Renegade Marketers Unite (Drew Neisser)

If you could go back in time and meet one historical figure, who would it be? For Drew, the answer is obvious: Dr. Benjamin Franklin. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Drew. As a proud Franklin nut, he considers the man who sold a revolution to a king to be America’s first-ever marketer. That’s why it was a no-brainer when we discovered a special “time travel” button on Zoom—we just had to give Dr. Franklin a call.

For Renegade Thinker’s Unite’s 200th episode, Drew travels through time to catch up with Dr. Franklin. While covering Franklin’s life and accomplishments, they discuss the value of humor in marketing, how to lead courageously, and why relentless curiosity is key to success. Be sure to tune in for Franklin’s take on the topics of today in relation to events of the past, you won’t want to miss it!

In this podcast, you’ll learn about where to start your brand transformation, why your brand should be a “sage” instead of a “hero,” the importance of creating a tangible customer experience and the strategy behind CA's new ad campaign, "The Modern Software Factory."

Over the last four years, CMO Lauren Flaherty repositioned CA Technologies’ global brand, helped it adapt to the fast-paced blur of digital disruptions and masterfully co-created an app with CNN to cover the 2016 presidential election. This app enabled CNN to experience higher-than-ever levels of engagement and reach while demonstrating the power of CA's technology. Flaherty has since initiated a similar co-creation venture with Eurosport, helping to make the brand more tangible.  

Think of this episode as a master class in transformation B2B marketing. 

For some time now the social marketing campaigns of most brands have consisted of scheduling out loads of content through Buffer or another social management tool and letting it run. Kevan Lee, Director of Marketing at Buffer says your promotions, blog posts, and podcast episodes are undoubtedly filled with valuable insights, but a shift is taking place in the social media world that demands you modify your strategy. Users of social media - the very ones you’re trying to reach - are valuing the “social” part of social media more than the “media” part. In short: Engagement matters more than publication.

What does that mean for a brand? It means a new approach to social media is in order. To help us get our heads around what exactly that means, Drew recorded this conversation with Kevan and discussed the shifting social media landscape, how social marketing campaigns of the past must give way to genuine transparency and engagement, and how small to medium-sized businesses can do social right.

Sounds intriguing, don’t you think? Be sure you listen.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

• [0:30] Why hell hath no fury like a social detractor and why businesses need to use it effectively to listen, learn and engage.
• [1:50] Kevan and the team at Buffer work in a fully remote team environment
• [3:00] The reason Kevan believes writing is vital for marketers to learn
• [4:26] The changes that have happened in the social media world: engagement matters more than publishing
• [6:19] How the Buffer team markets Buffer through engagement: No ROI for social
• [10:26] What does it mean to be “on brand” - the Buffer approach
• [14:59] Brands that have been using social media effectively these days
• [20:24] The biggest mistakes Kevan sees brands making on social
• [24:33] Buffer’s transparency ethic and how it impacts their planning and engagement
• [32:13] Kevan’s advice for medium-small businesses when it comes to social

Most social media activity is crap simply because brands feel they HAVE to schedule something to publish. Try on a new social marketing approach: Be active, be on brand, be engaged

As Drew and his guest, Kevan Lee, of Buffer spoke about current social media trends, Drew pointed out how much of what’s out there is the epitome of irrelevance. Most brands are guilty of adding to the noise instead of adding to the conversations already happening on social. Kevan responded by saying that a good social campaign these days involves being active (and he’s got an interesting definition of what that means), being “on brand,” and being engaged. In this conversation, he shares clear explanations of how a small to medium sized company can pull off each of those 3 elements of effective social, so don’t miss this conversation.

If you don’t have something meaningful to say in a week’s time, your brand has bigger problems

The biggest part of being a brand that adds true value on social media is to only post things that are truly relevant and valuable. But because the “old way” of doing social marketing insisted that companies fill up their channels with content (relevant or not), many in the marketing department are scratching their heads about what it means to be truly meaningful. Kevan Lee, Director of Marketing at Buffer says if you don’t have something meaningful to say in a week’s time, your company has a bigger problem than you realize. Find out what he means by that statement and how he proposes companies adjust their social media strategy on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Be among the 20% of brands who actually respond to mentions on social media

Engagement matters on social media, especially for companies. But Kevan Lee points out that only 20% of companies these days even respond when they are tagged or mentioned on social. It’s unthinkable when you realize that the person who tagged your company is likely a customer or prospect - the very people you’re looking to reach. So naturally, the most obvious thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of your social marketing is to be among the 20% of brands that monitor your social accounts and respond when you’re mentioned. Start a conversation, engage, solve problems. That’s the “social” part of social media, and it works.

Connect With Kevan

• Kevan’s profile on the Buffer page
• Connect with Kevan on LinkedIn
• Follow Kevan on Twitter
• Follow Kevan on Facebook

Resources & People Mentioned

• Dogs in Politics Day
• National Blueberry Popsicle Month
• Mailchimp
• Red Bull
• GoPro
• Product Hunt
• • On Twitter
  • On Facebook
• The Seattle Times
• • On Facebook
  • On Twitter
• HARO - Help A Reporter Out
• Google Analytics
• Facebook Insights
• Ted Rubin - “There’s no ROI on ignoring”

Connect with Drew

• 917-679-8852 (Text “renegade thinking” so we can talk about how to cut through the noise as a marketer)
• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

CMOs and marketing metric fiends–this is the episode for you.

Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Ross Graber joins us on this “Bonus Huddle” episode to enlighten us on which metrics should be on every CMO dashboard–and which should be left off. He shares formulas for calculating important metrics like marketing revenue lift, how to turn seemingly flimsy marketing concepts like “value add” into a solid metric, and how CMOs can set proper expectations for their CEOs.

• For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/
• To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

Without communication, businesses crumble. Sending a clear message is the only surefire way to get people to care about your brand. This need for coherence isn’t limited to the marketer-consumer relationship, however—all business branches should work in harmony in order to present a sharp brand image. Ann Davids, Senior Vice President and CMO of Direct General Insurance Company, specializes in coordinating her company’s identity on all fronts.

In this week’s episode of the Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast, Davids explains how a brand identity can become too abstract if it’s not managed well internally. It’s Davids’s duty to weave product language, internal language and consumer language together to create campaigns that customers and Direct employees can embrace. 

Marketers should stay in close contact with their fellow departments, believes Davids. When the marketing department at Direct works in unison with the entire office, it can accomplish brand goals from all angles. Davids says, “I’ve often heard it said that marketing should make the rest of the organization uncomfortable. I couldn’t agree more. I’ll really advocate for anything the business needs, even beyond marketing if it helps move the needle.”

This strategy is mutually beneficial, Davids finds. In addition to orienting the marketing team’s attention to the overall business plan, she seeks to involve other business disciplines in Direct’s advertising campaigns. In previous years, Davids has laid out the blueprints of her team’s marketing strategy for all to see—literally—by distributing architectural blueprints in frames around the office. “We basically run our own internal campaign, and it tends to get people excited and raise intellectual curiosity,” Davids says. “We have people hand-raising to opt in to work on these things instead of having to recruit.”

The blueprints clearly illustrated the marketing strategies, but they also generated interest in the projects from the entire company. Let’s face it; if an organization can’t get its own team members excited about a campaign, how can it expect to make a lasting impact on consumers?

Speaking of impacting consumers, Davids notes how Direct aims to be, well, more direct. “We try to just always speak the customer’s language,” she says. “Whatever that happens to be for your particular customer, I think you have to really understand them and how they talk and process, and what they’re looking for.” Offering exactly what the consumer needs is only half the battle, however. Without clear, direct marketing, any campaign can fall flat.

Given the nature of Direct Insurance’s industry, it’s inherently tough to make consumers eager to engage with the brand, which is why Davids’s team goes the extra mile to make their experience enjoyable. Davids says, “A lot of people don’t want to pay for insurance, either, so we make it fun, we make it pleasant and we try to have added little surprises along the way that make it easier to do business with Direct Auto and Life Insurance.” These “little surprises” have resonated well with customers, she says.

Another challenge for Direct has been the transition to new marketing platforms. When the company knew it wanted to establish a strong digital presence, Davids was careful not to jump the gun with new channels. Her team decided that gradual changes would better suit the brand’s customers. “Our customer is still telling us that they enjoy other mediums, as well as digital,” says Davids. “They’re still heavy consumers of television and radio, so we’ve been careful in how we transition to digital.”

This kind of adaptability is an important piece of Direct’s marketing puzzle. Davids talks about the art of identifying the next big thing: “Really, what I consider state of the art is knowing when to jump on a trend versus waiting. Or how you might migrate within your own media mix.” Although her team is always looking for the next big thing, the marketing department acts slowly and steadily when integrating it into a campaign.

If Davids could offer just one piece of advice to her fellow marketing leaders, it would be to maintain a robust network of professionals. “I think you’ve got to find people that you connect with,” she says. “If you make investments in these relationships, they will be valuable. There’s nothing more valuable to me than my network and the mentors I’ve had over the years.” (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.)

What You’ll Learn

• Ways to engage your company’s entire business staff with your marketing strategy.
• How to speak your customers’ language.
• Advice for building a successful network with likeminded business professionals.
• When to put the pedal to the metal on your marketing strategy, and when to hit the brakes.

Quotes from Ann Davids

• Really, what I consider state-of-the-art is knowing when to jump on a trend versus
• You have to listen to your customer.
• Think about how to present yourself, your personal brand, through words and actions and engagements. Strive for what you want, and don’t be shy about letting people around you know your goals.
• You have to be open to different challenges that come along, in work as well as in your personal space, and be willing to share what you learned from those experiences.

Ahh, work from home. A concept that became a hashtag overnight as the pandemic shut down offices around the world, relegating entire teams to Zoom squares. Zoom squares that moved away from the area, that enjoyed skipping a long commute, and that were able to maintain high levels of productivity despite the limitations. Zoom squares that nevertheless missed the creative spark that comes from in-person meetings.

