens in ~2 months
254
Appointed in the last 30 days. Track and monitor — don't pitch yet.
How to work this pipeline
Now — 60 to 90 days
Reach out directly. Introduce your agency, offer a perspective on their category, request a chemistry meeting. They are actively reassessing suppliers.
Soon — 30 to 60 days
Build awareness. Send relevant content, get on their radar via LinkedIn, warm up mutual connections. Position before they open the door.
On radar — 0 to 30 days
Research and prepare. Understand their category, their previous agency roster, what they'll likely need. Be ready to move fast in 6 weeks.
Pipeline by sector
Toggle between pipeline stages to see which sectors have the most decision-makers in each window
Ready to act? Get the names, titles and contact details of every decision-maker in the window
View Decision-Maker Moves on Pearlfinders
Who's in the window right now — decision-maker roles
Appointments from 60–90 days ago by job title — the people conducting supplier reviews this month
Monthly appointment volume — your forward pipeline
Each month's appointments become your 90-day review window approximately 2–3 months later
C-suite (CMO, CBO, CCO)
Director / Head of
Manager / Other
The new business case in numbers: There are 266 senior marketing decision-makers currently inside their 90-day review window — Finance (38), Retail (24) and Leisure (23) generating the most right now. A further 521 are in the pipeline for the next two months. HSBC (11 new hires in 6 months), Lego (10) and BT Group (9) are the highest-probability targets. 70% of all senior roles went to an outside candidate — the door is open, and it stays open even at Chief level.