Transcription
This is going to be a very, very special episode of Marketing for the Now. Marketing for the Now is the most contemporary show about what's actually happening. Marketing is going through one of its biggest transformations ever, where this thing controls the game. And there's so many things we pay attention to, but we get to talk to the brightest and best minds in marketing on marketing.
I'm Avery, and I'm Chris from Gallery Media Group, and we are so thrilled to be hosting the first ever future CMO summit. We are at the beautiful Miraval in the Birkers, and we've had the incredible privilege of hosting 25 marketing leaders from some of the world's best brands. We've got folks from PepsiCo, from Meta, from H&R Block, from Under Armour, from New Balance, from Michaels, and so many other incredible places. And Chris, I feel like we've learned a lot. We've learned so much about where people are focused and understanding the platform changes, their thoughts on experiential, and I think just the internal human component of what leading a marketing organization in 2025 looks like, which is complicated, but they're doing interesting stuff. They are doing it though. This is a really interesting time to be in the world of marketing.
So, tune in to hear the next 12 incredible marketing leaders who are sharing their secrets, where they started, where they've been, and where they're going next. I'm so thrilled to be sitting here with Lauren Prescott, who just got a big new promotion at PepsiCo. Congratulations, Lauren.
Thank you so much. It means more time for you and I together. So, that's probably the best part of the promotion. This is wonderful news. Um, Lauren has had an absolutely storied career at PepsiCo. Please share a little bit about it.
Oh my gosh. Storied. So, a decade in, what I'll tell you is this: No two days are the same. And what I love about the company is I think what keeps so many of us there, which is we reinvent ourselves. And so that's sort of been my journey there. Starting in our water category, uh, launching Life Water, which is love, love, right? Don't like love. Spending time on our coffee partnership, in our operating divisions on brand Pepsi, helping with our sports platforms. And so gosh, there's just so much to learn. And it's an academy-like institution, right? Where the expectation is that you have broadening critical experiences, uh, and the folks who rotate towards them I think are uh the most interesting people at the organization right now.
I completely believe that, and actually here at the future CMO summit, we have several PepsiCo alumni, and everyone just speaks so highly of the company, and I think part of that is this idea of a culture of innovation, which I think PepsiCo just has down, you know, through acquisitions, through new product innovations, through new geographical expansions. I've had the pleasure of working with PepsiCo brands everywhere in the world except for Africa.
Um, wow. So worldwide PepsiCo partnerships. Africa, exactly the last— careful what I wish for— um, but Lauren, can you tell me a little bit about that culture of innovation that really drives so many PepsiCo leaders?
It's such an informed question, and I, I love the question because PepsiCo is innovation, and it is decades of transformation. What I think is so interesting about the culture of innovation right now at our organization is it doesn't just belong to marketing anymore. And I feel like that's the superpower of the organization today. So let me tell you a little bit more about that. We have the smartest leaders ever, just super smarties, who have a saying which is: Creativity is what drives long-term sustained growth, right? And so creativity, innovation, and marketing are our brands' superpowers. That's probably not that novel of a of a statement, but gosh, that feels good for a marketing department to hear, big and broad strategic. That's it. Creativity is a multiplier for growth. Full stop. No debate. And once that's sort of set as the base of the organization, what I think has been so special is that also now is integrated into every other function. So you turn up at a meeting with a steer co and our CFO is like, "How much household penetration do you think that's going to drive?" And our head of sales is like, "What's the consumer tension there for this new product launch?" And so what I've seen certainly over the last decade, accelerated in the last 5 years, is this idea that a culture of innovation is belonging to everyone. And when uh we are curious and we are consumer-centric, I've just seen us move so fast on this journey of transforming to where the consumer needs us to be, and the consumer needs hydration. They need delicious products everywhere in the world. Smiles and joy and uplift.
You know, one of my very favorite PepsiCo products is actually Bubbly. I love the flavor innovation. So, whoever is in charge of that, chef's kiss to them.
I'll send your I'll send your best. Maybe we need to get you into the labs. What's your favorite flavor right now?
I love the novelty flavors. This is just a personal side, but there's like melted ice pop and like lemon sorbet. I'm like, "Sign me up for all of them." Of course, we always have PepsiCo products at the office, and I love the bubblies. My team knows that I'm crushing bubblies at all times. How could you not feel happy? I feel that way about so many of our products, though, right? I'm very partial to our Frappuccino, and we just launched what we're calling Frappuccino Light, which is a 100-calorie version of Frappuccino.
Oh, we needed that. The consumers— there was an unmet need. I defy you to taste the difference, and like gosh, it just makes it so permissible and something that I'm enjoying uh as part of my everyday smile routine.
I love that. So Lauren, across this like decade plus of you being at PepsiCo, helping to lead and shape this culture of innovation, you've had many different marketing roles across different brands, across different specific roles that have sort of led you to where you are today. What do you think is that marketing superpower that's propelled a lot of that growth and you know, super speedy trajectory?
I think saying yes is the best advice I could give to anyone. And if it's yes to a role or um a broadening experience, but yes to a project. So I always start from a place of of yes, and that's worked out well so far. I think when we think about what are PepsiCo's superpowers and certainly what I hope to learn and give to the organization, what I think about is that curiosity of really understanding the why. Because when you get the human problem right, the solutions flow from there. And we have some really great leaders who give us examples of what does it look like to navigate the organization with high-quality relationships, but have those really novel ideas that answer real human problems. And that's how Bubbly came to be, right? It's a sparkling water that acts like a soda because that's what people were craving. That's not a business challenge. That's a people thing that you can make better. And that's the best part of marketing.
That is so true. I also love those little tabs. The smiley thing on the tabs is so nice. Those little like words of affirmation. How would a sparkling water act if it were a soda? It would have little things that say, "Hey, you."
Exactly. So Lauren, you know, throughout the summit, we've talked a lot about the role of social media and how brands are being built today, often harnessing the power of social media, bringing that along as a red thread. How have you seen the role of social media shift in the past uh decade at PepsiCo?
Yeah, I think or or more broadly, right? I I think Gary Vaynerchuk says it best: Or is it social media or is it interest media? And that's really impactful when you look at it through that prism of what are the things that people find interesting and then looking at our content as entertainment and as things that enrich people's lives. And we're certainly on our own creative journey there. But that's a great orientation, and that hasn't always been the case. I'm sure you remember. I mean, I think the whole industry has just shifted so much in the past decade. I mean, we're sitting right here with *Day Trading Attention*, which is Gary's latest and seventh New York Times bestseller. He's been writing about this for the last 10 years with, you know, *Crush It* and *Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook*. Um, and it's really interesting just to see how the big brand journey has, as you say, rotated towards this and embrace this as a real part of the marketing mix in a way that it was— it's always been there as kind of a a thought, but I think in the last, you know, couple of years, we've really seen this become a big priority. Gary has been stunningly consistent on this topic and is a reaching frequency.
