Marketing Today With Alan Hart

Hiroki Asai is the Head of Global Marketing at Airbnb, overseeing all marketing efforts and in-house creative teams. Hiroki grew up as a skateboarder in the 80s, loved the design aspect of that world, and started his career as a graphic designer. Eventually, he learned how to apply what he knew about creativity and design to solve business problems. He spent 18 years at Apple and served as Vice President of Global Marketing Communications and Executive Creative Director, where he was responsible for a variety of iconic marketing campaigns for a range of products, including the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Now, Hiroki is responsible for maintaining Airbnb’s strong global brand and sharing the stories of our millions of hosts who offer unique homes and experiences to guests around the world.In this episode, Alan and Hiroki discuss Airbnb’s post-pandemic rebalancing of spend between performance and brand, why he is a firm believer in the importance of in-house creative teams, and what he thinks mak

Oded Netzer is a world-renowned expert in data-driven decision-making. He serves as the Vice Dean of Research and the Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, Oded is the first in his family to attend college. After graduation, he spent some time working in a chicken house but quickly decided that wasn't for him. After a quick stop at a consulting firm, he returned to college to climb the academic research ladder and pursue a career in education. Currently, he splits his time between teaching as an affiliate of the Columbia University Data Science Institute and consulting as an Amazon Scholar. He has published dozens of papers in the world's leading marketing and management science journals, and his award-winning research is widely read and highly cited.In this episode, Alan and Oded discuss "Decisions Over Decimals," Oded's latest co-authored book with Christopher Frank, Vice President of the Global Advertising and Brand Management team at Ameri

Guillaume Bouvard is the COO, CMO, and co-founder of Extend. He founded the company with two friends and credits their success to complementary skill sets, trust, shared values, and education. Before starting Extend, Guillaume spent 12 years at American Express in various roles, advising the C-Suite as a leader of the Strategic Planning Group for several years. Before Amex, Guillaume led marketing efforts at Capital One and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.In this episode, Alan and Guillaume discuss what Extend does, why it uniquely benefits marketers and agencies, and how they utilize marketing within their b2b2b model. Extend is a platform that turns business credit cards into a full spend management platform. They do not compete with banks but rather partner with them and empower them to offer better add-on products to their clients. Those banks then have to give Extend access to those clients, the real end users. This B2B2C or B2B2B model has unique challenges. Extend must be strategi

Zach Kitschke is the CMO of Canva, the online visual communication and collaboration platform. In his comprehensive role as CMO, Zach oversees the international brand and drives growth initiatives. He closely collaborates with teams responsible for product marketing, PR and communications, affiliates and performance, content, SEO, brand development, creative innovation, advertising, and product growth. Zach joined Canva in 2013, the year it launched. Since then, with a mission to empower the whole world to design, it has grown to over 130 million users each month in over 190 countries around the world, with more than 13 billion designs created.In this episode, Alan and Zach discuss how visual content fits into our world today, Canvas's approach to marketing complexity, and the inspiration behind their newest "What will you design today?" campaign. Additionally, Zach provided insights from the recent Visual Economy Report, sharing noteworthy findings from a survey of 1,600 global business leaders. These insigh

Katie Krum started her career at PURE in 2006 as the sixth employee at the insurance start-up. She played a significant role in shaping the brand, and throughout this process, she discovered her passion for marketing. Katie eventually left to develop her skill set at Nickelodeon, Marriott, Under Armour, and Weber Shandwick. She now leads a "small but mighty team" as the CMO at PURE, where she oversees all aspects of marketing communications and PR. One of the driving factors that drew her back to PURE was her incredible boss and her determination to explore innovative approaches to generate interest in insurance. She firmly believes in the power of collaboration, as she sees teams achieve more together than as individuals.In this episode, Alan and Katie discuss the challenges involved in transitioning PURE from a company to a brand tailored specifically for high-net-worth families. Katie highlights the significant impact that service experiences have on driving progress. Katie's expertise from other industrie

