CMO Pulse Series

"For many, many years 'Marketing' was kind of a dirty word in the Charity sector" 

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, we interview Roxanna Kassam Kara, National Director of Marketing and Communities with Ronald McDonald House Canada about what it means to be in impact marketing, her transition to the non-profit world from traditional marketing for large-scale consumer packaged goods brands, and her approach to innovation. 

Interview by Tania Yuki, CEO Shareablee.

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse series, we interview Matthew Pinzur, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer for Jackson Health System about his experiences as a marketer both throughout his career as well as navigating the Covid-19 pandemic in the South Florida region that he and his team serve, and the importance of fine-tuning your process and approach every single day, to prepare for the unexpected. In taking this approach, Matthew explains how he and his team earned the right to be agile and move quickly when a crisis actually struck. 

In this interview, Matthew also highlights the importance of taking a grassroots approach to community relations, when dealing with topics such as the Covid-19 vaccine and more. He explains that being close to the community is critical at all times, and that this is something to truly lean on when people are looking for trustworthy information in a public health crisis. Matthew recounts in vivid detail how he and his team became actively involved in enabling and scheduling on-the-ground vaccine appointments, and how being adaptable to the changing needs of his community was critical in supporting South Florida during this unprecedented time.

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse series, we interview David Feinberg, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System about his experiences as a marketer both throughout his career as well as navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, and hear his perspectives about the future of marketing and how what he and his team have learned about new approaches to communications can continue to impact how we think about health and medical care in our community. 

Having begun his marketing career at Procter and Gamble, Feinberg discusses the importance and impact of his traditional training, but also shares how his willingness to break from the expected career trajectory also empowered him to seek out impactful, meaningful work in his current role, which sits at the center of Covid-19 research, tackling the inequities in the healthcare system and process, and much more at Mount Sinai - an organization that highly values, but is not centered around the marketing function. 

"Mount Sinai opened the first center for post-COVID care, for people who are having symptoms that nobody expected. We're really looking into both treatment and research so that's going to continue. But then, healthcare is at a point of transformation. With respect to what it can do and how it's doing it using AI using machine learning using deep analysis, predictive analytics, that kind of, so if you combine that kind of computational analytical capability with our knowledge of the human genome, you're putting those things together and you're going to reinvent how we think about all sorts of things with healthcare. And the other thing I should really mention is we are very much leaning into the inequities in healthcare and trying to resolve them"

“I’m a consumer, and I’m a B2B marketer” 

In this CMO Pulse interview Julie Springer, Chief Marketing Officer of Transunion, shares her experience of adapting as a marketer and leader throughout the pandemic, to shift towards what Springer describes as "true customer-centricity". While it has always been critical, 2020/2021 has created new opportunities for marketers to truly build empathy and hold themselves to a new standard when it comes to authenticity and connecting with customers in a meaningful way. 
Julie also shares her perspective on the future of marketing, which - while clearly still in flux - will be centered around 1:1 connections and authenticity of relationships. 

"I think social is going to boom even more than it already has. It’s easy for people to think of social as (purely) a consumer channel - but social is business, business is consumer, they are all intertwined. When you think about authenticity of relationships, there is no better channel for that 1:1, and then that ability to exchange in real time and beyond"

"My job is to stay truly connected, and to listen to the consumer. To stay close to real people, and translate that back or bring that back to corporations and make sure that what companies are doing is authentic and true and connected with the real people who are their consumers. So it's very much that "in between" role that translator role, and I take great pride in it". In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse Series, we interview Radha Subramanyan Chief Research and Analytics Officer at CBS and President of CBS Vision. Radha's shares her incredible journey about the evolution of her approach to her role - which spans research, marketing, data science, creative, calling for more "creative adaptability", fearlessness and rule-breaking in traditional thinking. Radha's own journey has been an incredibly unique one, having explored many career stops including professor, actor and now executive at one of the biggest media organizations in the world. Radha also shares her lessons and advice about approaching balance and integrating more of yourself into how you show up at work, with some terrific revelations!