Reaching frequency. That's right. and consistency and breakthrough and discipline. And he has all of those things. And gosh, it feels good to really embrace what he's been talking about. And uh what's so exciting about the summit is you see a lot of large organizations approaching it different ways that are both inspiring but also uh wouldn't be a good fit for every organization. And that's when you know it's hit the mainstream where everyone is trying to figure out how they embed it as as part of the core of their business.
Absolutely. Well, Lauren, thank you so much for joining us at the summit and thank you for being here on Marketing for the Now and sharing your words of wisdom.
I am so thrilled to be sitting here with Sean Rossi from Bose. Sean, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me. How's the future CMO summit been so far?
Ah, such a transformational experience. Just being able to connect with so many professionals and finding that we're navigating the same challenges, even if different brands, different industry— fundamentally the consumer challenges are all the same. So, it's great to be able to connect with them.
We are so excited to get the chance to spend a little bit more time with you, get to know you a little bit better, and also, you know, bounce ideas. I mean, Sean, you've had a lot of really good contributions um to this future CMO summit from your perspective, both the work that you've done at Bose and and the work that you've done with a lot of other incredible companies across the globe.
Quite unexpected, definitely not planned. I started in sales and then fell into marketing by chance really. So, every job was not a planned one, was just a great opportunity at a great time and also be in a position to seize those opportunities and go with the flow.
Um, so you just mentioned P&G, which is a dear Vayner partner and you know a brand I think that has done such an incredible job developing generations of marketing talent. We heard from Jim Stangle this morning, and he shared a little bit about sort of the journey to becoming a CMO. From your perspective, how do you think the CMO role has evolved since you started your career in marketing?
It's interesting that on one hand there's so many fundamentals that are never changing, and going back to the sale— those fundamentals are the one that are really keeping me sane if you will, with everything changing so fast all the time— one is the power of the brands— didn't realize how much I learned of that while at my time at that P&G— it really gets ingrained in you, right? Yeah, even without you realizing, but then really being able to move fast and keep up with the pace of change, just accepting and embracing that change is the key. Um, I think it's very interesting to see how the level playing field changed now with social— uh, big brands don't hold the playbook anymore, and uh big corporation needs to get out of their way to keep the pace, and that's I think is a big challenge now.
So you said two interesting things in that I'm going to pull them apart one by one. First, you said social has leveled the playing field. What do you mean by that?
Well, it's not about skill anymore. It's about having that agility, that understanding of the consumer, that finger on the pulse, and being able to connect all those three things at a flip of a dime and being super fast and agile, raw— that is something that again, for a large organization, still something difficult. And also the risk aversion that a company can go and face is something that needs to push for a new behavior that companies still have to get.
Yeah. And you also mentioned speed. You mentioned speed a few times sort of across the last few days at the summit. What does speed mean to you and and how do you think about executing with strategy but speed?
On one hand is really empowering the teams, trust, and let them go with the flow, and at the other side, making sure that you have a clear strategy that can understand and be their northstar. Um, making sure that the company itself don't get in the way of that agility is key. But there's a trade-off between how much you want to control the narrative and how much you want to flow with the narrative. And how do you think about those trade-offs?
It's a neverending game of balance, if you will. Um, but so I'm gonna I'm gonna interrupt you for a second. Excuse me. And um, one sort of quote that I saw written on the walls of Miraval was: Balance isn't something you find, it's something you create.
Oh, that's interesting. I didn't see that.
Yeah, they had it on the wall when you checked in, and I was like, you know, that's something that's really interesting because people are sometimes, you know, you are seeking balance, but then especially in marketing, I feel like it's realizing that you need to create that harmony and that balance. It's about creating it, but also it's never something that you find and then stay. You need to keep working at it.
How are you thinking about creating that balance today at Bose? You all are doing so many cool things.
First of all, that's a neverending challenge. It's an every day— you you start a new day and you start from the ground up. It's about again empowering the team, moving as fast as you can. In my role, I try to keep the team shielded from the daily distraction of the business and making sure that you keep connecting the brand to the business objective to what's going on outside of the company where you can latch on on c on on on culture on trend. Um, it's a neverending quest, and it's simply about enjoying that ride and making sure that you keep up the energy up to to go with it.
And as you think about a channel like social, how is Bose tapping into social? You all have a bunch of really exciting things newly out, like even TikTok shops. Talk to me a little bit about this.
Well, something that we definitely found that is way better to get outside validation as opposed to speaking about ourselves. So, we're really tapping now in this outside network of creators, empower them to actually go in a narrative, embrace and internalize what Bose means for them and also be on one hand a media channel but also potentially a distribution channel. We started already in China on TikTok. We just started now in the US, and we're learning so much. Again, it's a playbook that we're writing as we're playing it.
Okay. So, you're writing as you're playing it. You're executing with speed and agility, and you're creating that harmony and balance. Sean, it seems like you are up to so many cool things at Bose. We're so grateful for you joining us here and joining us and sharing your insights on Marketing for the Now.
Shelby, thank you so much for joining us on Marketing for the Now.
Thank you for having me.
It is such a pleasure to have you here with us in the Birkers.
Thank you for taking the time.
Thank you for having me. It's been great, and I think I've learned so much and I'm really excited to take that back and contributed so much. So let's start off with a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your career, and what you're doing today.
Sure. So I lead the go-to-market function at H&R Block. It sits at the intersection of business and marketing; um, you know, we know how marketing and business are coming closer together, and marketing is the business, and I think my function helps bridge that gap primarily through customer-centered strategy. So really understanding what the client is thinking, wanting, what are their pain points at any point in time, and then how do the products that we have serve the needs of our clients, and what are the right marketing platforms, strategies, etc. to bring those products, bring our value prop closer to the client, and so that's the role that my team plays at Block.
That is a very important role. Shelby, you know, you've shared a little bit across the summit around your career journey, some unexpected twists and turns, being in the US, getting your MBA. Kind of talk— talk me through how you how you got here.
Yeah, I also look back and I'm like, "How did I get here?" I think it's been a very instinctive journey. I started in my family business back at home in India. And so I learned a lot about all aspects of business. It was a software firm. And so I learned, you know, what it means to manage vendors, marketing, you know, product development, customer-centered strategies. And then when I came to the US because I found love in India and he was moving here, and so I moved with him, you know, I wanted to really formalize my education. I had worked at my father's firm for 5 years, and I wanted to like really formalize the education and then go out there and see how those skills translated in a new context and geography. And so that's how I did my MBA in marketing and operations, both of which are, you know, functions that I dearly love.
And how was that transition from India to Wharton like? Was that a smooth jump like, or did you learn a bunch of things along the way?
It's not smooth to move geographies, but you know, over time, like I think your sense of self is really challenged when you come to a new context, a new place— you wonder if like what you were known for, what you are good at, if those values translate in this new setup that you're in. But I think so— it takes a little bit of time to like, you know, get anchored and grounded, but I think eventually you find that what makes you uniquely you makes you uniquely you whether you're in India or in the US, and I think once you sort of tap back into that sense of self, then I think it's really easy to like pick up from where you left off, but it took a bit of time, like I think even at B school, you know, just like finding my own voice, um, trying to understand how the skills that I had picked up through the course of my life uh translate in this like new environment, but also just such a great opportunity to learn and expand and uh grow as a human, which I think is very dear to just how I operate.