Now that things are opening up again, B2B businesses face a new challenge: figuring out what exactly their new policies will be when it comes to in-office versus remote work. In this episode, Khalid El Khatib of Stack Overflow, Ellina Shinnick of HUB International, and Mike Brannan of Centric Consulting share how their respective companies have adapted, offering heaps of insights into how to maintain a strong work culture, how to effectively communicate with hybrid teams, and what it means to be a good leader during these ever-changing times. Don’t miss it!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

Nothing like a live audience to keep you on your toes! Third-time guest Brent Adamson, Distinguished Vice President, Gartner, joins Drew for a live conversation in front of an elite collection of B2B CMOs to chat about smarketing—and no, that’s not a typo. Brent dives into why sales and marketing—“smarketing”— must work together and fully align to connect with customers.

Beyond that, Brent explains why buying is broken, the pitfalls of working with a large buyer committee, and why companies need to make customers reevaluate themselves rather than products. Don’t miss that and more on this week’s Renegade Thinkers Unite.

You’ve no doubt heard of Honeywell, the publicly traded, multinational conglomerate among the Fortune 100 and list of top 100 US federal contractors, with stock in both the Dow and S&P. Around since 1906, Honeywell is a mega brand, bringing in over $32 billion in revenue with a global workforce of over 110,000.

But what is it that Honeywell does exactly? That was the marketing challenge Joe Toubes encountered when taking on the VP of Global Marketing role in 2019—the market still associated Honeywell with a product it didn’t even sell anymore. Tune in to learn how Toubes and his team revamped the Honeywell brand, solidifying a new message in the market and attracting top talent along the way.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Joy Neely of Medvantx, Allyson Havener of TrustRadius, and Alexandria (Ali) McCarthy

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Chip Rodgers of WorkSpan, Patti Newcomer of FieldRoutes, and Chi-Chi Liang of Alloy

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Ellie Ahmadi, CMO of Sāgo

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Over the course of SADA's growth, the company has had a habit of going all in. It went all in on Google Cloud in 2019, divesting its Microsoft Cloud business to get there. It went all in on its 2020 rebrand, casting aside the brand it had for the brand it needed to move the business forward despite the shock of the pandemic. And it goes all in for its employees, customers, and prospects every day.

It's kinda a no-brainer that their brand purpose can be surmised in the phrase “Together, we’re all in.” In this episode, SADA CMO Narine Galstian talks about all the strategic thinking behind the cloud provider’s bold rebrand. She also discusses the secret to her longevity at SADA (almost 10 years!!) and what it means to be an #IamRemarkable facilitator. Check it out!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

When CMO Heidi Bullock joined Tealium in 2019, her mandate was to grow the company from great to greater. Tealium already had a solid standing in the customer data management space when she arrived, having reached over $100 million in ARR with no plans of slowing down.

Heidi dove in immediately, directly reaching out to customers and partners to figure out how to level up the brand. Tune in to hear Heidi spill the tea on how Tealium simplified its brand story, infused it into the organization, and brought it to market with a flourish. This episode is a remarkable lesson in B2B brand strategy—you don’t want to miss it!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

When Intuit’s Mary-Ann Somers took over as SVP & Chief Growth Officer of the Consumer Group business unit, she wanted to build upon the success of her predecessor, and encourage a culture of experimentation. She wanted a marketing machine that led with inquiry, holistically understood the business, and got close to its customers. She wanted big things for the consumer business—of course, when you're Intuit, which pulls in about $7B in revenue annually, employs over 8,000 people, and has a consumer product portfolio with names like TurboTax and Mint, you're already going pretty big. Still, Somers and her team were ready to continue building on the software giant's momentum.

On this episode, she discusses her past in consumer packaged goods, including championing digital marketing at Hershey's (and moving 35% of their efforts to digital in just 6 months), her commitment to clean, crisp, and single-minded messaging, brand management, and why marketers ought to operate with a holistic view of the company. Listen in to her interview, recorded in front of a live audience, to hear more!

Sometimes, the big ideas sort of just happen. That said, some magical brand moment isn’t going to just appear without some planning or effort—but sometimes, some small bit of genuine authenticity can grow into a brand pearl. That’s part of what happened with White Ops, and on this episode, Dan Lowden, CMO, discusses how.

White Ops is fueled by their purpose-driven mission to disrupt the illicit economy built by cybercriminals; that mission has caught fire and stands as a sterling example of why purpose is a must. Tune in to hear about how they formed their mission, how they show it to the world, why they shun the hard sell, and how an overarching purpose came from a simple t-shirt that just read “human.”

With physical events and direct sales canceled, the idea of filling the pipeline with valuable leads may seem daunting. However, many CMOs see this challenge as an opportunity to prove that it can be done digitally, and it’s become glaringly apparent that when it comes to B2B demand generation, content marketing is king.

One such CMO, Richard Jones of Cheetah Digital, has made quality, valuable content his top priority. Why? Because he knows that a well-oiled content engine will not only help their salespeople find and close leads, it will also engage customers and attract new talent in profound ways. In this episode, Richard and Drew discuss everything from building your content strategy to measuring its success. There’s a wealth of valuable insights to be found, so be sure to tune in!

Renaming a company is no small task. It’s even more challenging when your company is fewer than 10 years old. Marissa Aydlett, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Braze, is Drew’s guest for this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. They skillfully unpack the art and science of renaming a company and it’s a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Marissa shares insight into challenges surrounding the renaming process and the subsequent rebranding efforts. There is power behind selecting a name and future direction for your company and it’s not something that should be tackled haphazardly.

Key differences between historical, in the moment, and predictive data are also covered. Knowing how to capture these types of data and use them to your company’s advantage is one of the biggest pieces of advice Marissa has for listeners.

Learn from the renaming journey Braze just completed by listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

• [0:30] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Marissa Aydlett of Braze
• [2:56] The major brand transformation from Appboy to Braze
• [7:56] Understanding the true importance of selecting a new name through dedicated research
• [10:33] The biggest lessons Marissa’s learned throughout the renaming process
• [14:27] So the company has a new name - now what?
• [18:06] The medium was the message at Braze’s live promotion events
• [21:57] Turning the Braze name into an eponym
• [24:40] The future of Braze - where are all of the company’s ideas heading?
• [28:21] Historical data vs. in the moment data vs. predictive data
• [34:23] The power of first-party data within predictive analytics
• [36:39] How to look at your marketing programs beyond the next 6 months

The essentials behind renaming a company

Braze is a customer engagement platform that allows companies to send out personalized messages across a variety of platforms. Formerly known as Appboy, the company began in 2011 and Marissa’s team started the renaming process when the company was only 6 years old. She knew the company needed to be a leader in predicting how people will communicate and interact with each other in both B2B and B2C environments in the future. Achieving this leader status could only come after a renaming process. Marissa shares the following key insights about renaming a company:

• Understand that a name could stick with your company forever
• A name should be symbolic of your company’s goals and values
• Naming a company is a personal experience - be sure to take into account internal and external opinions
• Don’t be afraid of seeking third-party advice and support

• Have a plan for rebranding efforts after the naming process is complete

All of this advice and more great insights can be found on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

The power of choosing a great name and how that name can organically become an eponym

The ultimate dream for marketers is universal awareness - the point in time when your brand becomes synonymous with a noun. Having your brand become a verb is an even better case scenario. Think, “I’ll Venmo you the money!” or “I’ll Google it!” Marissa has found that the company name “Braze” is organically becoming an eponym and that organic discovery process is better than any marketing-driven campaign. Her team members are using variations such as “Brazify it!” and that’s quite an exciting process to watch. There’s power in a great name. It could drive the future direction of your company for years to come. You can’t afford to miss the renaming secrets that Drew and Marissa discuss, so be sure to listen.

Being an innovative company is all about fostering personal connections with each customer

Even though a stellar name is a perfect foundation for a company, the company then has to strive to make personal, individualized connections with every customer. That’s where data comes into play. Marissa describes how Braze encourages its clients to use three types of data: historical, in the moment, and predictive. This combination of data gives a company the best chance at knowing what the customers want, when they want it, and why they’re seeking it. She says it’s all about delivering the right message at the right time to the right person. It’s an explanation that’s best heard from the expert, so be sure to listen to Marissa’s conversation with Drew. You won’t regret it.

Connect With Marissa:

• Braze’s About Us webpage
• Connect with Marissa on LinkedIn
• Follow Marissa on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• Branding partner company, Lexicon
• Episode 65: “The Ups and Downs of Xerox’s Universal Awareness and Shifting Your Brand Perception”
• ARTICLE: “Most Innovative Companies - Domino's”

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

It’s time to restructure your B2B organization. To trim down your MarTech stack. To reconsider which metrics matter. These are things that this episode’s guests are all in agreement on, and taking it one step further, they also believe that the CMO is the one for the job.

Tune in to hear from two of the three CMO to CRO authors, Brandi Starr and Rolly Keenan (COO and CRO of Tegrita, respectively), as we compare the future-thinking recommendations put forth in their book with those in Drew’s new book, Renegade Marketing. To keep everyone honest, CMO Peter Finter of CyberGRX brings a bevy of real-world experience and insights to the table. Don’t miss it!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

No budget, no problem! Said no one ever. Except, maybe, the savvy CMO who’s got the magic touch when it comes to making something out of nothing. As Gartner’s CMO Spend survey showed marketing budgets being slashed across all industries in 2021, marketers are being asked to do more with less—and while that’s absolutely a challenge, CMOs are stepping up to prove how important marketing is. 

Today’s show features three CMO guests at start-ups, two of which had virtually no marketing staff when they came onboard. Tune in to hear a bevy of practical insights into how to stretch a small budget in big ways from Chi-Chi Liang of Alloy, JD Dillon of Tigo Energy, and Luanne Tierney, who had just left her role at Betterworks.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

At Drugstore Publicis, a luxury shop on Champs-Élysées, you’ll find more than a typical pharmacy. You’ll find Joel Robuchon’s L’Atelier Etoile restaurant, a bookstore, a cinema, imported olive oils, cigars, and wines. Plus, they are also actually a drugstore in case you need a prescription filled.

This summer, you may have also found host Drew Neisser chatting with Corneliu Vilsan, Director of Marketing Operations EMEA & LATAM for Pernod Ricard. Running the marketing of an international beverage titan, with a portfolio ranging from Jameson Whiskey, to Malibu Rum, to Absolute Vodka and far beyond, is certainly a tall order. On this episode, listen in as Corneliu shares how he does it, and the wide range of tools he uses, from influencer marketing, to cultural analysis, new approaches to data analysis and social listening, and more.

