Marketing Today With Alan Hart

This week's “Marketing Today” was recorded live at the 2019 Incite Group Brand Marketing Summit in San Francisco. The topic of this panel discussion was “Storytelling Deconstructed: The Hard Data Behind Emotive Creative.” Host Alan Hart moderates the discussion that includes Nathan Thornburgh, Co-Founder and CEO of Roads & Kingdoms, an independent media company, Noah Jacobson, SVP, Corporate Development & Strategy at TapClicks, a technology company that aggregates data sources, and Brian Border, Former Vice President of CRM at Shutterfly, an on-demand printing company.The conversation covers the evolving relationship that data plays in brand storytelling. Highlights include the importance of engaging with customers and understanding their buying habits, the power of having a clear point of view with your content, what it is like when your story needs to pivot or change all together, and what is needed to connect with consumers in a manner that doesn't feel forced.Noah Jacobson

This week on “Marketing Today,” host Alan Hart interviews Navid Jafari, director of marketing and corporate communications at PeerNova, a blockchain and fintech solution provider to financial service market. Jafari tackles blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT), and fintech marketing, as well as, influencer marketing in B2B. This was the first of three episodes recorded at Incite Group's Brand Marketing Summit in San Francisco.Jafari discusses what blockchain is and how it is being leveraged and talks about the podcast that he has launched with PeerNova about all things blockchain, called Chain in the Valley. Jafari on blockchain, “foundationally, it brings a level of trust to the database or application you are building.” He adds that blockchain can be seen as lens or added transparency and visibility to transactions. He also states that, “in order for blockchain to have any value, you need to bring that and you need to couple that with things like cloud technology or t

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan interviews Mayur Gupta, the chief marketing officer at Freshly. Mayur's experiences include past roles as vice president of growth and marketing at Spotify as well as at Kimberly-Clark as the global head of marketing technology and innovation and then as the global head of the omni channel experiences and platforms.Gupta talks about the current state and future state of marketing from his unique perspective of an engineer and having obtained a master's degree in computer science. He also shares insight on Freshly's target goal of providing food and wellness to over 100 million people, the importance of having a point-of-view in marketing, and his definition of growth that includes the growth of the brand, the user base, and the user value.Gupta also delves into the constant changing of ideas and strategy in marketing by saying, “The goal is not to kill that chaos. The goal is not to bring calm. But, it's how you harness that chaos on the internal culture.

This week on “Marketing Today,” host Alan Hart shares a two-part interview with Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, and Virginie Helias, Chief Sustainability Officer at Procter & Gamble (P&G). Pritchard, who has worked at P&G for an impressive 37 years in multiple capacities, talks about the business justification for sustainability on the heels of the Sustainable Brands Summit in Detroit. Helias also has an amazing 31-year career thus far at P&G, and she discusses programs that deal with sustainability being spread across the company worldwide.Pritchard talks about a new initiative called Brands for Good, the importance of using the voice of companies and brands as a force for good, particularly with the Brands For Good initiative, and even a personal story of how he came to understand how businesses carry a huge responsibility to the world. Helias talks about the Ambition 2030 program at P&G, the company's work with the World Wildlife Fund's new resource plastic initiative,

This week on the “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talks with KoAnn Skrzyniarz, founder and CEO of Sustainable Brands Worldwide. Skrzyniarz has worked as the founder and president of Organizations That Work, and in the roles of senior vice president, vice president, and group director at Miller Freeman Inc.Skrzyniarz discusses Sustainable Brands Worldwide's publishing platform's impressive growth, the goals and aims for Sustainable Brands, all the offerings they provide including education, research, content, and events, and the opportunities and threats to current marketers. Also, get a deeper understanding of Sustainable Brands' peer-to-peer corporate member learning group that is made up of about 80 global companies at the commit stage to finding sustainable solutions. The organization's corporate members include National Geographic, Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Target, CVS Health, 3M, BASF, Cisco, UPS, Dow, and ALDO among others.Skrzyniarz shares a few of the stats released to Sustainable Bran