So wow. Yeah, what an incredible story. And you know, you're here at the future CMO summit at the recommendation of Joel Kress, who really— as this like next generation marketing leader. What do you think are some of the skills that tomorrow's future CMOs like— what are they going to need to know? What are some that maybe are transferable and some that are like net new needs?
Yeah, I think listening is most important. Like I feel like the power of listening um cannot be underrated, but especially in today's world. Um, we were talking about this, but innovation today is happening on the margins. I feel like it's, you know, listening to a comment on social for H&R Block. It's listening to our tax pros. It's listening to how a client is describing their tax situation and the value that we provide in their lives. And so like really actively listening to every stakeholder. Marketing is I think such a unique function where um active listening and collaboration with your stakeholders can drive innovation and outcomes in a way that's, you know, unprecedented. And so how do you— I think— cultivate listening. Um, I know it's so basic and foundational, but I think it's a key skill, and all the leaders that I've looked up to, marketing or otherwise, I think have been people who listen and learn, and I think that's a a key skill set, but especially in marketing where the landscape is ever evolving, and you know, if you don't listen, you will be left behind, and so I would say like that's the number one thing for for people to cultivate— be a great active listener. And we've been talking a lot about social media um at this summit. How do you use social media as a listening tool?
Uh, I think we have really started leveraging social as a feedback loop. Um, there's two— two— two ways in which we get feedback. One is really what are…
People talking about, right? So what's relevant in culture at any point in time? We spoke about this this morning, but like, the price of eggs is such a hot topic of conversation and really understanding and unpacking what that's about. It's really the consumer sentiment of the day-to-day of every American. It's not the eggs, it's the inflation, right?
Yeah. It's not breakfast, right? Like it's the inflation; it's what that means to them. And like, really understanding that in this moment where people are distressed and, um, you know, considering their day-to-day choices, what is the role that a brand like ours can play in driving comfort and championing them, uh, to live their best financial lives? And so part of like listening on social is, you know, just listening broadly and listening for what's prevalent in culture and in this moment of time. Um, and then part two is listening to what people are talking about you and your brand. You know, how are they interacting with you? What are they saying in comments? Um, and that gives you enough insight to say like, what do you want to lean into creatively or RTBs? What is the key message, um, that you need to drive in this moment in time?
Wow. Amazing. And you know, I think that that's such a perfect encapsulation of the different dimensions of how social can really help be part of that feedback loop.
Yeah. I mean, we're so lucky we're in a time where the consumer is so close by, right? Like you can at scale listen to what your consumer is saying, which, you know, you would spend millions of dollars in researching to like get that one insight. Now like the insight is available at your fingertips if you so choose to engage. And I think the role that AI can play in, you know, social listening and helping distill those insights to tell you on a day-to-day basis what the pulse of the consumer is is so powerful and, um, I think it's going to be game-changing.
Absolutely. Well, Shelby, I can't wait to see, um, the next generation of talent that you help nurture and unlock. Thank you so much for being here with us and for sharing your insights on marketing for the now.
Awesome. Thank you. I'm so thrilled to be here with Tyler Ratstein from Under Armour. Tyler, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me. How's the future CMO summit so far?
It's been awesome. Been talking a lot about social media and also just like everyone has a different perspective or their brands in a different life cycle or or place. So, it's been really cool just learning from everyone and getting to know everyone. And the Birkers is pretty special place too. And it's kind of snowing. It's kind of snowing which is a little bit crazy for April. The weather is sunny, it's snowing, it's all the things. But we're here to talk about marketing. So, Tyler, tell me about your career in marketing. How did it start and where are you now?
It started in college, I guess I I should say. I was at the University of Florida, won national championship yesterday. Go Gators. Uh, got an internship at the WTA tour and started writing the stories about athletes for their website at the time. And then that helped me get a job right out of college with Adidas. So, I spent about nine years there. The first two years were in Chicago. I was somewhat lucky in the sense that Derrick Rose was was there, the youngest MVP ever, born and raised in Chicago playing for the Chicago Bulls and I love basketball. I was the guy on the ground really like helping with grassroots marketing and so kind of got my my name out there in the space and then got a call to move to Portland, Oregon to work at Adidas in the US headquarters, uh, around basketball North America and really focus on signature and then spent about 3 years in Portland. Went to Germany for world headquarters for 2 years and worked on brand strategy for global key cities. So it was New York, LA, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Paris. I got to focus on the six key cities, think about how they all the trends really start there and the halo effect on winning and what the micro influencers were doing in those cities. It was like it was like getting my real world NBA I say. So I like saw the world and it was like such an immersive experience and learned a ton along the way. And then arguably at that time Adidas was having way more success, uh, with like fashion and style for, you know, Kanye at the time as well. So, I moved to New York City to help work on that whole, uh, that whole team and department and really think about that from a North America standpoint. And then about I don't know, a year and a half, two years into that role, um, I started to just like think about what my next move would be. I didn't necessarily want to move back to Portland, Oregon, and was thinking like, you know, everyone was talking about startups at that time and scaling a business and had the opportunity to meet with the CEO and founder Dan Porter of Overtime. And at that time it was just an Instagram account. But every time I would meet with him and we talk about like work in the world, I was always just like blown away by how he was thinking and the way in which, you know, he wanted to approach the the business and the opportunity because it was so much more in his head. And so I joined that, uh, shortly after a few meetings with him, was a chief brand officer there for 5 years. We turned it into a media platform and then we started creating our own sports IP around leagues. We had Overtime Elite, OT7 football property, OTX boxing, and overtime select women's basketball.
Great 5-year run. Loved every minute of it. Was a ton of work and really understood like the startup mentality working for a founder and then the opportunity, uh, came knocking to, uh, help reinvigorate Under Armour and I, um, it was a great opportunity, like I really thought about it in three ways I think. Um, one would be it was an opportunity for me to learn a ton. Um, such an incredible brand with so much history. Next year it'll be 30 years old, believe it or not. Um, also who you work for is is, you know, probably the biggest factor of all time. The CMO of Adidas when I was in Germany is now the global brand president and in my opinion, he's like a generational CMO. Daniel Cherry.
Eric Licky. Okay. Eric Licky. And my I have two bosses cuz I have kind of this dual role. Cara Trent is my boss as well and she's the president of the Americas and she's a future CEO at either Under Armour or any company. She's like incredible. Um, and then obviously the founder is Kevin Plank. He's back as a CEO and he's so passionate, so dynamic, incredible to work with. And so all of those things really, um, kind of melded together in terms of all I'm going to learn a ton, get to work for incredible people and the opportunity and the challenge is is is just ripe for the taking I think in the marketplace. And so, uh, been in the role about 3 months and very excited about, uh, the opportunity ahead.
All right. Amazing. And when you you just mentioned a lot of incredible leaders who've sort of shaped your career and and you know, been an attraction to you traveling across the world building a lot of these brands doing a lot of cool things in sports. When you think of the commonalities of those CMOs, like what are those red threads? They're or are they all totally different?