Wait, wait, wait… Renegade MARKETERS Unite? You heard that right. After 259 episodes, we’re re-establishing a little bit more loudly and clearly what this podcast really is—a hub for renegade marketers. This is a podcast that records and celebrates fascinating stories from visionary B2B CMOs, a very specific brand of renegade thinkers in the B2B world.

The name change falls right in line with Drew’s new book Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands out Oct 5th, compiling insights gleaned from 450+ CMO interviews, research studies of 200+ CMOs, and years of torture testing the prescribed strategies. In this episode, Drew the host asks Drew the author some hard-ball questions about the book, like why you should read it and what you can learn from this valuable marketing resource. Don’t miss it!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

What’s your brand truth? Actually—let’s pull back a bit: what is a brand truth? You could give it a few different names, but in essence, your brand truth is a concise guiding principle that informs virtually every aspect of the company’s operation and, importantly, can’t be dismissed. In the case of UTAK, a toxicology quality control provider (serving chemistry labs, forensics experts, and more), they nailed it in two words: “Control Freaks.”

On this episode of RTU, CMO, and Chief Control Freak, Matt Kopp joins the show to discuss the origins of “Control Freaks,” and how two simple words have influenced every arm of the company, from product development, to customer engagement, to marketing. He also dives into the benefits of bringing in an outside agency (Renegade LLC) to develop the idea, the importance of internal buy-in, how to stand out in a crowded B2B market, and more.

How many languages do you speak? No judgements here—just curious. But, a safe bet would say that the majority of people reading this have a primary language, and then a rudimentary understanding of a second (if that). Now, this is probably fine for the most part, but if you generate some content that needs to be consumed by prospects in other countries, you’ll need a translation service like Smartling. But, Smartling’s marketing doesn’t just revolve around citing how they solve business needs, it celebrates the translators—the people—who make it run, and the stories that each translator has. On this episode of RTU, Adrian Cohn, director of Brand Strategy and Comms, and Jack Welde, Founder & CEO, discuss how they do that.

Smartling’s values highlight humanity and personality, and they’ve found considerable success taking those values to heart when marketing. Tune in to hear more about their efforts, how they engage employees before rolling out a campaign, their approach to measurement, and more. Plus, hear more about their most renegade marketing effort yet: a beautiful, printed book that tells the stories of 12 Smartling translators, both through beautiful prose and stunning imagery.

What inspired the story-based approach?

What are we in business to do? We're trying to help companies to reach people around the world. It's very human. It's a communication process. I would argue that, in a world of marketing personalization, translation is the most basic form of marketing. Speak my language if you want to reach me, right? So I said: hey, there's got to be a way to tell a story like this, that perhaps allows our translators and our buyers to connect more and really remember that balance between art and science, not just the technology, but also the humanity.

How’d you settle on the book? How’d you start putting the content out there?

We didn't have a calculation as to whether or not this would work, but we did have affirmation from customers who continuously told us about how important the translators were to them. This leap of faith was rooted in our customers and their feedback. When we went to produce this, it was extremely challenging. We had to send someone to 11 or 12 destinations around the world. There were dozens of trips, flights booked, hotel rooms—very complicated to execute. But what I was really excited about is that we decided to produce and roll out this campaign in a very agile way. We didn't actually produce everything and keep it to ourselves until one big launch. As soon as we started getting images from Elizabeth, we started dripping them out across social media. We started incorporating them in our presentations around the world. It was a very different way of unveiling a brand marketing campaign, but every single time we dripped something new, we got great feedback.

When do company values matter? Just ask today’s guest Peter Finter, the SVP and CMO at Couchbase: “It's when you have to make a hard decision, that's when values matter.” Speaking with conviction, Peter knows what it takes to prepare a business to take on any challenge. This conviction was made clear in Couchbase’s nearly seamless response to the COVID pandemic and how it took care of employees, customers, and prospects.

In this week’s interview, Peter shares the six unique values of the open-source cloud database company that they’ve brought to life in the recent months across the spectrum of their ecosystem, starting with “Be a good human always.” With a commitment to personalizing marketing through things like employee talent showcases on Zoom and a free community edition of their software, Couchbase’s priorities are evidence that the human, purpose-driven B2B brand will always outlast the two-dimensional, poster board one (and they’ll probably see higher demand generation, faster once things start picking up again). 

With over 70% share of the premium tequila market, it would be easy for Patrón’s CMO to rationalize a conservative marketing approach. Instead, Lee Applbaum believes that success can only be found by “challenging long-standing norms in luxury and in spirits marketing,” and by “always staying ahead of the curve.” To these ends, Applbaum is focused on showcasing Patron’s authenticity as a handcrafted tequila via advertising, influencer programs, social media and an innovative Oculus VR experience.

During is over 3+ years as CMO at Patrón, Lee Applbaum has launched successful line extensions (La Roca) and won numerous awards including two from The CMO Club. But what’s more impressive is that he has helped keep the growth streak alive as Patron continues to find new fans while maintaining a highly loyal following.

Applbaum started his career at Coca-Cola in sales after earning his MBA at UMass Amherst. After Coca-Cola, he held increasingly senior marketing jobs at Schlotzsky’s, Footstar Athletic, David’s Bridal, Radio Shack and even spent 8 months in Melbourne, Australia working with Target. Most importantly, in addition to his strong marketing background, Applbaum knows how to mix the perfect margarita, a skill that comes in handy remarkably often in his current role.

If a tree falls in the forest... You know the rest. But, if Randy Frisch doesn't attend a conference, did people there still talk about content marketing? It's quite possible—but perhaps not with the same enthusiasm, and likely not from the same angle.

On this episode, Randy Frisch, the CMO & President of Uberflip, a content experience platform for marketers, talks about cutting through. Randy explains that you have to “Trojan Horse” your sales message inside a broader, topic of interest. The opportunity here is to create content that your target actually wants to consume, and then using that content as a path to your offering. Content marketing has to cut through and get attention. If not, in the words of Randy himself: F#ck content marketing. To learn more about properly leveraging marketing materials, creating provocative content, scaling personalization, and more, listen to today's episode.

This episode is especially relevant for today’s marketers. Listen in!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Why Uberflip’s marketing isn’t all about Uberflip

Randy shares that when he is booked to talk, no one wants him to talk about Uberflip’s technology. Instead, he needs information and a story to drive people to his product. He tells people about the best framework for content creation and does not push his product. Instead, he shares the things that businesses must do to do content creation well such as centralizing and organizing all content so it can be leveraged. Be sure to listen in to hear more on what Randy says!

Common mistakes content marketers are making

Marketers are falling for the trap of not wanting to overwhelm consumers with information. They are following the “send 7-9 emails over the course of a few weeks ideology,” but by doing this, they are creating dead ends for consumers who would like to know more. Randy says don't wait for the next email to share more information and most certainly do not create a dead end on information. Send people pieces of content and make sure there are several interesting paths forward from this content. Similar to Netflix series, consumers often want to binge information, and marketers are doing themselves a disservice by not providing a path for them to do so.

Randy also notes that content marketing needs to be personalized. He says that Spotify does an excellent job of curating music to individuals’ tastes. In the same way, content marketers must also create an experience for different individuals’ tastes. By delivering more custom content via email or a website, marketers will be able to connect better with people!

Five takeaways from Randy Frisch on content creation

1. Have a strong point of view! Be the CMO that leads the way, disrupts the market, and evangelizes for his product.
2. Make sure your content is personalized!
3. Create content that the consumer can binge. Allow the consumer to choose his own adventure and follow a path of content as far as he would like.
4. Keep everything focused on your brand!
5. Focus on technology last, not first. Make sure you have your team and process in place before you implement technology.

Timeline

• [2:40] Who is Randy Frisch
• [7:36] Top priorities as a CMO
• [18:01] President and CMO: how this affects marketing
• [25:37] More on Uberflip’s marketing
• [29:32] Most common mistakes content marketers are making (and solutions!)
• [43:05] What happens when you scale
• [48:04] Episode overview

Connect With Guest:

• Connect with Randy Frisch on LinkedIn
• Follow Randy Frisch on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• Randy Frisch’s Book: F#ck Content Marketing
• Randy Frisch’s Podcast: Conex
• Renegade Thinkers Unite Podcast: Docusign Episode
• Uberflip’s 5 Steps to Build Content Experiences

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

Since CMO Ran Avrahamy joined AppsFlyer in 2013, the SaaS mobile marketing company has grown from 12 employees to over 1,000, from a small tech startup to a worldwide brand. So, how exactly did AppsFlyer launch to such heights, and how did it adapt as it grew?

Tune in to hear all about AppsFlyer’s zero budget, guerilla marketing in the early days, and how its “Be Everywhere” mantra drove the company’s growth. Ran also discusses how AppsFlyer has been helping all of its customers—whether they’re in the travel industry or the cloud—through post-COVID challenges, as well as why B2B marketing has to (yes, has to) start with employees.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/ 

The ultimate dream for marketers is universal awareness - the point in time when your brand becomes synonymous with a noun. Having your brand become a verb is an even better case scenario (think, “I’ll Venmo you the money!” or “I’ll Google it.”) This extremely high level of brand awareness can create issues though when your brand perception becomes “stuck” in this one-way thinking.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, the CMO of Xerox, Toni Clayton-Hine, joins Drew for a conversation about how Xerox is embracing the new connectivity trend and how it is breaking through old brand perceptions to stay relevant in the 21st century.

Toni shares with Drew the story behind Xerox’s latest marketing initiative, Set the Page Free, and how Xerox is striving to be at the forefront of the intersection between digital and physical workspaces. They also discuss the pros and cons of such a risky marketing project and Toni's top “do’s and don’ts” for current CMOs.