This week on the “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talks with Mark Ritson, adjunct professor of marketing at the Melbourne Business School, who also runs the Mini MBA in marketing program in collaboration with Marketing Week, and writes for Marketing Week as well. Ritson has worked globally as a private marketing consultant for esteemed clients like Baxter, Loewe, McKinsey, PepsiCo, Subaru, Eli Lilly, Donna Karan, Westpac, Shiseido, Flight Centre, Johnson & Johnson, De Beers, Sephora, Benefit, Amgen, Ericsson, Jurlique, Cloudy Bay, Unilever, KPMG and WD40. If that wasn’t enough powerful impact, Mark Ritson also spent 13 years as the in-house professor for LVMH, the world's largest luxury group that handles brands like Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon, and Hennessy.Ritson uses his enriched wealth of information and his sharp sense of humor to talk about how he has actually incorporated Marketing Today itself into the Mini MBA program, but with one missing piece ­– the often misunderstood industry topic of brand d

This week on the “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talks with Jenny Rooney, editor of the CMO Network at Forbes. Rooney, who also runs initiatives at Forbes such as the CMO Summit and the Forbes CMO University Alumni series, has 25 years of experience as a business journalist, including as a reporter and editor of CMO Strategy at Advertising Age, editor-in-chief in sales and marketing management at VNU, contributing editor at Chief Executive Magazine, and senior writer at Business 2.0.During their discussion, Rooney discusses the role of CMOs, what is taking place in marketing currently, as well as the opportunities, popular developments, and challenges that CMOs are faced with. If you have been just as concerned about the decline of available marketing talent as the industry has, stay tuned for Jenny's insights on what can revive this troubling trend. With her contributions and research into the ever-changing marketing space, Rooney shares what marketing leaders are up against right now.Rooney shares her take

In this episode of "Marketing Today," Alan interviews Russell Barnett, the CMO for My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream. This discussion with Barnett is a great opportunity to learn more about challenger brands, strategies in how to lead challenger brands, and how they approach the brand building process.  "A brand is very human. As someone who takes on the mantle of a brand, you sort of have to allow that humanity to come through," Barnett adds. Beyond My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream, He also shares his experiences at stops along his career that spans from Mike’s Hard Lemonade to Popchips among others. Barnett also shares advice on how to get more creativity out of your digital efforts and how experience is a big part of the brands he manages to this day. Highlights from this week’s Marketing Today: 01:30 – Russell Barnett discusses how he got his start in his marketing career. 08:06 – What did advertising teach Russell? 08:53 – How did Russell get involved with Mike’s Hard Lemonade? 12:24 – What was Russell’s experience like with

In this episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan interviews David Yovanno, CEO of Impact, a company operating in the partnership economy. David has spent 19 years in martech and adtech companies such Conversant, Gigya and Marin.Yovanno shares not just his experience with Impact, but also what exactly the “partnership economy” is and how business partnerships and trusted referral networks can drive revenue. The partnership economy is the formation of alliances with businesses and individuals that have a trusted relationship with customers that you want to acquire.We also have time to talk about the state of martech and adtech industries. Yovanno added, “consolidation is accelerating. All the new money is going to two companies, Facebook and Google.”Highlights from this week's Marketing Today:01:50 – David Yovanno discusses how he got his start in his career.06:01 – What are David's concerns with the current state of the marketing agency?10:15 – What is the partne

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan interviews Don Lane, the Chief Marketing Officer at Saucony, the sneaker and apparel manufacturer. Don's discussion covers his expansive marketing career, including 21 years at the Boston-based agency Arnold, followed by Draft Kings, before his relatively new move to Saucony.Lane discusses Saucony's new marketing moves from avocado toast sneakers that caught the attention of Jimmy Fallon to Dunkin running shoes for the Boston Marathon. He discusses how these ideas come about and how the company is able to capitalize on the opportunities when they present themselves.Additionally, Saucony unveils its “Run for Good” positioning as well as useful advice regarding ways to give your brand purpose that customers can connect to. Lane explains, “this world needs brands and politicians and artists and people that stand for goodness, and so that's what we are going to stand for.” Highlights from this week's Marketing Today:01:10 – Don

