Marketing Today With Alan Hart

This week's podcast marks an encore presentation, of sorts. Alan talks with Peter Horst, who previously appeared in Episode 25 of “Marketing Today.” In this conversation with Alan, Horst discusses his new book, “Marketing in the #FakeNews Era: New Rules for a New Reality of Tribalism, Activism, and Loss of Trust.” Horst is the former CMO at The Hershey Company, and he has also served in marketing leadership roles at Capital One, General Mills, and TD Ameritrade, among others. Presently, he finds himself writing — in addition to his book, he's a Forbes contributor — as well as consulting, doing board advisory work, and engaging in public speaking.In his conversation with Alan, Horst addresses the difficulties marketers face in the present-day climate of fractiousness and polarization. “This atmosphere is really the result of a perfect storm of a bunch of forces that are creating a really challenging environment for brands,” says Horst. “The country is deep

In this week's “Marketing Today,” Alan spoke with Tom Goodwin, author of the book, “Digital Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption.” Goodwin is also a sought-after speaker — addressing topics like the future of advertising, digital disruption, and business transformation — and he is head of innovation at Zenith.In his conversation with Alan, Goodwin touches on how people rely on and attempt to harness new technologies in ways that complicate things but do not provide the radical transformation they are hoping for. “We have this kind of ongoing narrative about how chaotic things are and how the pace of change is worse than ever,” says Goodwin. “I think, sometimes, that means we focus more on the technologies than on our instincts, and we focus more on data than we do on ideas. And somehow we make life more complicated than it needs to be.”Goodwin goes on to add, “I think we have this wonderful new toolkit, which giv

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talked with Jack Hollis, group vice president and general manager for the Toyota Division at Toyota North America. There he leads all sales, marketing, and market representation as well as guest experience and retention activities for Toyota regional sales offices and distributors. In addition, he retains a role as global marketing advisor for Toyota's Olympic and Paralympic sponsorships. During the podcast, Hollis talked about the rapid change the automotive category, and Toyota in particular, is seeing and what it means to him. “Toyota is going from an automotive company to what I'm calling ‘the human movement company,'” says Hollis. “And so, the idea of what we want consumers to feel is that we are part of their life, to be part of whatever challenges they may have. And while we can't necessarily say we're going to solve every one, we can sure start — we can sure be at the start of that.”Hollis goes on to add, “

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan spoke with Zipporah “Zip” Allen, who was named CMO of Pizza Hut in January of this year, after having been with the company since May of 2015. Prior to her time at Pizza Hut, Allen was at McDonald's for eight years. Perhaps most notable in her tenure at McDonald's was the three years she spent as national marketing manager for Australia.Allen has been very active since assuming her role as CMO. Recently, she led Pizza Hut's agency search, ultimately deciding to join forces with GSD&M in Austin, Texas. And as we head toward fall and the kickoff of another football season, Pizza Hut is kicking off another new partnership. This year, they will be the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. In talking about that new venture during the podcast, Allen noted the connection fans have with the NFL — and sports in general — and why it matters for Pizza Hut. “I think the ‘live' nature of it,” says Allen, “and the

For this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan got up close and personal with Brad Wilson, who just happened to be visiting Durham, North Carolina. Wilson is the chief marketing officer at LendingTree, the nation's leading online loan marketplace, with headquarters just down the road in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wilson took over the marketing reins for LendingTree in July of 2017, and there he heads up brand strategy, marketing operations, and consumer engagement.In the course of his discussion with Alan, Wilson talks in detail about team building and leadership. For him, it's important to be there in the trenches. “You gotta show people you're doing the work, as well,” says Wilson. But he also believes you have to know when to get out of the way and let your people do the work. “If you have the vision right,” says Wilson. “If you know what you're trying to achieve — metrics, aspiration, what have you — and if you get the right people, there's no need

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan's conversation is with Jennifer Halloran, head of brand and advertising at MassMutual. The beginning of Halloran's tenure at MassMutual was marked by a complete rebranding effort across all aspects of the company, including the hiring of two new agencies of record. In a decision to go with a roster model, they chose Johannes Leonardo as their creative lead and named Giant Spoon to handle media responsibilities.During the course of her conversation with Alan, Halloran talked about the process of hiring those two agencies as well as the campaigns and initiatives MassMutual has launched in the past year. In addition, Halloran touched on adopting and implementing a nimble approach to capitalize on big cultural moments through timely creative and the resulting media opportunities. “I think you really have to be fluid,” said Halloran.” You don't buy a media plan that's set for the year anymore — we call it a blueprint.” She

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Mark Barden, the San Francisco–based partner at eatbigfish — a marketing consultancy that coined the term “challenger brand” and that has helped clients like Audi, Sony PlayStation, Charles Schwab, and Callaway Golf transform their brands to achieve new levels of growth. Barden is also the author of “A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, and Why It's Everyone's Business,” and he has contributed a chapter to the upcoming book, “Eat Your Greens,” which will be published by the Account Planning Group as part of their 50th anniversary celebration.In the course of their discussion, Barden talks in great detail about the differences between challenger brands and disruptors, and he places them on a spectrum to better understand those differences. He also makes an observation about what challenger brands must do to succeed.“It's all about animating a group