Join Drew and Toni for this engaging conversation - you won’t want to miss a single minute.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

• [0:30] Why does brand awareness matter when you’re trying to sell a product or service?
• [3:15] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Toni Clayton, CMO of Xerox
• [4:52] The main strategy behind Xerox’s marketing
• [9:31] The benefit of working with creators who deliver extraordinary content
• [12:58] Once you’ve created the excellent content, you have to “market the marketing”
• [15:47] Toni explains how she had the courage to approach her CEO with this big, untestable idea
• [18:30] What does storytelling meaning to Toni and Xerox?
• [23:29] How Xerox is currently demonstrating their broader platform and usability
• [26:48] Combatting the loss of reach associated with using digital marketing tactics
• [30:19] How Xerox is showing customers new ways to use their products
• [32:11] The biggest lesson Toni has learned in her career with Xerox
• [37:03] One “do” and one “don’t” for CMOs as a result of Toni’s experience with Xerox

Xerox’s latest Set the Page Free project and how they “marketed the marketing” so effectively

When faced with seemingly cemented brand perceptions, Xerox came up with a creative and big-picture marketing campaign: Set the Page Free. With 14 world-famous writers and creative minds in collaboration, Xerox told the story of the modern workplace - and the entire project was produced using Xerox technology. The end result were podcasts, videos, and a final free download book. After creating the piece, Toni and her team had to answer the question, “who is going to consume this content?” Drew asks Toni about how they “marketed the marketing campaign” so effectively and she explains that they really leveraged the celebrity collaborators and their social channels. For the full story behind the project, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What does brand storytelling mean to Xerox in the 21st century?

Shifting Xerox’s brand perceptions became a balance of using the company’s history to their advantage, while still demonstrating to their customers that they are about more than just copying and faxing physical documents. The Set the Page Free project helped Xerox transition from the realm of a 1990s office verb into a frontrunner of 21st-century workplace technology. This engaging act of brand storytelling allowed the company to show the outcome of using their technology, not just the inputs. Since Xerox is a B2B technology company, Toni’s goal is to ensure Xerox is seen as fresh, relevant, and understanding of their different types of customers. To hear more of Toni’s marketing initiatives at Xerox that are continually shaping their brand perspectives, be sure to listen to the full audio.

The biggest lessons Toni has learned since joining Xerox and why taking marketing risks can be beneficial

While developing Set the Page Free, Toni explained that she often struggled with the desire to control every aspect of the project and subsequent brand awareness surveys. But when Drew asks her about the biggest lessons she learned while working on the project, Toni explains that Xerox had to take a risk in order to shift how people think about the company - and taking that risk also meant dealing with unpredictable variables. She also learned the importance of being more directive in her approach to help customers understand how to bring their Xerox technology tools to life. To hear Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for other CMOs, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Connect With Toni Clayton-Hine:

• Connect with Toni on LinkedIn
• Follow Toni on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• ARTICLE: “41 Brand Names People Use as Generic Terms”
• Set the Page Free website and free book download
• VIDEO: “How does Lee Child Create the Jack Reacher Suspense?”
• Episode 48: “If Marketing is Storytelling Then Learn from NYT #1 Bestseller Chris Bohjalian”
• Episode 49: “The Intersection of Marketing & Storytelling (with Chris Bohjalian)”

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

Catherine Davis knows how marketing for non-profits differs from marketing in the for-profit sector — and she succeeds at both. From building her marketing foundation at Leo Burnett and Diageo to her current role as the CMO of Feeding America, Catherine has mastered the ability to distill powerful stories into tangible pieces that entire populations can connect with. Through strategic brand tracking strategies and working to solve an issue that she is passionate about, Catherine is proving that the role of a CMO as a storyteller has never been more important.  

As Renegade Thinkers Unite meets its 101st episode milestone, Catherine Davis and Drew sit down to discuss why a career in marketing does not have to be linear to be successful. Catherine also explains how to capture individual stories, overcome challenges in brand awareness, and manage a non-profit CEO’s expectations. In this episode, Catherine will walk you through what it takes to communicate what your organization stands for and how to break down big issues into personal stories.

You’ll be inspired to make your marketing matter — catch the full story now.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Catherine works to capture individual stories - a skill she learned early on in her marketing career

Catherine picked up on 2 major lessons that have laid the foundation for her career in marketing for non-profits. The first is to identify and select a marketing strategy. Then, you have to break down that strategy into emotional and logical components that can be woven into stories, statistics, and campaigns.

She explains that people find it much harder to dismiss individual stories from real people struggling with hunger. By encouraging people to have conversations about the bigger issues in America, even if they aren’t necessarily “measurable,” Catherine can begin to see how the tides are turning for the hunger problem.

Measuring progress in marketing for non-profits - it doesn’t come down to quarterly reports

Both Drew and Catherine agree that you can’t begin to measure your non-profit’s success if you don’t use a brand tracking study. Even Feeding America, the 3rd largest non-profit in the United States, couldn’t measure their level of brand awareness without using a study - one that gave them valuable feedback into their brand and messaging. Catherine and her marketing team discovered that across a 2 year period, Feeding America’s level of brand awareness and passion for solving hunger went up from 24% to 51%.

Catherine explains that measuring the impact of a campaign often doesn’t occur after just a few months - solving an issue like hunger can take a decade or more for progress to be made. She outlines how to maintain support from your CEO and more on this episode.

Key pieces of advice for CMOs in non-profits

There are a few key takeaways from this episode that every CMO should hear. Catherine explains that in order for marketing for non-profits to be effective, CMOs need to be 100% clear on who the organization is and what it stands for. Then, you must execute in a way that people understand - avoid academia-type language that isn’t easily understood. Finally, you cannot assume that people believe in the same ideals as you do. By speaking with a single, focused, and passionate voice, you can find success in your marketing efforts.

If you visit the Feeding America website and donate now (tag Renegade Thinkers Unite,) the Renegade Team will match up to $250 in gifts from listeners. What a Renegade way to make a difference today in the lives of fellow Americans. #SharingIsCaring

Timeline

• [0:30] Having a foundation in classical marketing strategies allows Catherine to flourish
• [13:01] Feeding America and its place in the American non-profit industry
• [17:55] Catherine works to capture individual stories - because people can’t ignore a person’s story of hunger
• [20:47] Catherine’s proudest marketing moment at Feeding America
• [24:45] The biggest differences being a CMO for a non-profit vs. for-profit organization
• [32:38] Bridging the gap between brand awareness and unawareness
• [35:43] 2 do’s and 1 don’t for CMOs of non-profit organizations

Connect With Catherine:

• About Catherine on the Feeding America website
• Connect with Catherine on LinkedIn
• Follow Catherine on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• ARTICLE: “A 7-Step Recipe for Marketing Success”
• Ep 95, “How Monster’s CMO is Revitalizing the Brand”
• ARTICLE: “Feeding America's Ice Cream Truck Roadtrip for Hunger Awareness”

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

Many fuel companies struggle to build loyalty among customers. With so many potential gas options out there, most consumers won’t go out of their way to choose a specific brand. At Shell, it is the job of Dan Little (Head of North American Marketing) to get drivers to go that extra mile. Little and his team launched a rewards program called Instant Gold Status earlier this year that encourages consumers to fill up at Shell on a regular basis. In this episode, you’ll learn how the campaign aims to create brand love and what you can do to improve customer retention.

In this special episode, three accomplished CMOs share their experiences as women in the marketing world. The featured guests include Kathy Button-Bell, SVP & CMO of Emerson, Tolithia Kornweibel, CMO of Gusto, and Jean English, who was CMO of NetApp at the time of this interview (she’s now at Palo Alto Networks).

While the glass ceiling seems to have been broken for CMOs awhile ago, distinct challenges remain. Each of the guests explore the barriers they’ve overcome and share hard-earned advice on navigating the modern workplace. It’s important to note that these women have been vocal advocates for change, having worked to organize and develop female leaders within their organizations. Tune in to hear more.

In the premiere episode of Renegade Thinkers Live, Drew was joined by CMOs Rashmi Vittal (Conversica) and John McCrea (Amplify.ai), to discuss all things conversational AI. We take stirring things up quite literally here at Renegade, so in this episode, we sipped in the latest AI marketing insights along with Letherbee’s original label gin (which was amazing, by the way).

It was a fun episode, filled with AI conversational marketing use cases, wisdom from Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and a Live audience Q&A. Even Google Chrome makes an appearance! Tune in to hear some incredible use cases, learn why John and Rashmi both say that “bot” is a terrible word, and see just how Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) can transform B2B marketing in a digital-first world.  

Ask most senior marketing executives to describe their company, and you’ll often hear words like “workflow,” “optimization,” or “disruption” get thrown around. When you ask Dave Brotton, Vice President of Marketing, about Purple Wave, you’ll get something a little different—they like to say they “sell big, dirty, greasy equipment.” Now that’s a description with character. Purple Wave is, in fact, is in the business of big, dirty, greasy equipment—they are an online auction platform focused on things like construction and agricultural vehicles. So, think of it as eBay, but instead of a cute, $30 vintage sweater, you’re bidding on a $43,000 2012 John Deere S660 RWA combine to help harvest your next corn or soybean crop.

Believe it or not, marketing a company geared towards industrial agricultural equipment is a little different than marketing a company where you can sell your sibling’s old sweaters for some pocket cash. Purple Wave has devoted significant time to ensuring proper persona slicing for their efforts and have committed to building a strong community that can help them draw in both buyers and sellers. On this episode, Dave and Drew meet in Tampa at The CMO Club Summit in their escapes from Manhattan, KS and Manhattan, NY, respectively. They talk about company growth, community forming for customers and prospects, meaningful customer relationships, and more. Check it out!

There’s a lot to be learned from the enterprise brand.  

They’ve reached a status that many strive for, and it’s pretty clear from today’s episode that an emphasis on brand and an eye on the future are the reasons why. Tune in to hear from Rebecca Stone of Cisco Meraki and Peeyush Dubey of TheMathCompany (he was at LTI at the time of this interview) about why to go big on brand, as well as how these mega-brands are looking at things like CSR, Web 3.0, the metaverse, and more!  

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

At the beginning of 2020, Pluralsight decided it was going to give away all of its online tech courses for an entire month. The education company knew that this might negatively affect revenue, but that was a risk worth taking. After all, unemployment numbers were soaring and non-essential workers had to stay at home—this was an ideal time to learn some new skills and level up. 

Pluralsight’s offering came to be known as #FreeApril, and so far it’s yielded remarkable results. 1.1 million users took advantage of the offer in markets around the world, and it didn’t cannibalize sales either. In fact, it’s helped close deals in unexpected ways and helped Pluralsight fulfill its altruistic mission: To democratize tech skills across the globe. In this episode, CMO Heather Zynczak shares how they did it, how they plan to nurture these new seeds, and why abundant generosity is the way to go. Check it out!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

If you’re looking for an example of a high-quality virtual event, you’ve got to check out Skillsoft’s Perspectives 2020. Drew did, and he was absolutely blown away by the online summit. In fact, it was so engaging that he just had to interview their CMO, Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek (Michelle BB for short) to learn more about the work that went on behind the scenes to create a global experience that rivals pre-COVID physical events.  

