Purpose-Driven Brand Marketing at Intuit Mailchimp

The social media market is more fragmented - and more sophisticated - than ever before. How do brands decide on a social strategy that fits with their broader organizational goals, while cutting out the noise?

Lauren Thomas develops social media strategies for billion dollar brands, and is currently the Head of Social Media for Intuit TurboTax. She shares her insights on knowing when there’s a growing audience on a new channel, how to keep an authentic presence for the brand, and how to handle the higher content volume and trend turnover in this fast-paced corner of the marketing and communications world.

Influencing behavior is at the core of what marketers and communicators must do, but many don’t keep up with the latest research around behavioral science. Working at the intersection of psychology, sociology, economics and more, Intuit’s Jaime Kornick explains how insights from the behavioral science field can improve marketers’ jobs and the impact they have - in both big and small ways.

In this episode, we welcome new co-host Laura Mae Smith to the show, and turn the tables to put former host Mos' Okediji, director of marketing and communications for learning, growth and development at Intuit, in the hot seat. We speak with her about applying design thinking to your career, the gift of feedback, people skills as a source of power, and more.

Few organizations have mastered the art of responding with intent to reputational threats - being proactive instead of reactive. Derrick Plummer, Director of Corporate Communications at Intuit, says the key is to have integrity, empathy and to build trust with customers throughout your relationship with them. 

Plummer has consulted with companies from Delta to Nissan to Arby’s to Mailchimp, and worked on the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign as well as in the Obama administration.

The award winning Intuit Mailchimp brand marketing and corporate citizenship team talks to us about what it means to purposely practice your craft as a marketer and communicator. 

In this episode, we speak with Michael Mitchell, who leads brand marketing and the content studio at Mailchimp; Lain Shakespeare, who is responsible for Mailchimp’s corporate citizenship platform Big Change Starts Small; and Megan Spellman, who led a partnership with the Black in Fashion Council in a collaboration at New York Fashion Week.

Intuit’s best-in-class approach to the marketing and communications craft comes from a culture created at the top. In this episode, we speak with Lara Balazs, our Executive Vice President, General Manager, and Chief Marketing Officer, as she reflects on her career, the company’s achievements this year, and shares actionable insights that marketers and communicators can leverage in 2023.

While it grabs many headlines, for many, the metaverse still feels far off. It’s important for those in the marketing and communications fields to pay attention to how the metaverse is developing, though, and take a strategic approach. But those strategies can’t be about the technology first - they have to start with customer problems and pain points. We speak to Toby Daniels, former chief innovation officer at AdWeek, about where to start.  

Product marketing is a vital part of so many businesses - but exactly what that job entails differs from organization to organization. At Intuit, we’re all about customer-centered design, and that means the way we do product marketing is unique. In this roundtable, we’ll hear from three internal product marketing experts on what they’ve learned through trial and error: Andrea Bekhazi, group product marketing manager; Jessica Cheng, a product marketing manager;  and Justin Brock, who recently transitioned from marketing into product at TurboTax and Credit Karma.

Stories cannot live in silos. The walls are coming down between departments, between inside the company and outside the company, and between different types of media. No one understands that better than Erica Terry Derryck, VP of communications for the Small Business and Self-Employed Group at Intuit. In this episode, she speaks about her past work, including in the world of politics and journalism, and how she's applying it at Intuit. 

You’ve heard how important storytelling is to be able to connect with your customer, but how do you keep stories authentic when everything is moving so quickly? Intuit’s Lionel Mohri says that the answer starts with becoming a better listener. The Chief Storytelling & Experiences Officer explains what he’s learned about listening to customer experience, how internal and external stories should be aligned, and how to make sure your story is truly authentic.