This week's “Marketing Today” podcast finds Alan moderating a panel at the recent Brand Marketing Summit in San Francisco, a conference that brings together some of the brightest marketers from the world's biggest brands to talk about the future of marketing. The panel discussion Alan led, “Creating Work that Stands the Test of Time: How to Futureproof Your Brand in a Constantly Evolving Landscape,” featured Margaret Quan, director of customer marketing strategy at eBay, and Valerie Nguyen, partner and co-head of strategy at Wolf & Wilhelmine in New York.During the panel, Nguyen and Quan talked about brands charting courses as the world rapidly changes around them and what brands must do to remain relevant. The discussion ranged from Quan pointing out that “competition creates greatness in the marketplace,” to Nguyen discussing her belief that “empathy and vulnerability are both really important tools and practices to building great brand strategy.”Highlight

This week finds Alan and “Marketing Today” on the road again. While at the Brand Marketing Summit in San Francisco, a conference that brings together some of the brightest marketers from the world's biggest brands to talk about the future of marketing, Alan took the time to talk to four of the marketers in attendance. They discussed the challenges facing their brands, the evolution of the customer journey, the measures they take to amplify and strengthen their brands, and even things that they love and/or hate. Not only that, in a moment of self-discovery, Alan realizes that he is actually a millennial and not a member of Generation X. Who knew?The four marketers Alan spoke with are:Ali Osiecki, vice president of marketing at the Greg Norman CompanyAndrew Strickman, senior vice president of brand and marketing at realtor.comDavid Fossas, senior director of brand at WP EngineSmita Wadhawan, senior director of U.S. marketing at GoDaddy Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” p

 This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan spoke with Loren Angelo, vice president of marketing for Audi of America, where he leads marketing positioning and management of the Audi brand in the U.S. In addition, he manages advertising, experiential, CRM, social media, product integration, retail marketing, and research strategies for the carmaker.In the course of their discussion, Angelo touched on the factors that led him to Audi, what it means to him to work for a challenger brand that believes in purpose-led marketing, and the thinking behind the relationships Audi fosters with its partners. And he cited principled authenticity and like-mindedness as being key in a brand's relationship with its consumers. “Consumers look for brands that share their values,” said Angelo. “And if your values are consistent, and you're willing to go out on a limb and defend those values and build a conversation around them, consumers are going to be, as the studies clearly show, more attract

Milestones are a big deal — wedding anniversaries, graduations, retirements, promotions…and 100 podcast episodes. That's right, this week marks a major milestone for “Marketing Today” — we're hitting the century mark with our 100th episode. We appreciate all the support and interest we've received for “Marketing Today,” and we look forward to many more episodes to come.This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talked with Colin McConnell, senior vice president and chief brand officer for Prudential Financial. McConnell has enjoyed an extraordinary 27-year career there, rising from college recruiter to speech writer to being a member of the team that started the company's in-house advertising agency, and then on to his present role leading that agency, which is one of the largest in the financial services category.During the course of his conversation with Alan, McConnell touched on what he feels is a key focus for an effective in-house agency. “I don't t

In this week's “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talked with Trish Mueller, co-founder of Mueller Retail Consulting. Prior to starting her consultancy, Mueller was chief marketing officer at The Home Depot from 2011 to 2016, where she spearheaded the company's shift from print and traditional media to omnichannel marketing. In 2015, Mueller earned the CMO Club's CMO Marketing Innovation Award. In addition, she presently serves on the board of directors for Dave & Busters.In the course of her discussion with Alan, Mueller talks about her career in marketing and how it led to a focus on leadership and the transformative “lightbulb” moment when she understood it was less about outworking people and more about developing talent. “Instead of doing the work, or leading the people doing the work, or even developing the strategy,” says Mueller. “It really was more about acquiring and then inspiring and empowering people to develop and drive the strategy themselves.”&n

In this week's “Marketing Today” podcast, Alan talked with Casey Hurbis, chief marketing officer at Quicken Loans, the company that revolutionized the mortgage business and, in the process, grew to employ more than 17,000 team members in Detroit while bearing witness to the resurgence and revitalization of its hometown. Just recently, at the beginning of 2018, Quicken Loans became America's largest lender.Born and raised in Detroit himself, Hurbis has kept the home fires burning as a self-described “Detroit guy.” He attended college in nearby East Lansing at Michigan State University before starting an automotive marketing career, both on the agency side with BBDO Detroit (and later with BBDO Worldwide) and on the client side at Fiat Chrysler, before assuming the chief marketing role at Quicken just 13 months ago. Hurbis has spent his entire professional career in the city he calls home.During the course of his conversation with Alan, Hurbis touched on how important joining forces with