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, Steven Cragle, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, UnitedHealthcare Global at UnitedHealth Group talks about his unique "anthropological" approach to marketing, and what that means for how he's been thinking of marketing as a whole particularly during the pandemic. As consumer attention becomes even more fragmented, Cragle talks in particular about how important it is for marketers to remember that each person has so many identities, and that only focusing on those aspects of a consumer that matter to a brand in order to sell to them will leave a campaign drastically short. 

Also, Cragle addresses other important topics such as how he finds purpose in his professional career (and how "purpose" needs to be treated more like a moving target that must be pursued actively rather than a passive destination), as well as the interesting challenge of bringing data to the heart of the creative process. 

Interview by Tania Yuki, CEO and Founder Shareablee

"My number one rule of marketing is, don't be lame. I'd rather do nothing than be lame" 

Did you know that Chipotle ranks as one of the top first date destinations for Generation Z? (and not just due to the "Miley Burrito" viral episode on TikTok!) Or that Chipotle is on a mission to promote a more sustainable food system, and much more? 

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Chris Brandt, CMO of Chipotle, talks about the lessons he has learned building brands, keeping them top of mind and relevant for Gen Z, and his unique approach to social media, partnering with Influencers, and much more. 

Prior to leading the marketing team at Chipotle, Chris has held roles as EVP/Chief Brand Officer for Bloomin' Brands and Chief Brand Officer/Chief Marketing Officer for Taco Bell - and explains a lot about his career path, from his beginnings in the finance industry. 

Interviewed by Tania Yuki, Founder and CEO Shareablee

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Chief Marketing Officer Stephanie Fried of Fandom discusses the incredible opportunity in fan communities, and how viewer and fan behaviors have shifted in the past eighteen months. Fandom has the largest fan community around "imagined worlds" globally, with over 250,000 different fan communities. Under Fried's leadership, Fandom is embarking on a lot of exciting initiatives to ensure they are able to fully celebrate their fans including a brand relaunch.

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Dan Hofmeister, SVP Brand Marketing for Bumble Bee Seafoods talks about mission, purpose and how the pandemic has broadened the idea of what is "possible" now, and post-Covid. Bumble Bee has embraced the unexpected with new thinking around its campaigns and social media approach, around the mantra that "playing it safe is not safe" anymore. Dan also discusses the importance of creating messaging and marketing frameworks and infrastructure around company values in order to deal with the unexpected - as occurred for Bumble Bee foods in 2020 when the brand was called out in a surprising context by President Trump!...and Bumble Bee Seafood simply asked their users to "Eat them, don't throw them away", bringing levity to what was otherwise a highly charged, and potentially divisive cultural moment. Interviewed by Tania Yuki, CEO Shareablee

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Variety's Chief Marketing Officer Dea Lawrence shares her experiences and advice about innovation, seeing around corners and growth. Variety has been an iconic brand for over 100 years, and Dea explains all the steps that she and her team are taking to continue to innovate, appeal to new audiences, and grow the brand as the world underwent massive change in 2020 with the Covid pandemic. Dea's pathway to CMO is a surprising one - she began her career as an actor on television and onstage, but was always "selling on the side" across a variety of industries. Dea shares how all of these experiences came together for her "portfolio" approach to her career, and offers some very important advice about growing from where you're planted. Whether you're wondering what's next, or simply thinking about what's most important in your career after living through all the change in the pandemic, this is a terrific interview for you.

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Tania Yuki, Founder and CEO of Shareablee interviews Danielle Hollander, Chief Marketing Officer at Visit Orlando about how the challenges of 2020 helped their teams approach marketing and social media with creativity and a fresh perspective.