In this episode, Michelle generously shares the details behind the making of the event, as well as other tips, like how they’re measuring its success and how they plan to use the momentum to generate demand. We’ve also got a special Q&A session with a live audience of CMOs: Gabi Zijderveld (Affectiva), Ian Howells (Sage Intacct), Holly Rollo (RSA Security), and Mark Floisand (Coveo). Check it out!

B2B storytelling isn’t easy especially on a modest budget. Creating campaigns that both peak the interest of prospective customers and rally the morale of employees requires careful orchestration and a big idea. On this episode, Tungsten Network's CMO Connie O’Brien breaks down how her internal and external team built a story-driven content marketing program that filled the company's pipeline with high-quality leads. Working with multiple agency partners including Renegade LLC, Speed Communications, and Dragon Search, O'Brien also provides valuable insights on how to maximize teamwork by getting everyone pointed at the same goals and metrics.

Meet the Guest

Connie O’Brien is the CMO of UK-based Tungsten Network. As CMO, Connie is responsible for the Tungsten brand and ensuring the firm is at the forefront of the digital transformation of the purchase-to-pay process, with a focus on how we delight our customers through automated, scalable, dynamic and personalized experiences.

Connie joined Tungsten from Affinion Group, an international membership, and loyalty company where she was Chief Digital Officer. She has over twenty years’ experience driving digital marketing strategies for businesses and has delivered campaigns for brands including GlaxoSmithKline, P&G, Kraft Foods, AXA, John Hancock, AT&T, Vonage, and Verizon.

Connie is an innovative executive with an exceptional record of building award-winning integrated experiences across channels. She has expert multi-dimensional skills in strategy development, product launches, and cross-functional team building. Connie has also demonstrated a proven ability to align operations, establish a shared vision, recruit and retain top talent, build collaborative teams and instill the focus on shareholder value creation.

What You’ll Learn

• The ingredients of a successful story-driven content marketing strategy.
• How to empower your employees to get behind a new campaign.
• How to develop a sound A/B testing strategy.
• Advice for navigating agency partnerships.

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: JD Dillon of Tigo Energy, Rashmi Vittal of Productiv, Roark Pollock of Cylus, Heidi Bullock of Tealium, Chi-Chi Liang of Alloy, Dan Lowden of HUMAN, Gabi Zijderveld of Smart Eye, Melissa Sargeant of AlphaSense, Marshall Poindexter of OpenEye Scientific

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

There is probably nothing more fundamental to marketing than your brand name. It usually takes years to build awareness and equity, especially the kind of equity that helps recruit employees, retain customers and attract prospects. So, when a company decides to change its name, that’s a really big deal or at least it should be given both the challenges of finding a new name and then rebuilding the lost equity. In this episode, Dave Deasy, CMO of TrustArc, formerly TRUSTe, walks us through their entire renaming process.

Over the course of this interview, you’ll learn how to tell when a name change is in order and a concrete process for the development of the new name. Involving an outside naming firm was only part of the answer. Another important component was the role of the CEO and his insistence that the executive committee build consensus together. Along the way, Deasy shows his artfulness, encouraging his branding agency to “get crazy” when thinking about the logo design, a suggestion that resulted in the addition of a fin to the logo and a whole new story line for the introduction. This is just one of the many insightful stories you’ll find in this episode. 

If you’re looking for a story about what a B2B brand can do to drive awareness, shift brand perceptions, and build a top-talent pit crew—this episode with Cognizant CMO Gaurav Chand is a hole-in-one. Tune in for a fascinating look into the world of B2B sports sponsorships, a track that Cognizant has entered full throttle with Formula One, PGA Tour, and LPGA Tour sponsorships.

Learn how this path can boost your B2B brand awareness to new heights, winning over customers and employees along the way. It’s a fascinating lesson in doing your due diligence to set a purposeful strategy, how to make sure your sponsorship is more than just a logo, and more. Don’t miss it! 

As a long-time financial services marketer, you would expect Dan Marks to have the science of marketing down pat. And indeed he does, having built a predictive marketing spend model at First Tennessee Bank (see my book The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade's Guide to Marketing!) and the marketing tech infrastructure in his current role. But Marks sees the trend towards data-driven marketing going too far, explaining that, “Just doing the science without starting with the purpose is a recipe for failure.” Embracing the art-side of his job, he encourages his team to “remember that we are ultimately serving people” and to look at what’s happening with people in other categories.”

Dan Marks is the CMO for Hancock And Whitney Bank, a regional bank in the Gulf South spanning from Houston, Texas, to Tampa, Fla. At the bank, Marks is responsible for overall strategy and execution of marketing and leading a digitally enabled client-focused transformation. Recognitions have included the Presidents Circle CMO Award, “Top CMO on Twitter,” and “Top 40 under 40.”

Anthony Kennada knows a thing or two about ANA’s 2020 word of the year: “Pivot.” In just 4 years, Anthony “pivoted” from Business Development Associate (BDA) at Box to CMO of Gainsight—an astounding feat for any marketer—and during his 6 years at the startup, he helped establish a category, growing the brand from $0 to over $100 million in revenue.

Now, he’s at Front, a start-up customer communication hub with a high-level story to tell. In this episode, Anthony shares how his experiences at Gainsight have informed his community-building, demand-generating efforts at Front—from how to develop a long-term, growth-focused brand strategy to how to bring employees, customers, and prospects together under one purpose-driven cause. Check it out!

AI has become the secret weapon for many marketing teams. In the MarTech world, this goes one step further: many MarTech CMOs are not only embracing AI but pioneering its integration. 

Three such CMOs are Adriana Gil Miner of Iterable, Christopher Willis of Acrolinx, and Andrew Bennett of Smartsheet. In this episode, we bring them together so they can share how they’re marketing the AI that’s making their respective products that much more powerful. Tune in to deep dive into their strategies for rising above the AI buzz, leveraging PR, community engagement, word-of-mouth campaigns, and the myriad ways their teams are harnessing AI.

 For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

Few companies have mastered the art of channeling creative energy through a focused rebranding effort better than Dropbox. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews CMO of Dropbox Carolyn Feinstein. Their shared love of creative energy and authentic storytelling makes for a podcast episode you don’t want to miss.

Carolyn discusses her passion for connecting deeply with consumers through stories as well as why Dropbox chose to “fix something that wasn’t broken” all on this episode. Be sure to listen to discover how Carolyn’s team shifted the market’s perspective about the well-loved company and its offerings.

With over half a billion worldwide users, Dropbox is among the best for workflow technology companies. Their ability to roll out massive internal changes while simultaneously conveying the right story to loyal consumers is encouraging.

Hear all about the challenges tackled, lessons learned, and joyful successes on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

• [0:30] Drew asks the question, “if it’s not broken, should you break it anyway?”
• [2:00] Carolyn’s go-to story to share with marketers
• [6:16] The biggest moment for Carolyn when she was with Electronic Arts
• [11:03] The massive rebranding project Carolyn helped Dropbox navigate
• [14:27] Shifting the consumers' perspective of Dropbox
• [16:57] How Dropbox handled the fear of changing a well-loved brand
• [21:40] The internal rollout of Dropbox’s rebranding project
• [23:57] Dropbox is becoming an eponym and approaching the level of Google or FedEx
• [26:00] The art of a living, dynamic workspace product
• [28:15] Distraction = death in the modern workplace, and how Dropbox is unleashing global creative energy
• [31:08] The biggest lessons learned throughout this bold rebranding mission and the 3 main measures used to measure a storytelling effort
• [35:06] Drew summarizes this inspiring episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite

How did Dropbox approach such a massive project? By following these three main ideas

Carolyn’s team is passionate about storytelling. She explains to Drew on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite that connecting people to one another through quality products and touching stories is the best way to begin a rebranding project. After realizing that Dropbox wanted to reinvent itself, Carolyn followed three main ideas that dictated their path: the art of storytelling, achieving buy-in from internal audiences, and listening to the voice of loyal customers. To hear how she skillfully knit these steps together into one successful mission be sure to listen to this episode.

Rebranding should not be incremental - bold actions conquer fear and allow your company to make huge strides forward

Dropbox’s biggest success throughout the rebranding process was persuading every member on the team that bold actions were the way to achieve ultimate success. Drew is also a huge proponent of the idea that incremental steps don’t move companies forward. Carolyn knew she needed to snap people to attention and have them understand that Dropbox is more than cloud storage. While there will always be some concerns about restructuring a brand’s identity, moving forward with confidence is the ultimate way to launch your company into the next chapter of success. You’ll surely learn from this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite so be sure to give it your full attention.

The crisis of modern work is “death by distraction” - hear how Dropbox is channeling the world’s creative energy and allowing people to work to their full potential

The modern workplace is plagued with notifications, emails, and deadlines. Carolyn and her team at Dropbox recognized this issue and wanted to solve it. Their solution? Streamlined services and products geared at freeing teams from monotonous and time-consuming tasks so they can unleash their creative energy. The goal? Global teams working on a united platform to create projects that will change the world. That’s why Dropbox continues to be a leader in workplace technology and creative storytelling. This interview is one you don’t want to miss.

Connect With Carolyn:

• Dropbox’s blog on Carolyn
• Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn
• Follow Carolyn on Facebook

Resources & People Mentioned

• Ep. 63: Marketing Trends from The CMO Survey and Reigniting Your Passion for Marketing
• Ep. 65: The Ups and Downs of Xerox’s Universal Awareness and Shifting Your Brand Perception
• Dropbox Paper
• ARTICLE: The world needs your creative energy

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Marca Armstrong, Jeff Morgan, Ellina (Gurvits) Shinnick, Peter Finter, and Joy Neely

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

In this episode, Andy shares how marketers are uniquely poised to enable sales teams through insights into buyer behavior—introducing a new way of selling that ditches “salesy” to make way for connection, curiosity, understanding, and generosity. Don’t miss it!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Daniel Bernard of SentinelOne

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Chandar Pattabhiram of Coupa, Katrina Klier, and Andy Paul author of "Sell Without Selling Out"

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

In 2017, Jeff Perkins was champing at the bit to get started as CMO of ParkMobile, a parking assistance app based out of Atlanta. He saw the 7.5 million users, the hundreds of thousands of new users each month, and the awesome product driving everything. However, when he got going, he began to notice his enthusiasm wasn’t exactly the norm. Jeff joined the team following some significant board changes, executive changes, and turnover. As a result, the company moral was experiencing a sort of slump, despite the app's early success, and the leadership decided to step up.