They I mean they all have been incredibly different. I think, um, you know, some of them have been able to really just like drive organizational change and really see it at a macro level and how we should be structured and what the operating model should look like and what the offense should be. And also I think, you know, Eric is such an amazing brand marketer but he no one knows more about product than than he does. And I think like just from the details and the fabric and like what he's done around sustainability and then also on the flip side like my time with Dan Porter who is a serial entrepreneur but also at the same time like when some CEOs might not understand TikTok anymore and they need to look at who's the young, you know, kid at the company that really understands the platform. He knew more about TikTok and like social media and trend than anybody else. So I always have had that balance and I think that's helped me, uh, just always kind of understand the details, understand the strategy but also really think like how are we going to create, you know, organizational change, build the brand, drive culture and and all those things. So I've had some really great experiences from some some brilliant people.
It seems like a, you know, one commonality that really matters to you is practitionership whether that's TikTok or fabrication, like people who really are in the details, really know their business and then that helps them sort of communicate that both internally through stakeholder management, um, externally through various relationships and of course through marketing initiatives.
Yep, I'd say so. I think I've also moved around a decent amount even though I've only been at, you know, three companies more or less throughout my career. I moved in a lot of different roles and so I got to dive into a particular function for two or three years and then kind of go from there or even, you know, even at a startup like we were always just in building mode and so you had to go really deep especially when you're in like an emerging sports category or business like the level of detail and just understanding because the the kid or the consumer will just if you're not being authentic they'll just sus it out and so I think that's been a big driving force in terms of like this is what success success looks like.
So, speaking of success, you've been at, um, Under Armour for just three months. You've already had a breakout viral campaign. Shared a little bit about it today. Can you share a little bit about it with our marketing for the now community?
Yeah, for sure. We, um, you know, with with Under Armour, obviously being in sporting moments, we have to try and own that conversation, which I think is, you know, some of the biggest challenges in in marketing. We found ourselves heading towards the national championship, uh, with Notre Dame in January and we wanted to do some incredible storytelling around that. Um, Notre Dame is one of our pinnacle football programs and Shane Gillis, the comedian, the controversial comedian, uh, kicked off of SNL but also widely popular, has been a diehard Notre Dame fan and very vocal about it, uh, has been on college game day, took a jab at Nick Sabin, and so just understanding like the cultural conversation there, we decided to take a shot and see if he would want to, you know, kind of co-author and be a part of our spot going into the national championship. He was down. He helped co-write, uh, an incredible spot called Shane's Prayer. And it was really from the audience or the fans' perspective. And I think, you know, it really just showed in the engagement, the shares, uh, Pat McAfee show had Shane on and they aired the spot just altogether without any paid or anything behind it. We weren't part of that at all. And so it really just connected the whole, you know, here's someone who's super authentic to the fan base, widely popular and viral, kind of in his own moment right now. And it just really hit the cultural conversation that a lot of fans hadn't been able to talk about. Plus, there were jokes and sports betting. And it was also kind of around prayer, which is a touchy subject, especially as Notre Dame. Especially Notre Dame, especially as a brand marketer. But it hit and struck all those those chords. And I think that all those ingredients really helped it become a success. Perfect example of marketing for the now.
Tyler, thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me. I'm so thrilled to be joined by Jeff from New Balance. Jeff, nice kicks.
Thanks so much. It's great to be here today.
Good to see you.
Great to see you. So, tell the marketing for the NIO community a little bit about you, a little bit about Jeff, and a little bit about how you got to your role, um, leading marketing for New Balance.
So, uh, I am vice president of global marketing, uh, for New Balance, headquartered out of Boston. Uh, I've been in marketing for about 25 years. Um, started my career, uh, back in the late 90s with, uh, an internship at Colgate-Palmolive that then led to a role, uh, with Bayer Consumer Care in Morristown, New Jersey. Uh, I was there for about three years and then I did 10 years with Welch's, uh, in Concord, Massachusetts. So really the first half of my marketing career was in, uh, more traditional CPG and then I moved over to the athletics industry in 2010 and I've been with New Balance for 15 years. I I came in, uh, in an international role, um, and I've moved, uh, with the company as the company has grown and I now lead global marketing, um, out of the Boston office.
Have you moved around the world with New Balance then?
Uh, I haven't moved but I've been around the world.
Okay. Traveled around the world.
Traveled a lot. We do business in about 137 countries. Um, so I've been in I've been in all continents in which we have retail, uh, operations. Uh, I try to get to Asia at least twice a year, sometimes three times a year. Same for Europe. Uh, less so now to Latin America, but in the early part of my career when I was in international, um, Latin America was in a growth mode and I spent more time down there.
Fantastic. So over the last 25 years, you've probably seen the role of marketing leader shift pretty dramatically.
Yes. Any kind of like key watershed moments that have been a part of your career that you've been like, "Wow, the game has changed" or has it just been this constant game of change?
It's it's been I'll give maybe a paradoxical answer to that question. It it's the the the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed. You know, we as marketers are trying to change behavior, right? We're trying to change people's understanding of a brand, uh, and what they do about that understanding. So, that hasn't changed. The way by which we achieved that goal has changed radically. You know, when I came into marketing, um, it was a much more simple equation to understand what was working and what was not. You know, I can remember the days and I and I frankly missed the days of, you know, marketing mix analysis and you knew exactly, you know, how much print was driving in terms of incremental volume versus TV versus, you know, what was then called consumer promotions. Those days are long gone. You know, now now we're looking at things, um, you know, is that the old name for shopper? It would be it would be like, uh, like coupons.
Yeah, shopper events.
Shopper.
Yeah, shopper market. I haven't heard that term in a while.
So, yes.
Oh, shopper still kicking around the world of CPG.
Yes, indeed. So, it's I'm a little out of
Well, so you think that the fundamentals have stayed pretty consistent. The mediums have changed in the last maybe let's just focus in the last 10 years at New Balance. What are the channels that you've really seen shifting in their importance to your brand?
You know, for for us, you know, as as an athletic brand, what matters most is that we are present when moments in sport culture are most relevant to our consumers. And so, uh, that means that, you know, our our marketing plan basically follows the calendarization of sport culture, you know. So, so we look at what's going on in the different sports we compete in. We go we look at what's going on with, uh, with the entertainers and artists that we work with. And that really sets the stage for when we want to show up. And then we're using we're using predominantly social channels to make those connections. And the the formula we use is and and it's tried and true. Um, sounds very basic, but replicating it is where the complexity is. The formula we use is to make sure that we're lining up the right product with the right partner. So that could be an athlete or a federation or an event, um, at the right moment in culture, you know, and when we get those three lined up, that's where we see, you know, a significant, you know, social media blast radius.
Oh, absolutely. You had shared a little bit about a recent hugely successful viral campaign in Tokyo. Can you give a little bit more details around that, how it came to life? It seems like a nice illustration of your formula.