This week on the “Marketing Today,” podcast, Alan talks with Tim Matthews, CMO of security software company, Exabeam, and author of “The Professional Marketer”, a handbook that can teach marketers the critical skills they need to get the job done. Exabeam uses machine learning and analytics to track the complete timeline of a cyber-crime so that security teams catch criminals in the midst of their attack.In this episode, Matthews, discusses his own journey to the marketing industry which started first in computer science and then sales. His ability to break down technical issues and simplify them was good for sales, so he scaled this skill into a successful marketing career.Matthews believes that “you can build a good marketer” when he talks about the fundamental skills, such as curiosity and commitment, that he looks for in people as he grows his marketing team.Highlights from this Marketing Today conversation include:Matthews says his technical background has helped him i

This week on Marketing Today, Alan speaks with Bill Macaitis, a man that needs no introduction. He has been involved in 5 highly successful tech industry exists with companies such as IGN, Salesforce.com, Zendesk, and Slack. He now enjoys teaching tech founders how to grow and scale their business via sophisticated MarTech stacks and a customer-centric approach to marketing. Macaitis' mindset is that B2B marketers should be innovating the go-to-market strategy on the marketing side as much as they do on the product side.Macaitis recognizes that many B2B companies feel the need to play it safe and take a very bland approach to branding, and this a great opportunity for those willing to take risks to stand out. He tells stories of how his teams at Zendesk and Slack disrupted conventional customer branding opportunities by making simple things such as logos, loading messages and release notes fun and whimsical.According to Macaitis, “Your brand is the sum of all the little experiences that someone has with

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Amy Fuller, chief marketing and communications officer for Accenture. Fuller has built a career working on world-class brands like Kraft, IBM, Kimberly-Clark, Verizon, and Deloitte while working on both the agency and the client side. Before joining Accenture in 2017, she spent time in various leadership roles at Deloitte, MasterCard, Y&R, and Ogilvy & Mather, among others.During the course of their discussion, Fuller breaks down the complexity and challenging scope of serving as the chief marketer for a company the size of Accenture while offering observations and thinking that can be applied to an organization of any size. And she discusses formative experiences — from spending time throughout her childhood on an off-the-grid river island between the U.S. and Canada and earning a liberal arts education at Bryn Mawr College to learning how to “thrive with scarcity” while working on the agency side and her experience with th

This week on the “Marketing Today,” podcast, Alan talks with Ty Shay, global chief marketing officer for Norton LifeLock, which was acquired by Symantec two years ago for $2.3 billion. Shay's career as a marketer began somewhat unconventionally. After earning a degree in accounting and serving a brief stint in investment banking, Shay returned to the classroom for a Stanford MBA. After cutting his marketing teeth at P&G, Shay subsequently served in chief marketing roles with SquareTrade and Hotwire before joining LifeLock. He also currently serves on the board of directors for the Ad Council.During the course of their discussion, Shay explains his concept of marketing jiujitsu and why, sometimes, it's a good idea to “turn off” your marketing efforts. He also talks at length about performance storytelling — its key elements and how it can be successfully implemented — and the impact of losing his father at an early age.Shay also offered his perspective on the future of m

This week on the “Marketing Today,” podcast, Alan talks with Minter Dial, author of “Heartificial Empathy: Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence,” which is his third book. Previously, he co-authored "Futureproof: How To Get Your Business Ready for the Next Disruption,” and he is the author and filmmaker of “The Last Ring Home,” the story of the grandfather he never knew, who died as a POW during World War II.Prior to his career as a speaker, consultant, filmmaker, and author, Dial spent 15 years with L'Oreal, where he ran the Redken business in addition to serving in other marketing roles there. During the podcast, Dial talks about his latest book, which he says he didn't really intend to write, and he shares his perspective on what exactly empathy is, how it can benefit businesses, and the implications for its use in artificial intelligence.And he had this to say about the future of marketing. “With all the opportunities and tools that are out