"I don't think it's a moment, I do think it is a movement that has now transitioned to a way of being and I'm hopeful that the audience holds all of us to the fire and does not let us go back" -EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Kimberly Paige BET. 

With the 2021 BET Music Awards just around the corner on June 27th and fully embracing "live", a full brand identity relaunch about to kick off and many other exciting content initiatives on the horizon, there is a lot competing for attention. Kimberly discusses what's ahead for BET as a brand, and why BET exists as an organization - to support the Black community, be a pillar for diversity, and to continue to make content that reflects the lives and experiences of the audiences it serves. Kimberly also highlights BET's differentiated approach to social media, and how she and her team use social media channels and consumer intelligence to keep ahead of what's most important. 

Kimberly also offers leadership advice and lessons learned, which are invaluable for any existing or up-and-coming leader or entrepreneur.

"Party and Pandemic are NOT Synonymous - but we're celebration experts, and we had to find ways to rise to the occasion and to bring people "together" - virtually, or in other socially distant ways, and to help people cope through difficult times" 

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, Julie Roehm shares her experiences and strategies navigating Party City through massive change as the world went on lockdown in 2020. By combining new thinking, social media, and an overall "lean in" approach to a crisis, the team made some smart pivots and found opportunities to support their communities in order to create joy at a time when there were no celebrations, and we couldn't be together.

"The main thing is this idea of democratizing data - making data accessible and easy for people with really different sorts of mindsets to access. We learned that if you don't make it super easy for people to get access to data in real-time and be able to have that inform their decisions, then people just won't use it". 

In this episode of CMO Pulse, Todd Haskell, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer Hearst Magazines shares what he has learned about: - building a successful data-inspired creative organization by "democratizing data" for all teams - the importance of having aligned editorial and sales team when it comes to succeeding with branded content at scale - getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, because that's what it takes to truly experience personal and professional growth.

There is both a terrific overview of what it means to be Chief Marketing Officer atop a creative, editorially driven organization, but also a lot of excellent leadership advice, about how to ensure that you are constantly looking ahead, mobilizing change, and bravely navigating what's next in your career and for your company as a whole.

Ken Thewes is the Chief Marketing Officer at Regal. In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, Ken shares his experience maintaining relationships with film-lovers at Regal throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when cinemas were closed down, film production was at a standstill and fans had to stay at home. 

"2020 was a year, I don't want to relive again, as I think most of us don't. But, we learned a lot. We stayed engaged with our customers on social media, we actually saw them having higher engagement during COVID, than when we were open with our theaters. Now, we're open for business and my main priority is letting everyone know that".

In this episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, Amanda Brinkman shares her own personal journey of reconciling the idea that businesses need to make money as their primary function, with the opportunity for businesses to make the world a better place, and to "Do Well by Doing Good". Amanda and her team have built an incredible content empire at Deluxe beginning with short films highlighting 100 Small Businesses, which has now evolved into the popular TV Streaming Series "Small Business Revolution",  which Amanda is also the Creator, Producer, and Co-Host of. Amanda's story is an inspiring blueprint for how brands can take the reins on storytelling, and move beyond advertising to creating meaning, and impact in the world. 

"If people who want to do good in the world, don't go into the business world, how will the business world or marketing ever make a difference or get better?"

"We as marketers are that chief architect of that consumer experience now and in the future".

In this opening episode of Shareablee's CMO Pulse, Chief Marketing Officer of Entertainment and Sports for NBC Universal Jenny Storms tells the story of how her team took a "hunch" about an opportunity for sports audiences and transformed that using data-driven insights into a multi-platform content enterprise that all began with the Instagram handle @onherturf.

With the Olympics just around the corner, understanding the role of marketing when it comes to being that advocate for the consumer and what he/she cares about right now, has never been more important. Jenny also reflects on her own leadership style, her career journey so far and shares some practical and inspiring stories for leaders, and budding leaders around how to adapt, take risks, and think about the bigger picture even when things are changing fast around you.