Yeah, that that was that was a that was a big one. Um, so we have the privilege of partnering with Shohei Otani, um, uh, who I don't think needs much explanation other than, you know, the greatest living baseball player right now. Um, and, uh, the MLB chose to open up the season this year in Tokyo. And as you would imagine, Shohei is, uh, his popularity is immense globally, but in Tokyo it it is is it is most. And so what we did was we had a we have a signature collection of Shohei Otani apparel. Um, we of course have a signature cleat for Shohei Otani and we made a custom made in USA 990 shoe which was available only in Japan and we made that available at a popup, uh, that we that we set up in Shibuya Crossing which anyone who has been to Tokyo will know it's the iconic busiest crossing in the world. Um, and so the Vayner office actually overlooks it.
Oh, is that right in Tokyo?
Great location. Um, so, so having having, you know, Shohei with the signature collection, the custom 990 at Shibuya the day before the MLB season opened up is probably the most, uh, near-perfect example of that formula in action. And that was last month.
Congratulations. That's incredible. And especially because there's such a culture in Japan of collectibles, I'm sure those things were flying.
They, you know, in our in in our, uh, vernacular, they evaporated. So, they they sold out immediately.
Okay. Awesome. Well, Jeff, as you think towards like the the future of the next generation of marketing leaders, what are some of the traits that you think are going to be important for them to embody?
Um, a couple things. First, I would and I would have answered this the same way throughout my career. Understand your consumer. You know, um, when when we look at the current growth New Balance has been experiencing, we've always grown as a company, but we've we've really enjoyed five years of of significant compound growth. Um, and I and I look back to in 2019 we did a significant amount of consumer research and and we understood that we have a common consumer globally. We call them the global independent. Um, we break them up into cohorts based on age between established super bottles and dads, right? If I recall that prunad.
Yes, indeed.
Indeed, we are the brand for everyone. Um, but but for targeting purposes having a single consumer target and then understanding what motivated them has changed all the material marketing successes we've had over the past 5 years. Um, I'll give you an example. You know, our right now and for the past four years our global TV campaign has been "We Got Now." When you see "We Got Now," it is what we would call a show don't tell campaign. It uses no copy. Um, it is integrating athletes and in some cases entertainers doing what they're doing and having fun with it.
Okay.
And and the fun part is something that came directly from the consumer research which told us that Gen Z consumers are in sport for fun which is a slight, you know, nuanced shift from their predecessors in Gen X where it was about competition and winning glory. So so that slight toggle is what has made this campaign I think puts the magic into the campaign. So long answer to your question, start with the consumer and then the second thing is understand how to preserve the integrity of your brand standard in ever-evolving media.
Okay.
It is and and and I know Vayner are experts in, you know, how to get a brand into a rapidly changing landscape. Um, and and I would say, you know, as as a marketer as a future marketing leader really understand that, you know, your brand is all that matters.
Okay.
And and you can't allow your brand to be deviated because of the shifting norms of how people are being communicated to. Um, there's ways to maintain those standards as you get into different channels and work with different types of creators. Um, but don't, uh, don't satisfy for any reductions in brand quality.
I love those two really clear points. Um, and also that's a great slogan. "We Got" (parentheses) marketing for the now. I like it.
All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Jeff. Such
A pleasure. It was a pleasure. Enjoy the conversation.
Erica, I am so thrilled to have you here at the Future CMO Summit and on this special episode of Marketing for the Now. Um, how's it going so far?
It's going wonderful. Fantastic. I'm like, I'm really enjoying my experience here. So, thanks for having me.
Thank you so much for joining us. Um, can you tell the marketing for the Now community a little bit about Erica?
Yes. Okay. So, I'm Erica Priestley. I am at Meta. I am a director of augmented reality. Specifically, what that means is I am overseeing um many of our marketing efforts that support our AI glasses. So that's the uh Meta, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses that some might, many people are starting to get familiar with. I know we had Gary actually demo um, as one of the first external testers and he told us amazing things.
Yes, we have lots of exciting things coming.
Okay, so Erica, how long have you been working in the field of marketing?
I've been in the field of marketing now for, oh my goodness, about 25 years now.
Oh my goodness. You need to drop your skincare routine. But I'm curious how you know, how you view the world of marketing and how it's changed in the last 25 years.
Yeah, that's a really good question. Actually, when we've talked about a bit in this this weekend, um, it has changed significantly. Um, I would say we've moved from when I first started off, brand was really king, and I would say as things have evolved, um, there's been a lot of question as to what like the real impact of brand. Um, I think marketing has always been a thing that feels a bit gray and um, and and maybe not as um quantifiable as some other disciplines. So, we've gone through some ebbs and flows, but I think what we've seen is that the brands that continue to be the strongest brands are those who do really believe in brand. And I've had the good fortune of working at several of those really solid powerhouse brands. Um, I'm really fortunate to have those experiences, and it's something that I'm super passionate about continuing to um, you know, sort of uh push and advance and also bring other folks along as well. So we've gone through many, many changes, moving from again more of a purist brand perspective to like really going all the way sort of to the right of performance. And I think where we're starting to get to is more of a middle place where we understand the necessity of performance but then also really value, or we're getting closer to getting back to valuing the power and the impact of brand.
Oh, absolutely. And you mentioned you've um worked at some pretty incredible places over your career. Can you share a little bit about some of them?
Yes, I have. I'm really proud of the brands that I've worked for for all these years. Um, I started off my career in advertising and then I moved client-side and went to work at PepsiCo. So working on many of the beverages, beverage businesses in uh Purchase in New York and really creating some magical things um, both on brand Pepsi to Mountain Dew to Sierra, which is now Starry, and then the coffee partnership, and then I went over to Beats very early on in 2011 um and started off in brand partnerships there. Um, and really moved that into what we called energy, which was a lot of our um earned media uh um efforts, collaborations, things that were really rooted in fashion, art, you know, music, all of these things. Uh, whether they be moments, IRL moments or actual product collaboration and strategies to drive us closer to the consumer from a cultural standpoint. Um, and then, um, I moved over to Starface, a beauty, uh a beauty brand targeted at Gen Z, Gen Alpha.
Great brand. Those cute little pimple patches that are shaped like a star.
Little patches that, although I'm not the target, I still like to wear because they're cute.
They are cute. And um, and then most recently, Meta. I've also been at Joan Betta. So, like real powerhouse brands that are all like I would say very iconic in their own way as it relates to the position that they they take as a brand.
Yeah. And I mean that roster is just like everything you touch seems to turn into gold and turn into brand love. Um, and I love your focus on driving using collaborations to ultimately build those brands. Um, if you think about like a common thread across, you know, a lot of your experiences, Um, what do you think it takes? What's that formula to finding the right partnership?
Yeah, I think that that's a great question because a lot of people are interested in collaborations. We were doing collaborations back in 2012, so very early on. And for for me, what I found to be most successful is making sure that there was a value equation that made sense for both brands. Um, I think there has to be an admiration and respect for the brand that you're partnering with and a value they can bring to the table, but then also a value you can bring. So how are they um allowing you to stretch into spaces that perhaps you wouldn't be able to go within your own brand or you're not quite there yet so you can borrow or or sort of accelerate your equity in terms of those partnerships. I think those are those are first and foremost, but in addition to that is just making sure that there's a brand fit in terms of love for whatever the product is that you're um that that that I'm sort of like representing. So whether it be Beats and making sure that the integral formula for those partners is that they are really connected to music, they care about music so that we have a foundation for storytelling.