Jeff was quick to spot that this relative malaise could be remedied with a clearer articulation of the company’s vision in a clear set of core values. Following that, an emphasis on employee engagement would help that mission—and a new positive spirit—spread through the company. Listen in to this episode to hear more about how ParkMobile built a thriving culture around core values and an engaged internal team, and how that culture has helped the company grow to 17.5 million users.

What do you need to make a big splash? A big ship, one would assume, is a terrific place to start. So that’s exactly what Agari used to launch their new brand, the purpose of which is written loudly and proudly on the walls of their headquarters: “Agari protects digital communications to ensure humanity prevails over evil.” That’s a pretty bold way of explaining that your company is an advanced cybersecurity firm for email. But a bold mission statement is exactly what companies need to grow. At Agari, this statement is deeply woven into the community fabric, from the board members down to rank-and-file employees.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Armen Najarian, CMO, discusses how they made the mission real, and how having that meaningful guidance of saving and protecting the world of digital communications, helped drive brand, product development, company growth, and more.

In the age of 1:1 personalization, it might be considered heresy to suggest that persona-based marketing is a false idol. But hey, we’re renegades, so of course we’re going to challenge convention. The idea of personas is not necessarily bad. You can never know enough about your target audiences especially when facing 11-person buying committees as is the case with so many enterprise sales efforts. But there is a big difference between 1:1 personalization and personas, which are often an amalgamation of clichés by job title-- like all CFOs are risk averse and all IT people are data-driven.  Sure, many CFOs tend to be risk averse and many IT people like numbers. Now what?  Does that mean you present you product as the least risky to the CFO and the most data-rich to the IT person?  In a word, no.

As it turns out the different story for different targets approach simply doesn’t work when you’re selling large solutions to large companies and Gartner’s Brent Adamson has the research to prove it. In this episode, host Drew Neisser gets on his anti-persona pulpit by interviewing himself. That’s one less persona to cope with on this show perhaps making the medium the message? Too meta? You decide.

What comes to mind when you hear “Spartan?” Probably some version of the imagery found in 2006’s blockbuster, 300. Scenes of great battle, troops acting in perfect unison to overcome odds in a gritty, ticket-selling fashion. While the Spartan brand we’ll be discussing in this episode doesn’t boast life-threatening battles, it does feature some dramatic challenges, the kind that help to build teamwork. And given the importance of building and sustaining teamwork for the success of just about every organization, you’re going to want to hear how the CMO of Spartan, Carola Jain, pulls this all together.

On this episode of RTU, Jain discusses the importance of a great team—and not just a supportive CEO or an understanding CFO; Carola emphasizes the importance of the people you work with, the people in the company trenches, not the owners or executives. She discusses how commitment to a purpose can help motivate employees, and how they can boost the effectiveness of internal rollouts. Beyond that, Jain explores leadership, collaboration, purpose, highlighting the Spartan women, and adds in what might be a piping hot take in the business world: “don’t email.” Tune in for more!

Is there anything that drives the whole business? What are some crucial elements of your operation, marketing or otherwise?

I think nothing works without a great team. And oftentimes you forget: It’s the people that are not necessarily in the board-level conversations. And you really need to spend time and understand what makes him tick. Why do they believe in the company? They don't own the company. They don't necessarily own all the shares. So, how do you think about translating what makes me come to work every day to everybody in the team? And I recently devoted more time to these informal sessions where we explore that. I love working in a way where I can do a lot of interesting things—how do I bring that same opportunity to everybody on my team?

Can you share any big or surprising learnings you’ve encountered in your career thus far?

I think one of the biggest learnings, as well as something I’m continuing to learn about, are the fast lanes and slow lanes on projects. How do you create a fast lane where you can always tackle issues, and really drive forward? When is that the right move? I recently got advice from a mentor to always have these stand-up 10-minute meetings. There's only one topic that can be discussed. And everybody goes away and does something that gets implemented immediately. Looking at those moments where speed and efficiency are priority, as opposed to moments where a slower deliberate approach may be crucial.

Allocating your marketing budget but don’t know where to start?

Begin with the end in mind. That’s where we start in today’s episode with Mary Leigh Mackie of AvePoint, Sue Holub of OnSolve, and Suzanne Reed of LBMC, three marketing mix masters with tons of hard-earned wisdom about how to spend money wisely with a limited budget.  

Tune in to hear each CMOs approach to their marketing mix, working backwards from who they target to how they spend to how they adjust their marketing mix along the way. This is both a timeless and a timely episode—don’t miss it!  

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

When Tom Libretto joined Pegasystems as Chief Marketing Officer, he recognized that his new company was on the cusp of huge changes. Applying his experience at major companies like IBM, Nokia and Chase, Libretto dove headfirst into his role, first by assessing star performers, past successes and failures and opportunities for growth. The good news was that one of the company’s star performers was its own platform, PEGA. What you’ll learn in this podcast, among other things, is the importance of being able to “drink your own champagne,” as Libretto and his team have found it to be an invaluable source of authentic marketing, not to mention troubleshooting.

Today, Pegasystems is considered a top vendor of software for customer engagement and operational excellence. As a leader in martech (marketing technology), Pegasystems provides a window into the future of automation and artificial intelligence, which Libretto breaks down over the course of the conversation. Without giving too much away, check out the podcast to hear about how Libretto helped the company achieve this amazing transformation.

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Sara Ramlo Larsen of Wolters Kluwer Health, Simon Schaffer-Goldman of Case Paper, Kathie Johnson of Talkdesk, Hope Scibal of Tria Federal, Carlos Carvajal of Q2, Bernd Leger of Cornerstone OnDemand, and Kevin Briody of Edmentum.

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Lamenting the fact that the healthcare industry “says the same thing and blends into this mush,” Arra Yerganian is “working to change the conversation” about Sutter Health. To achieve this goal Yerganian is “leaning in when others lean away” and seeks to “embrace the digital experience and create one-to-one relationships for the 3.5 million people that we serve.” Believing that this promise needs to go deeper than marketing, Yerganian works in “really close partnership with Sutter’s patient experience folks, executive leadership and operations” to “lay the foundation for a new [customer] experience.”

Yerganian joined Sutter Health’s not-for-profit network as its first chief marketing & branding officer in August 2015. “Recognized by colleagues as an innovator in residence, a marketing visionary and a customer experience evangelist,” Yerganian has lead a comprehensive repositioning of Sutter Health, which you’ll learn about in our podcast.

Prior to joining Sutter Health, Yerganian served as chief marketing officer for San Francisco-based One Medical, an innovative primary care network focused on transforming patients’ experiences through improved quality and accessibility of care. Before that Yerganian served as CMO for University of Phoenix and held senior international marketing roles at Procter & Gamble, the Dial Corp. and Atari.

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Suzanne Kounkel, Chief Marketing Officer at Deloitte

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Jake Goeckeritz of Bola AI, Michelle Puleio of SageWater, Patti Newcomer of FieldRoutes, and Marshall Poindexter of OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences.

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

The metaverse. Web3. Cryptocurrency. NFTs.

These platforms may not be at top of mind for most B2B CMOs today, but maybe it’s time to start evaluating their potential. That’s why we invited futurist Shelly Palmer, CEO of The Palmer Group and co-founder of Metacademy, to speak at a CMO Huddles #BonusHuddle about the exciting possibilities of these community-building tools.

Now we’re airing the conversation on Renegade Marketers Unite. Tune in to hear about how these tools are already being used by big brands in the real world, how CMOs can get started in their Web3 education, and more! 

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: La Toya Hodge of Cappfinity, Sheraun Britton-Parris of VisionLabs, Natalie Gullatt of HubSpot, and Deidre Hudson

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Joining a company as the new chief marketing officer can be an intimidating affair. There are new team members to meet, historical strategies to digest, and an overwhelming pressure to make an impact early in your tenure. With the rest of the C-Suite reminding you of the needs to generate demand and to calculate ROI on every expenditure, it is easy to find yourself being pulled in multiple directions and forced into “ready, fire, aim” mode. Luckily, Paige O’Neill is here to help on this special episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

As the new CMO of Sitecore, an integrated CMS, and e-commerce solution, Paige is an expert at handling new roles in marketing departments, having been through the process on multiple occasions. Dubbing herself as the chief marketing “synthesizer,” Paige has a knack for synthesizing all the information that is thrown her way and gaining a quick understanding of the company’s goals and priorities. Having worked as a CMO for large companies as well as start-ups she continues to add to her extensive toolkit, taking away something new from each experience. Listen carefully as Paige details the critical steps every new CMO should take to ensure they too get off to a successful start.

Click here to listen and learn how to navigate your first 100 days.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Don’t be afraid to ask big questions during your first 30 days

When Paige stepped into her new role as CMO, she understood the importance of asking the right questions within the first 30 days. Recognizing the key stakeholders within the company is one of the biggest objectives you should have as a new chief marketing officer.

You also have to “become a synthesizer” of all of the information being thrown your way. Understanding the company’s current priorities, current team roles, and workflow processes are all important to understand soon after joining the company. The sooner you ask these big questions and understand the answers, the faster you’ll be able to start actually marketing and leading your team.

Here’s how to approach your new marketing team

Being hired as a new CMO means being paired with a brand new team of marketing employees. Or, you’ll be tasked with hiring your own new team. Paige outlines a few key questions that can help you navigate this complex process:

• What are the strategic goals of the company?
• How is the marketing team going to contribute to that growth?
• What’s holding the company back from the current objectives?
• What vacancies and gaps are there in the current team?

She encourages new CMOs to “be your own best case scenario” and to not let distractions get in the way of securing a great team. If you take the time to build solid relationships with your coworkers early on, the rest of your first 100 days will go much smoother.