Tony Marlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for LG Ad Solutions, where he uses data-driven insights to lead all aspects of marketing and communications. Since the beginning of his career, Tony has always been interested in technology, thought leadership, and helping people understand why they should embrace emerging tech. He has served as CMO at Integral Ad Science, CMO at Data Axle, Global Head and VP of B2B Marketing at Yahoo, and a consultant for Nielsen Online. As an avid athlete, his training for triathlons and Iron Man races has taught him a lot about efficiency in planning and tenacity in execution, which he brings to his professional life as well.In this episode, Alan and Tony discuss "The Big Shifts" in consumer viewing behavior and how CTV is accounting for the new ways in which people consume media. LG Ad Solutions is a CTV advertising company with over 150 million smart TVs worldwide, where they deliver video and native units on the biggest screen in the home. The first phase of the shift in consum

Vincent Washington is the Vice President of the Unified Customer Experience Management Best Practices Group at Sprinklr. With four years of experience at the company, Vincent has a diverse professional background, having worked previously at Amazon, UPS, LinkedIn, and BlackBerry. With his extensive experience in various roles and seeing technology come and go, he has learned that only authentic relationships built on mutual respect and genuine interest stand the test of time. When it comes to CXM, Vincent advocates for the inclusion of relevant insights related to existing conversations rather than forcefully inserting messages that do not align with the context, resulting in the best long-term outcomes.In this episode, Alan and Vincent discuss the evolution of Sprinklr, which has transformed from a digital listening and social media management platform to a comprehensive Unified-CXM solution. Through breaking down data silos and gaining a deeper understanding of customers, Sprinklr, in collaboration with Ado

Lara Krug is the CMO of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs. Before entering the NFL, she worked at Avon, L'Oréal, and Anheuser-Busch, where she learned the GTMs for beauty and beer weren't all that different. During the pandemic, Laura and her family moved back to her husband's hometown, Kansas City, and it wasn't long before she was contacted about being the Chiefs' first-ever CMO. They had never had a formal marketing team, so she has been working hard to build foundations and help the organization understand the role of marketing. They are more than just a team; they are a brand.In this episode, Alan and Lara discuss what it's like to start and lead marketing efforts for an organization that isn't just a business but a source of entertainment as well. Lara and her team don't just market Mahomes and the boys; they also market the concerts and other events at the stadium, youth programs, and corporate partnerships. They are essentially an internal agency working to entertain fans at every touchpoint u

Ryan Fleisch is Adobe's Head of Product Marketing and Real-Time CDP and Audience Manager. Being a lifelong chess player, it makes sense that he is passionate about looking beyond the immediate use cases of AI and trying to understand and anticipate ways the technology will impact workflows and the nature of marketing in the future. He learned from his dad that "the day you stop learning is the day your career becomes nothing more than a job." This wisdom has kept him intellectually curious and lends itself perfectly to the cutting-edge work being done at Adobe.In this episode, Alan and Ryan discuss customer data platforms, what makes Adobe's CDP "real-time," new features to help businesses operate effectively in the cookieless world, and how generative AI will transform how companies use data. At Adobe, "real-time" isn't a buzzword; it's a key component they have been optimizing since day one. They have built a globally distributed network of servers to be able to handle data and use it in milliseconds. This

Bridget Esposito has been the Vice President and Global Creative Director at Prudential Financial for nine years. She is also a visual problem solver, a mother of two, a professor teaching design to nondesigners, and a former D1 softball player and coach. She still plays softball and credits the sport with her philosophy around leadership, team dynamics, and culture. The best piece of advice she has received is that "the game doesn't know" anything about you. All it knows is your level of effort on that given day. This advice has helped her fight the fear of hierarchies in business and approach her career with a "why not me?" attitude.In this episode, Alan and Bridget discuss the launch of Adobe Firefly and how it's helping calm fears and answer questions about AI for marketers and creatives. She advises professionals not to be scared of AI replacing them but instead to use it as a tool and understand how it can support them. She also gives us insight into the marketing focus at Prudential and the benefits an