So important. Same thing with Meta right now. We just recently did a collaboration with Coperni, which is a Parisian fashion brand. And part of the reason why, besides the fact that the product was beautiful, the Coperni team, Sebastian and Arnaud, they are obsessed with technology. So, this felt like a perfect compliment to the work that they're already doing. So, it felt like really organic and a natural story for people to understand.
Let's talk about that because it felt very organic and natural, yet I don't think everyone expects to see um Ray-Ban Metas at Paris Fashion Week. How did that come to be?
Yeah. So, you know, Ray-Ban actually has a pretty deep history in terms of like style and fashion. It's an iconic brand that has shown up on many beautiful faces, many beautiful places over the years. And so, they've done a great job of establishing themselves as an icon. Um, the way that this came about is, you know, Sebastian and Arnaud from um from Coperni, they um their brand is on fire. It really is. And again, as I mentioned, they were very much rooted in technology. Um, Meta has been, you know, like sort of has a relationship with them. We also on our fashion partnership side had had a relationship with them in terms of the admiration we had for the work that they were doing and just like creating that connection just generally, and the planets just all seemed to align because it was something for us like to continue to sort of deepen our footprint within fashion and and and and style is really important to us. And they just felt like it was just sort of like a very natural partnership. So between us and sort of our relationship with Meta and and Coperni in addition, us all connecting the dots, it just became like it just really made sense. And so it happened IRL, but there was also a huge social activation component.
Can you talk about how that sort of came together 360 because it was in person, it was like in a lot of trades, it was on social, and it seemed to be everywhere?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for us, social content, I mean it's, can you are Meta, I am Meta, we are a social media company right at the end of the day, so it's no shock that that's an integral part of all of our plans. So for us, yes, the moment and thinking through like the idea of having an IRL moment for us, making sure that we were really layering in and thinking about how we wanted to integrate creators, how do we want to partner with them to make sure that we were sending the message, how do we want to tap into content properties that we already have established that we know work really well and weaving everything together um was really the secret sauce to making this a very successful moment for us.
Well, congratulations. Um, it looked like an absolute smashing success. Um, and as you think about how other, you know, we've been talking about social a lot during this Future CMO Summit. As you think about some of the opportunities for brands in this space as Meta, as a social platform yourself, like what kind of comes to mind in terms of how brands can be tapping into new things on social, you know, brand building on social, driving relevance in it full stop?
So make sure that I think brands, what's most important is that first and foremost you immerse yourself within the space, but that you also have teams that really immerse themselves within the space, right? Um, it's changing, it's a fast-moving um environment, it changes all of the time. Um, first, you have to start with like having a very clear foundation for what your brand is, and then you have that foundation will allow you to really be clear on where you want to play and where you don't want to play because you can't play everywhere, right? It wouldn't make sense. So having that authentic presence is really important. But again, that hearkens back to the foundation. But just really making it your responsibility to live in it, be open to it, engage in it, and not be um scared, so scared and so precious about the brand. Because let's be honest, we all are very precious about our brand because we care. We're passionate about it. But social media at the end of the day, it's about letting other people in to allow you to extend their achieve your brand, but even their interpretation. So whether or not you want to get involved in that, you're going to do it. It's happening on Meta whether you're there or not.
Exactly.
Exactly. So just being open to the process and making yourself as um, you know, educated as you can, putting the right people in place to help advise you on that, I think are really important um tips.
I think that's such a perfect way to put it, and especially as we think of like the next generation of marketing leaders. You have to be in it. You can't be like, "Oh, have someone else do it. Agency outsource. Send me a report." You have to be in it, be reading the comments, be under using this as an insights engine for your brand. Like there's just really so, so much to be said here.
Thanks to your wonderful platform.
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Erica. Great to hear your insights. It is such a pleasure to have you here. Um, but first, tell the marketing for the now community a little bit about Seth.
I'm Seth Shaman. I'm the head of brand at Tubi. Um, and before Tubi, I was at Tinder, Amazon Prime Video, and Tumblr. So, as you can tell, I'm chronically online, and I hope that never changes.
I'm sure it won't. So, I would, if this were a year or two or three ago, I would explain what Tubi was, but Tubi now needs no introduction, thanks to the great work of the Tubi marketing team, in particular for this year's Super Bowl.
Thank you.
Yes, we did scare America with our flesh hats. But the good news for us is people can't forget about them. So, we have really seen a big increase in awareness.
I love that distinctive asset.
We love a distinctive asset, right? Like how do you break through in culture? Um, and we really broke through in a different way than we did in our first Super Bowl 2023 when we made everyone think that they were sitting on their remotes.
Oh, that was amazing. Hopefully everybody who's listening to this podcast knows uh Tubi was the number one most talked about brand during the Super Bowl 2025. And that had to do with a lot of different things from the orchestration on the ground in New Orleans to streaming the game to the hilarious Super Bowl spots to the Zillow, which we had the great pleasure of collaborating with Tubi on.
Um, so Seth, how did it feel? You know it. Todd Haynes, the director described premiering um a film, can as like throwing something off of the top of a wedding cake. And that's exactly how it felt. It felt like we spent six months creating this six-tiered cake, and then we just threw everything um at the audience at once, and you don't know what sticks, and it was exhilarating, exhausting um, but ultimately really satisfying, and I think we're very happy with the results that we've seen from the work that we did.
What a career milestone. So Seth, we're sitting here at the Future CMO Summit, and you've spent your whole career in marketing, right?
Not my whole career actually. I started um, I think like you, doing SMB sales at Google um and then I shifted towards consumer insight.
That's still advertising related though.
Advertising, but I wasn't doing creative marketing, right? You weren't like, you know, manufacturing soap.
No, but close. I could definitely make him an AdWords account for for soap. So I really wanted to get in on the creative side of marketing. Um, and about 10 years ago, I spent like three years trying to get a real marketing job. Um, and I couldn't get one. And a friend had an opportunity at a small boutique design agency in LA to be a producer. So, I took a 50% pay cut, moved to LA, um, and started my career in marketing basically all.
Seth really likes to send it, you know, just risk it. Let's let's go. Let's see what we can make happen. And I think it's all paying off.
It's definitely paying off. I mean, if you had told me that I would be here 15 years ago, I would not believe you because I'd be like, no one would even want to give me a marketing job.
Oh, yeah. Well, I think that uh the world has changed their mind on that. Um, so Seth, you know, as the the future CMO, as the next generation marketing leader, what do you think that today's mark like the next generation of marketing leadership talent will really have in common? Like what are the the skills that they need to build?