Consider Paige’s best advice for your first 100 days as a new Chief Marketing Officer

During your first 100 days as a new CMO, Paige explains that you will have to embrace and lean into the difficult conversations. On this episode, she shares a list of things that are important to work on during the first 3 months in a new role:

• Build key relationships
• Learn the business
• Shore up the team and prioritize hiring
• Figure out the quick wins that buy you time for longer-term projects
• Prioritization goal alignment
• Articulate a vision
• Be mindful of how you’re spending your time - don’t be afraid to say no

By keeping these areas in mind as you work in a new company, your first 100 days as a new chief marketing officer are sure to be successful.

Timeline

• [0:28] Paige is here to help CMOs understand steps to take in their first 100 days
• [2:54] Paige’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
• [13:33] Don’t be afraid to ask big questions in your first 30 days
• [17:55] How do you ensure your observations are true?
• [19:40] How long should you take to make your first sets of decisions?
• [25:37] Here’s how Paige approaches a new marketing team
• [34:09] This advice is key for the first 100 days in a new CMO role

Connect With Paige:

• Press release on Paige’s new role at Sitecore
• Connect with Paige on LinkedIn
• Follow Paige on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• BOOK: “A Good Time to be a Girl”

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

What maketh a high functioning, well connected B2B marketing team?

In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, we welcome three CMOs who share their approaches to shaping, growing, and nurturing their marketing organization in tandem with business growth. Get ready for some winning wisdom from these three CMOs:

• Melissa Goldberger of Safebreach 
• James B. Stanton of Empyrean 
• Jamie Walker of Keyfactor 

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

A customer’s purchase journey is never an easy process to document and collect data on. Thankfully, Brent Adamson is interviewed on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. As Principle Executive Advisor at Gartner (formerly CEB), Brent works to help B2B companies explain to customers why their solution is the best available.

Throughout part 1 of this conversation, Brent and Drew discuss why putting the customer first should be at the heart of any B2B organization. They explain the 6 non-linear steps in any purchase journey, and Brent shares his #1 tip for any B2B supplier.

This conversation will shed new light on the purchase journey. Check it out.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Putting the buyer first is the #1 step to create a better purchase journey

B2B companies should be focusing on understanding how buying happens. Learning how your ideal customer views the buying process will give you direction when bridging the gap between marketing and sales departments. Brent explains that unfortunately, few brands in the B2B space are doing this well. To learn how to put the buyer first and reorganize your brand’s purchase journey model, be sure to listen.

The 6 main steps in any B2B purchase journey - they’re not linear!

Contrary to what many professionals believe, a purchase journey within B2B industries isn’t linear. And closing a deal isn’t about progression, it’s about completion. Brent outlines the 6 main steps that must be completed before any buying decision is made.

1. Problem identification
2. Solution exploration
3. Requirements building
4. Supplier selection
5. Consensus creation (always happening)
6. Validation of information (always happening)

These steps are far from being linear, especially when multiple decision-makers are involved. Of all the B2B buyers surveyed by Brent and his team at Gartner, 90% reported having to revisit one of the top 4 steps multiple times throughout their purchase journey.

Marketers should be doing THIS, before anything else, to help buyers choose their solution

Given these 6 steps, what is the ideal job of a B2B marketer? Brent believes it’s simple: marketers need to make buying easier. The first step in doing so is ensuring that problem-solving information is available through multiple channels. The answers given to a buyer over the phone from a sales rep should be consistent with information available online and via social media.

Actively solving a customer’s problems, before they even recognize a problem, is the key to making B2B buying easier. By understanding a buyer’s problems, offering them the best solution, and supporting them through their purchase journey, you’re well on your way to closing more deals in your industry.

Timeline

• [0:30] Brent’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment, and his unique definition of marketing
• [7:30] The importance of putting the customer first
• [12:11] Brent explains the traditional customer purchase journey model
• [17:42] The 6 main steps to a buying process - they’re NOT linear
• [25:40] B2B buying is incredibly complex, and it’s through a multi-channel approach
• [33:27] Here are your need-to-know takeaways from part 1 of this conversation with Brent

Connect With Brent:

• Brent’s CEB/Gartner webpage
• Connect with Brent on LinkedIn
• Follow Brent on Twitter
• Follow CEB/Gartner on Facebook

Resources & People Mentioned

• Brent’s book: “The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation”
• BOOK: “Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation”

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

“Tell me about yourself.” This vague, clichéd interview question can be answered in a lot of different ways. Executive coach Jacob Warwick is here to tell you the best way, especially if you’re looking to land your next CMO role. 

In this riveting CMO Huddles Carreer Huddle replay, Jacob shares his top interviewing tips and tricks, like how to be assertive, why you should lean into your competition, and how to approach compensation conversations. For those eyeing the CMO chair – a position known for its fleeting tenure – this episode is essential listening. Immerse yourself and gear up for success!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

How do you effectively lead the marketing efforts of a 20,000+ employee tech giant well enough to make it into the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame? Sure—the question may sound a bit specific, but that journey is chock full of valuable takeaways for marketers at any sized company, in any line of work. Lucky enough for RTU listeners, this week’s episode features Ann Lewnes.

Ann is a recent inductee into the AMA Hall of Fame and is currently the CMO of Adobe, a company that doesn’t really need much of an introduction. In her time at Adobe, she’s established herself as a trail-blazing, “flag planter” who gives great attention to the big picture. Listen in to this episode to hear about how she does that, her own marketing journey, the content strategy for Adobe, building brand trust, inspiring the people around you, and more.

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer in any company is tough simply because it requires a seemingly contradictory set of skills - the foresight and courage of a brand marketer, and the detail and systems approach of a performance marketer. How can anyone be expected to fill THAT kind of job description as a CMO? That’s the question being explored on this episode.

Drew’s guest is Kristi Maynor, Head of the U.S. CMO and Digital Transformation Practice at Egon Zehnder, one of the top recruitment and talent search companies in the world. The resumes of some of the top CMO candidates in business have passed through her hands, so if anyone can describe the kind of skills it takes to be or become a truly effective CMO, Kristi can.

Join us for this wide-ranging and provoking conversation as we dig into why courage and curiosity are some of the most important characteristics for any potential CMO and how you can take steps in your current position that position you for advancement to the prestigious yet challenging role of CMO.

You’ll enjoy this conversation so I hope you take the time to listen.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

• [0:30] Courage: Easy to say but hard to demonstrate
• [1:23] Kristi Maynor’s role with Egon Zehnder, one of the premier talent search agencies in the world.
• [4:01] Marketers at Procter and Gamble Kristi worked with who she believes was courageous
• [8:11] The top characteristic of successful CMOs: Curiosity
• [12:03] The expanding role of today’s marketer and what should a CMO be responsible for?
• [15:35] Who does better? A brand marketer or performance marketer?
• [21:55] The role of the CMO as bridge builder and instigator of more effective integrations within the company
• [27:43] Advice Kristi gives to those looking to become a CMO in the future
• [29:54] Why very few CMOs become CEOs

In order to transform a company you have to exhibit courage from the moment you walk in

It’s probably fair to say that most newly-hired CMOs are walking into a situation where their new employer is struggling, at least on some level. They’ve been hired to assess the current state of things, diagnose the problems, and set a new direction that brings the company out of the down season and into a new era of success. Stepping into a situation like that requires courage - both because it’s a step into the unknown and because it will require the development of plans that take the company in an entirely new direction. Find out how Kristi Maynor suggests you cultivate and develop that kind of courage, on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

The problematic need for a CMO who is brand driven AND performance driven

As Kristi and Drew discussed the common traits Kristi has seen in some of the most effective and sought-after CMOs in the business world, it quickly became apparent that a person with a very unusual gift-mix is needed to fill this vital and company-changing role. The CMO job description demands a person who is visionary and able to communicate where the brand is headed - but at the same time able to spearhead efforts to build systems and procedures that drive the process efficiently. There aren’t many people like that, and Kristi explains what it takes to become that person and succeed, in this episode.

When working toward a CMO role, don’t focus on the title, focus on the impact you’ll be able to have

It’s undoubtedly an ego boost to anyone to be offered the role of CMO in a prestigious company. But the allure of such a high profile position pales in comparison to the potential the role provides. Kristi Maynor has seen many new CMOs step into their role with courage and lead their company to new heights. Her advice? Don’t focus on the title or position you’ve been given, focus on the impact you’ll be able to have. Keeping your eyes on the prize enables you to avoid reading your own press and accomplish the things you were hired to do - and everyone from team members to customers to board members will benefit as a result. This episode shares key insights from a woman who’s seen the impact of effective CMOs first-hand. Don’t miss it.

Connect With Kristi:

• Kristi’s profile on the Egon Zehnder site
• Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn
• Follow Kristi on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• Procter and Gamble
• Kevin Hochman of KFC
• Beth Comstock
• Salesforce
• Best Buy
• Domino's Pizza
• Box.com
• Aflac

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Chris Willis, Karen Budell, Bryan Law, Ellina Shinnick, Heidi Bullock, Charles Groome, and Amisha Gandhi

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Chip Rodgers of WorkSpan, Patti Newcomer of FieldRoutes, Ann Boyd of Stoplight, and Dean Nicolls of Oosto

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Virtual Reality (VR) as a marketing tool is in the very early stages of development which is why we recorded this special episode live from the launch of “The Hard Way – a KFC Virtual Training Escape Room.” In this episode, you’ll learn why KFC spent six months developing this unique training experience and how it fits into to their overall marketing strategy of “re-kernelizing” the brand. By that they mean putting the founder Colonel Sanders back into the heart of the brand and in this case, bringing to the forefront his fanatical attention to the details of the chicken cooking process. Jonathan Minori, the design director at W&K Lodge, the developers behind the app, will help you understand the laborious process of putting together a unique experience like this. And while KFC’s Chef Bob did not reveal the secret recipe, he did explain how they keep secret even from him. 

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Misty Walsh of Centric Consulting, Christopher P Willis of Axios HQ, Katrina Klier of Sage Strategy Group, Jeff Morgan of Elements, and Julie Kaplan of CareMetx, LLC

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

 “When the time is right, you’ll know.” It feels like an almost trope-ish answer to many of life’s questions, or like the vague wisdom from a mentor in a karate movie. Unfortunately, the utility of that phrase really doesn’t extend to executing a rebrand. So, how did Acquia know it was time to rebrand?