Nate Burke is the Chief Marketing Officer at cybersecurity solution provider Axonius. Axonius is Nate’s fifth startup and his third in cybersecurity. He was Axonius' first US employee, starting before they had a product, which allowed him to develop relationships and lean into the "solve, don't sell" mindset that really sets Axonius apart. Nate wanted to join a company that was simply solving a big problem that was getting worse and where he loved the founders. He found his perfect fit at Axonius and is now working to deliver on their promise of "controlling complexity."In this episode, Alan and Nate discuss Nate’s approach to marketing to one of the most skeptical audiences ever, cybersecurity professionals, and how Axonius is doing it differently. Axonius tackles one of the most fundamental problems in cybersecurity: understanding what businesses have. They aim to be the system of record for all the digital infrastructure in a company and refuse to use FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to market to their c

Tom Nolan serves as CEO of Kendra Scott, where he balances day-to-day functions and strategy. He was the first person in his family to graduate high school and attend college on sports scholarships. He worked the summers and never did an internship, so getting a job after graduation was difficult. Despite this, his work ethic landed him a cold-call sales job at a publishing company. His competitive spirit and work ethic caused him to rise quickly through the ranks, which helped him become successful in his career, earn multiple board seats, and achieve his goals. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, Tom oversees Kendra Scott's substantial omnichannel growth, global expansion, and evolving retail model. He has more than two decades of experience in brand building, management, and results-driven strategic planning from a diverse range of companies and is happy to be able to use his skills at a company that sees value in giving back.In this episode, Alan and Tom discuss how determination led to his

Jason Andree is the CMO of one of the fastest-growing companies in the country, Nufabrx. He grew up on a farm, and showing cattle translates surprisingly well to being a CMO. Jason joined Nufabrx from GlaxoSmithKline, where he led their global digital marketing department, executing marketing strategies across global categories. He is now a senior-level marketing executive with over fifteen years of success within the healthcare industry and is forging a new path in Healthware with Nufabrx.Nufabrx puts medicine in clothing by making it water-soluble, infusing it into yarn, and coating it onto textiles. The company started in Seattle but soon relocated to Alan's home state, North Carolina, to be closer to experts in the textile industry. Due to its proximity to suppliers and researchers, Nufabrx is able to source all of its product materials within 90 miles of its manufacturing plant.In this episode, Alan and Jason discuss why biohacking is becoming mainstream and the challenges of operating in the "white spac

Ben Mand is the CEO of Harmless Harvest, a pragmatic innovator, and a believer that business can be a force for good. Ben has successfully led Harmless Harvest to more than double its business in four years by transforming it from a brand solely focused on coconut water to a leader in premium functional beverages and plant-based dairy. Under his leadership, Harmless Harvest has streamlined its supply chain, invested over $1 million in Fair for Life and community support initiatives, and transitioned to regenerative organic agricultural practices to bring the company closer to its goal of 100% zero-waste. Ben sees the role of marketing as driving loyalty and advocacy in ways that benefit the business and delight the customer. He sums up his marketing philosophy as being "responsibly irreverent" and notes, "if you're comfortable with an idea today, it's going to be boring tomorrow."In this episode, Alan and Ben discuss the innovative and adventurous approach he has brought to expanding the product lines at Harm

David Sandström is the Chief Marketing Officer at Klarna and a member of its executive management team. Since joining Klarna in 2017, he has overseen the transformation of the brand from a traditional financial institution to a vibrant retail media network with a hot pink edge. As CMO, David is responsible for driving consumer growth as well as leading design, marketing, branding, communications, and sustainability efforts. David's diverse background includes experience in agency and client roles and working in various industries around the world, which has shaped him into the marketer he is today. David warns against full outsourcing and instead advises using agencies as an extension of the company to maintain control over the marketing efforts. This approach is one of the main reasons he looks for people with diverse backgrounds when hiring.In this episode, Alan and David discuss what makes Klarna unique in the fintech space, how he approaches marketing, and what he is trying to do with the Klarna brand. Kl