You know, as marketers, we're really translators, right? We translate from culture to business. We translate from consumers uh to CFOs. And it's really our role to be able to take things that might feel foreign or scary and make them feel like real opportunities. Right? It's not easy to convince a CEO that you should let us air flesh hats in the Super Bowl, right? But you have to tell the story of how it ties into culture, right? in the rise of um body horror, like we saw with the substance, right? And that it's something that's on the tip of everyone's tongues and it's now something that marketers can get into and brands can get into to really get into the minds of the consumers. I feel like there's also this zeitgeist right now around, you know, often people will call it advertising unexpected things. That's really what captures people's, let me restate that. That's really what captures consumers' attention today. Whether that's a ridiculous TikTok from Nutter Butter or a flesh house commercial or a pickle sandwich, something that's unexpected that makes you want to click that share button and share it to your group chat.
Absolutely. But I think the thing there that's really interesting and the challenge of advertising is you want to validate that there's really a fandom for that.
Yes. On organic social before you start putting major investment into a campaign. So I think as as marketers, how do we use organic social as the experimentation framework for the briefs that we're going to write for our 360 campaigns because even something that we know is true. Like people always talk about how funny and weird Tubi movies are, we still haven't really owned that yet as a as a brand. And so it's like to do it right, we should be testing that in social, which we're starting to to do so that we can really own that narrative and prove out that this is an advertising opportunity that we should pursue.
Yeah. I mean, I think that many times people look at social as this sort of like push platform. You're talking about it being a listening platform, as a testing platform. Um, and we've been talking about that a lot at this summit. Um, you know, Gary has a very strong perspective on organic social being the number one most important thing for brands in 2025. And you know, if you think about the brands who are coming out of nowhere and breaking through, a lot of that's on social. And I actually want to say for Tubi, there's this insane fandom that exists of Tubi fans. You said you see all these people talking about that. Where do you see them talking about Tubi movies being weird?
They're talking about it on X. They're talking about it on Reddit, they're talking about it on TikTok. You kind of can't go anywhere on the internet without finding someone talking about it. But what's really interesting, and I think it's a challenge for all marketers, is they're talking about it in fandoms or subfandoms. How do you get an awareness level around that topic of conversation where it can break through into the zeitgeist? And so that space between one to few to one to many is really where I think the future marketing leaders will be able to prove themselves out on social by taking these things that are popular in niche fandoms and finding a way to translate that into a traditional four-quadrant audience.
You put it in such a nice way. Marketers are translators. They're translators from culture to CEOs. They're translators from niche to mass. And I can't think of a better translator than Seth Shaman.
Thanks, Avery.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much for joining us at the Future CMO Summit.
Of course, thanks for having me. It's been amazing.
Oh, so glad to hear that. Okay, so tell the marketing for the now community a little bit about Kathleen.
Oh, okay. Um, so I am the VP of media at Michaels. Um, prior to that, uh, spent a little over a decade at Walmart and, um, have spent my entire career in marketing. Um, and just love this industry.
Oh, I do too. Okay. So, when what was your first job in marketing?
Oh, very first actual job uh was actually on the media side right out of college.
Foreshadowing.
Yeah. Yeah. I worked um for Clear Channel Broadcasting right out of school, and my family uh actually had a history in the radio business. So, uh, if you count childhood, uh, I've been around uh media my whole life.
Amazing. And how have you seen the media landscape, you know, transform and change from Clear Channel Radio to where we are today?
Yeah. Well, uh, even when I had, um, just started that job, I mean, it was clear that that, um, there was a lot of change coming to kind of legacy media.
Mhm.
And so um, you know, it's my grandfather who spent his career in the radio business, which was um, you know, very um uh, you know, kind of on the cutting edge in those days, by the way, it was there was a time when radio was the cutting edge.
Yes.
Exactly. And you know, now obviously with streaming, like it's kind of come, maybe it's back. Um, but at that time, you know, it was really like the early days of digital, and so um, I could just, you know, see that the landscape was shifting uh, and I knew that I wanted to get kind of more upstream of uh what was happening, and I could see that all the agencies and the brands were kind of the decision-makers, and then I was very much on the downstream of all those decisions.
Yes.
So um, you were making those decisions come onto the radio.
Yes. Exactly. Well, people are probably listening to this as a podcast. I actually think that is a nice like full-circle moment because podcasts are huge right now.
Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, this has been a huge change within the media landscape. Um, you know, I've seen digital kind of uh come of age from the very beginning. Um, and now just you know, streaming everything like uh CTV and OLV and um, you know, kind of all the things. So, a lot of change on the media side for sure.
And how do you think that's shifted from like marketing leaders, those people making those decisions, you know, who you were like, oh, who's this is someone's call back in the day to now it's your call. How do you see that role has evolved in the last 20 plus years that you've been in this business?
Yeah, I mean, so much uh, even when I first um started my career like uh post-business school um with Walmart, we were
Doing you know the majority of our media was, um, linear TV, like that was kind of the centerpiece of our campaigns. Um, you know, still a lot of print in those days, and so, uh, you know, obviously that has all changed quite a bit.
Um, when I came to Michael's six years ago, uh, they were still pretty heavily invested in kind of all of legacy media, and um, we have just made a complete transformation. And I think it just really starts with like, um, finding your customers where they are. And so we just knew that, um, you know, those channels were not where people were spending their time anymore. And so, um, you know, just kind of, uh, understanding the landscape, where people's attention is, um, and then showing up in those platforms in a way that's really relevant, um, you know, has been quite a transformation at Michael's.
Wow. Congratulations.
And so, tell us a little bit, where are crafters spending their time, where is crafters' attention today?
Yeah. Um, it's a ton on video. Um, and so we are, um, you know, all over, uh, kind of the wide spectrum of streaming channels, um, and online video, and then in the social space, um, you know, kind of all the big ones, uh, so Meta, TikTok, Snap, um, and then very heavily on Pinterest as well. Um, it's kind of a, you know, platform for inspiration and ideas, um, and so crafters and making. Yeah, and making. And so, yeah, crafters use that as a, um, as a search engine to find inspiration for new projects and things like that. So, um, that's, you know, been a very successful platform for us.
I love that.
And when you think so, you know, you mentioned your roles on sort of the media side, when you think about the merging of media and creative coming closer and closer together, I'm guessing you're not just going to take a stock photo and run that as a Pinterest ad.
No, for sure. I mean, that has been, um, kind of a simultaneous evolution for us, um, in terms of the media buy and then the creative to fill those pipes. Um, and you have to think about it together. And so our content strategy has evolved just as rapidly as our media strategy has. Um, and we've had to find, you know, agencies with new capabilities to help us manage through that. Um, you know, partners that are able to respond faster. Um, the speed of creative development has to be so much faster because you're responding to trends. Um, and so, yeah, the content evolution has come quite a ways as well, and and needs to be different for every channel. So, um, it's a it's a lot more to keep up with.
It seems like more and faster is what I'm hearing from you.
Yes, for sure.
And then as you look towards like what the next generation of marketing leaders needs to think about and needs to know, what do you think, um, what do you think that the qualities that we're going to see in some of those people are?