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Jeremy Wacksman, chief marketing officer at Zillow Group, where he also oversees product management and strategy. Wacksman's experience prior to joining Zillow includes leading marketing and product management for Xbox Live. He holds a B.S. in computer engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.In his conversation with Alan, Wacksman focused on data and the role it's played in changing the housing market and how Zillow recognized the importance of it to connect with consumers. “It all goes back to bringing transparency to the housing market through access to data,” says Wacksman. “And using that as a tool to drive both awareness for our brands and trust for our brands by consumers.” He goes on to add, “If you go back to our mission, and our strategy from the very beginning, it's about empowering consumers to make those decisions. And when you think abo

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Jay Livingston, chief marketing officer at BARK, the company that created the immensely popular BarkBox, which led to its other endeavors: BarkShop and BarkRetail. Livingston joined BARK after a 20-year career at Bank of America, where he held senior leadership roles in every functional area of global marketing and strategy, from digital commerce, consumer/retail, and small business to commercial banking and brand management.After a two-year “hiatus,” which found him immersed in angel investing as well as traveling and restoring automobiles, he is now the CMO at BARK, the wildly successful company that caters to dogs and their owners. BARK is everything Livingston was looking for as he reentered the realm of marketing: A company that was consumer-facing; produced a physical product; not only that, the product had to bring people joy; and, last but not least, the company had to be headquartered in New York. As Livingston

This week in “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Brandon Rhoten, outgoing CMO at Papa John's. Prior to his stint there, he spent almost six years at Wendy's, where he was VP for Marketing, heading up advertising, social media, and digital marketing.During the course of his conversation with Alan, he talks about the importance of establishing a brand voice to connect with consumers. “It sounds cliché,” says Rhoten, “but you've got to establish that voice first. Because that's really what builds everything.” And he goes on to add, “You have to build out tools, and rules, and measurements to understand how you really are reaching and influencing someone and their behavior. And that takes some time.”In the end, though, for Rhoten, the success of a brand hinges on the work: “You just have to be willing to believe in the work. If you're a champion for the work, and for the people doing the work, eventually you win.”Highlights from this week's &ldquo

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Pras Michél, who, as a founding member of Fugees, is a multi-platinum recording artist and Grammy winner, as well as a philanthropist, actor, producer, and entrepreneur. And now he stands on what is perhaps the biggest stage of his life — founder of Blacture, a technology platform designed to provide greater access and a voice for black culture, and to demonstrate and provide increased opportunities for the culture's success.In this wide-ranging, often philosophical, and uniquely insightful discussion, Pras speaks about his vision for Blacture, why he chose to launch it during the 2018 Super Bowl, and its focus on tech, health care, education, entertainment and entrepreneurship, as well as his belief in the message of inclusion inherent in Blacture. “Think of Blacture like a highway,” says Pras. “All Blacture is doing is adding an extra lane to just feed the world with the stories and voices of the people who have been

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan takes his show on the road. He recently attended The CMO Club's 2018 Spring Innovation & Inspiration Summit in Marina del Rey, California, a conference that brings together leading senior marketing executives for two days of peer learning, problem-solving breakout sessions, and main stage panels. While there, he found the time to have informal discussions with these six CMOs and heads of marketing: Nerissa Sardi — Vice President, Head of Marketing at MediciChris Moloney — Chief Marketing Officer at TaxSlayerSteven Handmaker — Chief Marketing Officer at AssuranceMatt Singer — Vice President of Marketing at JobviteAlex Romanovich — Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, USA at FiNCStephanie Anderson — Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at AI Media GroupIn talking with these six marketing minds, he discovered the challenges they face, insights they uncovered during the Summit, advice that has impacted their ca

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with two leaders from CarMax: CMO Jim Lyski and CIO Shamim Mohammad. During the course of their discussion, Lyski and Mohammad touch upon the similarities of their backgrounds and the way they utilize their differences to fuel the way they work together. The relationship between the two is well documented, and in the course of their discussion they talk about how CarMax utilizes Agile methodologies, their belief in the importance of cultural fit when recruiting and developing talent, and how their familiarity with each other's role helps drive results for CarMax.At the heart of their approach, and what they believe is a key factor in their success at CarMax, is the importance they place upon the customer experience: “When we are sitting around the table and discussing any initiative,” says Mohammad, “we always make a decision that's going to favor the customer.”Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast incl

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Joe Mandese, longtime editor in chief of MediaPost, which covers the advertising, technology, media and marketing industries, and founder of Bid/r, a direct-to-consumer-audience exchange fueled by a bidding engine that matches brands with consumers that want them. In his discussion with Alan, Mandese covers a myriad of topics ranging from Cambridge Analytica and privacy issues plaguing Facebook to why journalism is more important than ever and the reasons he founded Bid/r.Mandese is thoughtful, insightful and astute in his assessment of the fragmented media landscape we navigate in today and the impact business and economic models have on it. “The disruptive nature of the media marketplace we've created today, and the economic models associated with it, are disrupting and displacing the very important sources of media for consumers, particularly journalism” says Mandese. “Business and economic models have a profound impact on our ac