A marketing leader increasingly resembles an air traffic controller directing staff across silos, and often breaking them, say insiders.
As the practice of marketing grows in complexity, it requires more coordinated effort from the organization to understand the brand, the consumer and how to bring them both together, said speakers at the Brand Innovators Modern Marketing Summit. Organizations are increasingly relying on media specialists, data scientists and artificial intelligence tools, so the chief marketer needs to provide the leadership that connects all those disciplines.
Lee Sterling, chief marketing officer of Simon Property Group
“The job is more complex than it’s ever been,” said Lee Sterling, chief marketing officer of Simon Property Group. Marketers now need to be experts in many things beyond advertising and media, she noted.
The job of a chief marketing officer today “is about thinking and selecting the team you surround yourself with,” said Rob Master, chief marketing officer at Edgewell Personal Care, which hosted the summit with its agency, Publicis. “It starts at the top in developing those relationships and making sure that goes all the way down.”
Trust was often invoked as a guiding principle by many speakers – trusting staff, trusting data, trusting AI tools and more.
From left to right: Arturo Rodriguez Burgos, director of digital commerce, North America at Colgate-Palmolive Company; Anderson David, brand partnerships lead at TeamSnap
Part of the trust-building effort is giving staff ownership of their functions, said Arturo Rodriguez Burgos, director of digital commerce, North America at the Colgate-Palmolive Company.
“I’m giving my team full ownership. I trust them,” he said. “I think trust is the way and the avenue to make things more efficient.”
The best way to build that trust is by giving staff clarity about why things are run in certain ways, said Rodriguez Burgos.
“Our marketing dollars and our activations have to do everything in this day and age,” said Brett Richardson, director, e-commerce growth & marketing analytics at Bragg Live Food Products. Marketers need to seek better solutions that speak to the value of their brand and have to have a clear role and goal for each activation, he said.
In order to do their job effectively in this consumer-dominated environment, marketers need to get out of their bubbles and engage with real people in the marketplace, not just their peers, said speakers.
“I think we do a lot of marketing to feel good about ourselves,” said Richardson.
“We need to get out there and get to know our consumers,” said Master. As a test, he asked for a show of hands of how many audience members had eaten at Texas Roadhouse or Olive Garden. When only a few hands rose, he reminded the audience those are the two most popular restaurant chains in the country.
“We talk about all these things, but at the end of the day, we sell products to consumers,” said Master. “We need to become obsessed with our consumers.”
From left to right: Dave Sommer, senior vice president, head of customer development, Bazaarvoice; Jonathan Halvorson, chief digital & marketing officer, Kenvue
Marketing is taking on new responsibilities because of changing consumer behavior and expectations, said speakers. As AI-powered commerce grows, marketers have to navigate new ways to reach consumers who may not be scrolling websites themselves and master how to embed brands in culture so they are discovered.
The consumer’s world is being filtered by an algorithm – whether it’s because of which retailer they are shopping at or what channel they are watching, said Jonathan Halvorson, chief digital & marketing officer at Kenvue.
“Before you get chosen by a human, you have to be selected by an algorithm. You can do the most beautiful brand marketing you want, but if you don’t solve for that, you’re not seen,” said Halvorson. “There is a fundamental shift right here, right now and you have to run pace on that.”
Marketers are “living in a different world and a different space,” said Kimberly Francis, chief growth officer at Odele Beauty. She recalled how the six-year-old haircare brand was doing well until when sales fell last year at Target, a big retail outlet for its products. The one event that moved the needle was one video on social media that briefly mentioned one product. It was not even created by one of the company’s influencer partners, said Francis, and yet sales spiked 40%.
Francis took the data to the board to convince them to look at their marketing differently. With those sales numbers, it was the easiest conversation she’d had with the board, she said.
“The funnel did not exist in this moment,” she said. “It really changed our marketing model.”
From left to right: Lee Sterling, chief marketing officer at Simon Property Group; Lisa Vortsman, chief marketing and innovation officer, USA at The Magnum Ice Cream Company; Rachel Adams, team lead, client partnerships at Ibotta
Marketers often have to take on many other operational concerns, said Lisa Vortsman, chief marketing and innovation officer, USA at The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
It can be the most unexpected details, like packaging, she said. She recalled how after acquiring the Talenti gelato brand and relaunching it with a high-profile campaign starring Bradley Cooper, its sales were still flat. Research uncovered that after all the investment put behind it, its popularity was handicapped by package design.
“Guess what all the consumer comments were about: ‘I can’t open the jar,’” said Vortsman.
The impact of agentic AI on search traffic is going to force a return to marketing fundamentals, said Laura Gomez, e-commerce senior associate brand manager, fabric care at Church & Dwight Co. AI scrapes all the existing product information, reviews and other content more efficiently, which is going to force marketers to ensure their content is connected with the purchase funnel, she said.
The speed at which information — and disinformation — moves forces brands tokeep innovating at speed; it’s why leveraging AI is mandatory, said many speakers. Meredith Herman, global head of marketing at Kenvue, noted the recent Tylenol controversy, linking the painkiller with autism, showed the brand needed to review its efforts and make sure they were using the right brand voice and all assets were right for the brand.
“It really makes you take a hard look: Are you consistent? Are you telling your story consistently?” she said.
Things are only going to get more complex and move faster, warned Kenvue’s Halvorson: “Either way, you have to put your shoes on and be ready to rock.”