Yeah, I think, um, I think, uh, the next generation of leaders will like really understand content as media like innately, um, just because it will be what they have grown up with, like it'll be, um, just very natural and native to them, uh, just because they've seen it and lived it on these platforms. And so I think, um, you know, we're, uh, because it used to be like, you know, the content was coming from like a TV production studio and it was like scripted. Now, especially with crafting, you see like people are just posting their own needlepoint, their own knitting, like everyone is a creator in a way.
Exactly. I mean, we used to, you know, have huge brand shoots in LA where we're setting up sets and we're filming for social here, we're filming for TV here, and you know, now it, um, it's just so much faster and it's more it's faster, it's faster, um, it's more native, um, and so yeah, I think I think that'll just be very natural, u, you know, in the next generation, and I think people will understand how to, um, like allow their brands to be more distributed, so that's one of the themes we've been talking about quite a bit here is, um, you know, how to let go of some of that control for your brand. Um, allow influencers, creators to really own some of that for you. Um, and to kind of leverage their skill set and their following to, uh, make content that, you know, resonates with their following, but kind of that letting go of your brand, um, you know, I think is just going to continue sharing out the brand.
I love to hear it.
Well, Kathleen, thank you so much for being with us, for sharing your insights, and for joining us the Future CMO Summit. Um, it has just been such a pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us at this week's future CMO summit.
Thank you for having us. It's been amazing.
How's the experience been so far?
It has really been remarkable. It's a beautiful space, and I think the group of people here are diverse and wonderful in terms of our different experiences and coming how we come together.
Well, we are so thrilled that you were able to join us. But what I want to talk to you about today is really the journey, um, of a CMO, of a marketing leader today, because how long have you worked in marketing?
I've been in marketing for 26 years roughly.
Wow.
Across a couple companies, mostly with the Clorox company of BSE.
Okay. Well, tell us a little bit about maybe your first role in marketing and and sort of how you got to where you are today.
I started in advertising in 1999. So, it was pre-digital.
Mhm.
Um, and it was a very slow process, very different from today. So, broadly transformational. Um, and then today working more for a large sort of multinational company with a broad portfolio of brands. I think what's been interesting to me is like what we do in marketing has has really fundamentally stayed the same, but how we do it has been really transformational.
Yeah, marketing is that engine of growth for businesses, especially big CPGs, um, where marketing is really, uh, such an important, um, differentiator and in particular brand. So talk to me a little bit about when you first started your career in advertising, you know, looking up to that CMO to what you see the evolving role of the CMO being really responsible for.
Yeah, I mean, the when I say the what we do in marketing, so really understanding consumers' unmet needs and then building brands that drive enduring loyalty, sort of fundamentally that's the same, and what that's the what the how that has changed so much in the last 25 years is the way technology has and continues to transform at exponential paces, and I think that the CMO role really has to h be able to embrace how dynamic the how is and still making sure that we're focused on the what and that we stay connected to consumers. We continue to build stories and build brands that people that drive relevance and attention.
And you you mentioned that you've been at the Clorox company for many years. Um, if I recall correctly, you joined sort of as part of an acquisition. So working with Burt's Bees to now part of the Clorox company. How has that sort of evolved? Um, and how do you see, you know, your role and like your contributions to the company evolving from a smaller company to part of a a big multinational?
Yeah, I think that the again the focus of the the ideals of or the values of the Burt's Bees prior to the acquisition and the Clorox company are really always been pretty and pretty aligned. And so as the company has transformed and worked to remain competitive, you we've evolved with the company, but it's at this point it's been 10, 15 years since I felt like I was part of Burt's Bees and not part of Clorox. And so now to me the the transformation over the last 10 years has been with the Clorox company full stop. And I think that the the courage and the bravery of the C-suite and the CMO to help us drive forward what are what those agendas are to stay competitive to win in the marketplace to win share to win consumers, um, has been really inspiring to see and something I hope that I can continue to grow into and I learn from them all the time.
Okay, so it is April of 2025. What are some of those technologies that you've seen really shift and drive that shift in consumer behavior and then, you know, how marketers need to actually connect with these consumers? Because I'm going to guess it's pretty different, um, in 2025 versus 1995, 1999. So different preloads, pre-social media.
Yeah. I think that I would focus primarily on your ability. We you we talk a lot working with you guys about capturing the attention of consumers, and that is so much harder to do now. Um, what is exciting about it is getting to strong ideas, strong brands. The relevancy of brands I think is actually as important as it's ever been, maybe more important or more important to capture that attention. And so I think that, you know, I love I started in advertising and really focused on creativity and continuing to focus on what are the ideas that are going to drive growth, the ideas that are going to connect with people emotionally, and where before we might have to let created one or two TV spots and now you're creating hundreds or thousands of pieces of content to be able to attract very different people and capture their attention. And it's it the same energy that you felt doing a 30-second spot you now feel trying to figure out how to make a thousand pieces of content times a thousand.
Right. And you know, you mentioned some of the work that we're doing together. Um, you know, one sort of really fun example I think is Pinesaw. Anything that, you know, you've learned in partnership with Vayner, you've just seen, um, as part of the early days of the social journey that you think is interesting?
What I have loved about working with you guys and that approach is we're you're getting in there real-time like you're really you're getting the feedback directly from consumers rather than hoping that a test shows that you validate by testing and instead you're you're validating the insights and and then scaling. And that has been it's it's also led us to do more unexpected work. So, we think we need to be in a certain box of what our brand looks and feels like and that the team at the P that in Pinesaw that's been working with you guys is really allowing us to go outside the box to figure out how the brand will resonate differently with consumers and that's what we need to do to make sure that we continue to evolve and modernize with them.
Yeah. And as we think about modernizing, um, into the future, um, what what's top of mind for you from a social perspective besides creating a volume of content which is obviously so important. You touched on the insights like how do you get, uh, what how do you sort of experience social media and how do you how does that link into how you think about it on behalf of the company, the it's a real conversation with consumers and I think I have real as as a consumer I have real conversations with brands and you have that interaction with them and I think that where I think we have so much opportunity is to get in there and understand what they're saying either to us or about us or around us and then lad that back up to what those key needs are, what those insights are. And I think the opportunity to take social and really drive it upstream in our planning and in our processes. So, it's more of a strategic pillar, not a tactical one, is a big opportunity. We're seeing tons of brands do very well.
So, you're seeing it as an insights engine that then ladders up into those consumer unmet needs. And then you layer in the magic of the creativity and the big ideas and the thinking that matches what you're hearing, what you know their needs are, um, with a big idea that they can fall in love with. And we we used to I mean we operated for a while a couple years ago it's it's an advertising platform and now it's really this like community hub that can feed insight it can feed insights. It can help build out campaign ideas. It can strengthen your brand propositions like you can you can understand what's happening in culture in a way that you never could before if we if you're really listening.
I love that that's your takeaway because I feel like many brands do still view social as an advertising platform, as a push platform, as a distribution platform, but the insights are right there for the taking. Um, just like what people are saying, how people are cleaning, you know, the comments that they're sharing them, you know, them sort of creating UGC about the way that they use your products, which are in so many American households.
What an amazing journey. And I love that perspective of listening first as you think about your social strategy. Mariah, thank you so much for joining.