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Nick Cromydas, founder and CEO of Hunt Club, a new type of talent company. Cromydas and his company have built and utilize a network of influencers and, through proprietary technology, they refer people from that network to fill positions at high-growth companies, as well as at larger enterprises.During the course of their conversation, Cromydas, an investor and entrepreneur, talks about the driving force behind Hunt Club, how his life in tennis has been a key influence in his career, and the kind of talent companies must have to thrive.Conversely, Cromydas also points out how talent looking to join fast-growth companies can jump off the page. “If you're looking to join a fast-growth entrepreneurial environment,” says Cromydas, “and you have relationships you can leverage and can actually introduce those to the company, or help them and consult for free in certain areas that they need some help with that they don't have the dollars

During the Adobe Summit, Alan had the opportunity to sit down with Donna Tuths, global head at Cognizant Interactive. Equal parts disruptor, pioneer and, innovator, Tuths also spent time at Accenture, Ogilvy & Mather, Organic, and Y&R Wunderman prior to her arrival at Cognizant.During her conversation with Alan, Tuths talks about her focus on helping clients make the shift from marketing to experience as part of her role in driving solutions at Cognizant Interactive. They also discuss the changing face of creativity, her company's focus on strategy and design, and why Cognizant Interactive found itself making movies on location at the Summit along with their content experts, Mustache.Highlights from this Marketing Today conversation include:Cognizant Interactive believes you need humans to understand humans. (:29)Tuths explains the Cognizant operating model. (2:26)Lights! Camera! Action! Cognizant Interactive's Hollywood treatment at Adobe Summit provides a deeper understanding of their capabilities.

As chief product officer at Dun and Bradstreet, Anudit Vikram oversees the company's audience solutions business that utilizes the more than 300 million offline business records in its database for digital marketing and online advertising use cases. As part of building this product for Dun and Bradstreet, he is responsible for overseeing the company's data-driven audience targeting, deterministic data, and verification of audiences in programmatic advertising. Prior to joining Dun and Bradstreet, Vikram spent time at Merkle, nPario, Yahoo and Microsoft, among others. During this episode of Marketing Today, Vikram talks about the nuance behind the numbers in the offerings of Dun and Bradstreet, the issues of privacy and data protection, as well as how, on a personal level, he tries to never get too high or too low in keeping up with the pace of change.Highlights from this Marketing Today conversation include:Vikram talks about his role at Dun and Bradstreet and provides detail about the audience solutions

 At the Adobe Summit, Alan sat down with Alan Schulman, managing director and chief creative officer at Deloitte Digital US. Schulman discusses Deloitte Digital's scope of capabilities and offerings: everything from a customer strategy and applied design capability to help clients imagine products and services they don't have but might need to designing and prototype building to its advertising and e-commerce offerings.In the course of their conversation, Schulman talked about the modern relationship between CMOs and CIOs (“The way you run marketing versus the way you engage the customer is really a team sport.”); the dawning of the age of AI; how being a jazz musician has informed his career as a creative leader; and the velocity of technological change and its impact on culture, content, and creativity. Highlights from this Marketing Today conversation include:Schulman details Deloitte Digital's considerable breadth of offerings. (:48)In tandem: How CMOs and CIOs now have to work toget

 At the Adobe Summit, Alan had the opportunity to talk with Kelly O'Neill and Bill Connolly of Monotype, a foundry that is home to some of the most-recognized fonts in the world, among them are Arial, Gill Sans, and New Times Roman. At Monotype, O'Neill is senior director of product management and Connolly is director of content.During this conversation, O'Neill and Connolly discuss Monotype's heritage, its evolution into a brand company, and the challenges and opportunities emerging technologies, VR and AR in particular, have provided. They also discuss their companies acquisition of Olapic and how that company aligns with them strategically.Highlights from this Marketing Today conversation include:The Monotype story: its history, its evolution into a brand company, and the challenges it faces in new environments. (:51)Monotype's strategic alignment with Olapic. (3:16)Monotype has its eye on AR and VR. (8:01)Connolly and O'Neill discuss advice they've received, their reliance on LinkedIn for information