In this episode, Alan and Drew discuss Fiat Growth, Fiat Ventures, and why it makes sense for them to go together. They also talk about the challenges of raising venture capital and the success companies can find by organically leveraging affiliate partnerships to add value for the user while driving revenue to the business. Drew explains total addressable markets, how he thinks about shifting an existing committed user base into a marketplace, and the reasons he sees fintech as the industry that will have the largest impact on generational wealth. Drew emphasizes the importance of taking risks, valuing different experiences, and learning that solutions and problems are not one-to-one. Finally, he notes that podcasts are becoming a force in marketing and that AI is not a competitor but a source of power.Drew Glover is a founding partner of Fiat Growth and a general partner at Fiat Ventures. He has experience leading go-to-market strategies, marketplace development, user acquisition, and growth teams. Drew fur

In this episode, Alan and Amanda discuss Amanda's path to WeightWatchers, how she's working to revitalize a well-known heritage brand by tapping into the roots of the founder, Jean Nidetch, and what she is doing to bring new marketing ideas to life. Amanda tells us her three big focuses at WeightWatchers are rethinking the organizational structure and culture, making data-driven decisions to increase performance, and honing in on their new brand strategy. Amanda also talks about the depth of understanding WeightWatchers has of their target demographic, and Alan learns that he is a Life Craver.Amanda Tolleson is the Chief Marketing Officer of WeightWatchers, where she is responsible for leading the company’s global marketing strategy across performance marketing, branding, and creative. Amanda has over 20 years of experience building customer-centric, purpose-driven brands focused on creating unique value for the consumer. She used to say she never wanted to be a CMO because she loved being able to focus exclu

In this episode, Jon and I discuss System1, how they drive insights for marketers on the brand side, and what works in advertising today. Jon tells us about the differences he experienced from the client side to the agency side and gives an honest look into what it means to be a CMO day to day. He explains why the skills that make a great marketer aren't necessarily the same as those that make a great CMO and how balancing the long-term view of the brand with the daily execution of tasks can make the CMO job very lonely. CMOs, removed from the "doing," must focus on creating the conditions for success and representing the customer in the room where decisions are made. Jon tells us that successful CMOs quickly recognize talent on their team, harness creativity to drive business outcomes and understand that advertising is both an art and a science.Jon Evans is the Chief Customer Officer at System1 Group and host of the 'Uncensored CMO' podcast. For years before that, he was a client-side agency CMO. One of Jon'

In this episode, Alan and Andrew discuss Turo’s mission, how marketing helps them achieve it, and how he views the CMO role today. Andrew outlines the challenges Turo faced early on, how they got around them, and how a shift to focusing on improving the host experience has been one of their most effective marketing assets. They go into the details of Turo’s most recent "Open Doors" brand campaign and how they are riding the web3 craze by subverting it and encouraging new experiences in reality. As a CMO, Andrew feels like his role is more than just advertising and performance marketing. It's about solving a problem for the customers. His approach is rooted in holistic thinking and understanding how you are providing value to the world.Andrew Mok never thought he would be in marketing because he was more left-brained, but in 2012, when analytics became a large part of marketing, he found his path. When Andrew joined Turo in 2012, there were 54,000 users being served in just two cities. In 2017, at age 29, Andr

355: Brand at its Best and Focusing on Fundamentals with Heather Stern, CMO at Lippincott In this episode, Alan and Heather discuss Brand, the role of the CMO, and why focusing on the fundamentals will never go out of style. As an 80-year-old company, Lippincott has a unique perspective on how to balance the cutting edge with longevity. They have seen trends come and go and even shaped some of them along the way. Heather talks in depth about the role Brand has played historically, the huge impact it can have when viewed holistically, and why a siloed CMO is not as effective as it can be if they are given a seat at the table. She also discusses the fundamental shifts happening in the industry as things move from an institutional era of branding to a human era of branding but also stresses that the underlying fundamentals of deeply understanding your consumer and your brand are just as important now as ever before.Heather Stern is the CMO at Lippincott and host of the podcast Icons in the Making. She wears