 Acquia, an enterprise software company, just topped $200 million in revenue, and has achieved 57% growth in the past three years. Clearly, they’ve been doing some things right, and can feel good about their recent decision to rebrand. So, how did CMO Lynne Capozzi know the timing was right? Well, it took a quite a bit of marketing know-how, a need to stand out in the market, and a desire to really emphasize the company’s purpose: to help people “experience digital freedom.”

Tune in to this week’s episode to hear more about Lynne’s extensive marketing background, their approach to a successful rebrand, the importance of getting internal buy-in, and more. 

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Dan Lowden of HUMAN Security, Sue Holub of OnSolve, and Ajay Khanna of Mezmo.

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Digital rock star and Spotify’s Global Vice President for Growth & Marketing, Mayur Gupta, joins us in this week’s podcast to talk predictive marketing, lack of separation in online and offline worlds, and why quality beats quantity when it comes to consumer acquisition. With over 15 years of experience in leading the digital transformation, Gupta shares insights on how brands and marketers can ease into predictive marketing, and explains how Spotify is using this method to unify online and offline worlds, delivering relevant, contextual experiences for their users that inspires them to keep coming back for their musical needs.

While most of us are driving into the future of marketing with limited visibility, Spotify’s Mayur Gupta not just sees what’s ahead, but also shares his vision with helpful precision. In this episode, Gupta talks about how he views marketing and innovation from the eyes of an engineer, and the importance of putting human’s needs at the top of the marketing ecosystem, which consists of technology, data, and storytelling. As the Global Vice President for Growth & Marketing at Spotify, Gupta emphasizes that you cannot effectively market only using technology, or data, or storytelling – the three are completely intertwined, and wholly dependent on the marketer’s understanding of unmet human needs. To see what’s ahead, just listen!

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Peter Finter, Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, Jan Deahl, Michelle Gaines, Dean Nicolls, and Steven Nghe

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Jan Deahl, Gabi Zijderveld, Ellina (Gurvits) Shinnick, Megan Rainbow, Hannah Grap, Jamie Gier, Alexandria (Ali) McCarthy, Isabelle Papoulias, and Martha Clement Rochford

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/

Top 10 Global CMO for companies worth over two hundred and fifty million, top 15 CMO on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine, and top 50 most influential people in sales lead management - just some of the accolades that CMO Brian Kardon has earned over decades of cutting through in marketing. Now, as the CMO of Fuze, a cloud-based communications business, he is continuing to cut through by using his vast knowledge of sales and marketing metrics. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, you’ll learn how to build a seamless demand gen engine, and how to focus on the metrics the matter. Brian and Drew also discuss how you can understand your clients’ perceptions of your brand, and how AI is going to influence the way people create marketing initiatives.

Brian’s insights are ones not to be missed - you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of marketing metrics and so much more.

Click here to listen to the full story.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

How do you know when your marketing is working?

Understanding how your marketing is benefiting your business is often the top priority for both CMOs and CEOs. By using the best marketing metrics for your type of business, you can stay focused on those that matter - a avoid becoming distracted by those that don’t. Brian explains the 3 main metrics he always looks for when evaluating the success of marketing efforts:

1. Net new pipeline contributions
2. Total marketing-influenced leads
3. Total number of closed bookings

These 3 metrics combine to give you data that’s actually worth examining. Learning what marketing metrics work best for you and your company is a process, but it is 100% worth the investment of time and energy.

Handling the micro-marketing metrics is just as important as the big-picture metrics

Understanding the value of both micro and macro-marketing metrics will allow you close sales at both ends of your customer spectrum. Whether you’re examining data on a $1 million contract or securing a $12,000 sale, your marketing metrics are invaluable. For example, a micro-metric will allow you to see how much time a visitor is spending on certain segments of your website, while a macro-metric goes into greater depth on what types of content a specific type of client is looking at and downloading. Brian encourages other CMOs to not forget about either one when creating a roadmap for future marketing efforts.

Use these 2 metrics to help understand your clients’ perception of your brand

There are 2 main questions Brian uses to help him understand his clients’ perceptions of his brand. They are:

1. The net promoter score of the brand’s product(s)
2. The level of customer satisfaction with the sales and marketing process

When conducted by third-party companies, these two marketing metrics shed new light on your entire pipeline process and buying experience. For the full explanation behind these metrics, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Timeline

• [0:30] Here’s why you need to be paying attention to Brian and his team at Fuze
• [13:37] How do you know when your marketing is working?
• [27:14] Handling micro-measurements vs. measurements that help close a sale
• [36:19] Understanding your customer’s perceptions of your brand
• [39:19] Use THESE metrics when presenting to the CEO and board
• [42:43] Lifetime value, customer acquisition costs, and customer retention
• [48:26] Using artificial intelligence in customer acquisition and marketing metrics

Connect With Brian:

• Brian’s bio on Fuze
• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn
• Follow Brian on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• ARTICLE: “5 Ways To Know Your Marketing Metrics Don’t Suck”
• TOOL: Zoom

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

Percolate, a software company, has received north of $100M in funding. Not a number to be scoffed at. In this episode—a fairly atypical one—Noah Brier, the founder, recalls and examines the path he followed to get to this point. Noah started with a job at American Demographics, a now-defunct marketing and advertising magazine, moved into a copywriting position (despite not knowing what ‘copywriting’ was) at a familiar agency (Renegade LLC!), and wound his way through a few other roles and side projects, twists, turns, ups and downs before reaching the point he’s at today. Now, Percolate is making a name as a leading enterprise content marketing platform, and he can lay claim to a true wealth of experience. 

Noah’s journey is, in many ways, extraordinary. It follows unconventional routes, shows moments of peerless creative intuition and spark, and can ideally help guide each and every aspiring marketing leader out there. Listen in to hear about Noah’s entry into marketing, how he advises developing and managing your career, and how he approached starting his own, now massively successful, company. Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but Noah’s model can offer some insights into how it can happen. As he says, “you can’t go through the experience of being an entrepreneur and not make a bunch of mistakes. You just hope to make fewer of them the next time around.”

This is a Tuesday Tips episode where you will hear host Drew Neisser, CMOs, and other B2B experts share their hard-earned wisdom and fresh marketing insights in a bitesize format.

Featuring: Cindy Zhou of SecurityScorecard, Peeyush Dubey of LTI, Brad Mehl of Coleman Research, Kevin Sellers of Ping Identity, and Katrina Klier.

To see the video versions, follow Drew Neisser on LinkedIn or visit our YouTube channel—The Renegade Marketing Hub!

And if you’re a B2B CMO, check out our thriving community: https://cmohuddles.com/​​

Email is still innovative...right? One might argue that email marketing has become the Facebook of marketing strategies— It was cool at first, it hasn't declined yet, but everyone and their grandmother is now on it. So what are the trendy marketing kids using now? Erik Huberman, CEO & Founder of Hawke Media, gives us the answer: SMS. As it turns out, customers only engage with marketing emails about 3% of the time, while the average click-through rate for SMS marketing tallies up to 30%. That's a number to write home about. 

Erik knows that these statistics are too important to ignore and knows that they're indicative of a larger shift in B2B. Acknowledging that shift, and moving with it, has helped Erik's young company grow from 7 to 160 employees in just about 5 years. On this week's episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew chats with Erik about the shift in traditional advertising towards more efficient digital strategies, and how B2B marketers can navigate it artfully. Learn about how this shift isn't for everyone, the importance of product demand, what an outsourced CMO does, and more.

You’ve heard it said, “be the big fish in a small pond.” But have you ever considered being the big fish in many small ponds? Sage Intacct, a provider of cloud financial management, is doing just that. To pull this off, Sage Intacct first defines different “micro-verticals” by breaking down larger marketplaces, like manufacturing, into more granular categories, like toys, planes, and cars. Following that, they become experts in the field, and begin producing valuable, category-specific sales materials and insights.

Vice President and Head of Marketing, Ian Howells, chats with Drew on this episode about how his employees get to know these different markets—or ponds if you will—and the rigorous process of becoming the biggest fish in each.

Be sure to join in!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts- Stitcher - or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

1% penetration to a desired goal - how to get started in micro-targeting

Ian shares the process of penetrating a new market. Sage Intacct works hard to reach out to multiple companies to conduct interviews and research. It is Sage's job to understand this customer and understand what is going on. What are the pains of the customer? Are there similarities between this company and others Sage Intacct work with? Ian's interviewers must gain understanding and draw correlations between companies in the same micro-target. This interview process gives understanding into a micro-vertical. The more companies you interview, the more you know about this subset of the market: associations, key influences, key applications... All of this information affects positioning and messaging for that micro-vertical.

How to know you have achieved success in a micro-vertical

Oftentimes, companies believe they have achieved success in a micro-vertical too soon. Ian explains that you have achieved success in a current micro-vertical, and should approach another, when you have at least 20 clients with the same patterns and pains, and you can predict what the client will say. This shows you understand the current micro-vertical, and you are in a position to begin learning about a new one.

The importance of website content and collecting data

Sage Intacct’s website overtly lists its competition. It compares what it offers to various companies. Ian explains that you must over communicate what your company does and why it is the best. By comparing Sage Intacct’s products to others, clients can quickly see why Sage is different and the best for them.

On several demo videos, Sage Intacct stops the video to collect viewer information. This is important for several different reasons. Collecting information allows Sage to know what industry this person is from. When the video resumes, the viewer gets personalized content. If you’re from a nonprofit, you get specific messaging. By pausing the demo, Sage is also able to collect data from potential clients and know how interested the viewer really is.

Timeline

• [2:04] What Sage Intacct does
• [4:30] Ian’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
• [13:16] How Ian got started in microtargeting
• [16:40] The process from 1% market penetration to your goal
• [19:45] How to get interviews, who conducts them, and where they’re shared
• [25:49] When to add another micro-vertical
• [29:00] Telling customers stories
• [30:17] Over communication on website content
• [34:51] When to move on from a micro-target

Connect With Ian Howells:

• Ian’s Bio on Sage Intacct’s Website
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Follow Ian on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

• Sage Intacct’s Website: Comparison to Competition
• Book: Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm

Connect with Drew

• http://renegade.com/
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On Instagram