Marketing Today With Alan Hart

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Scott Mueller, president at Shopchology, a shopper marketing and insights company. During the podcast, they discuss the “retail apocalypse” and challenge the popular notion that retail is dying, (hint: it's not dying — it's evolving), what modern retail means to both brands and retailers, and Mueller provides insight into the future of retail using real-world examples to make his point. They also talk about an article they collaborated on for Adweek that examines the ways brands can thrive in the rapidly evolving retail industry.In talking about ways brands can gain traction in that rapidly evolving landscape, Mueller outlines how authenticity is key in connecting with shoppers. “Experience, storytelling — they're everything. They're so important.” says Mueller. “They've always been important, but they're so crucial now — to getting that mix correct, that vibe correct. Defining and animati

This is part of a 3-part series of episodes from “Marketing Today”.  Host Alan Hart interviews John Thies, the CEO of both Email on Acid and Cause for Awareness (a non-profit).  In this interview, Alan and John discuss how to design better email experiences (from the subscriber's perspective).  They discuss common beginner mistakes, modern personalization options and other design considerations.Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today” has a new Q&A feature! Ever wish you could ask a question on the show? Well, now you can. Just click this link and ask your question — it's that easy. And if we can, we'll answer it on the next podcast. We're looking forward to your questions!Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:1:07 – Introducing John Thies and Email on Acid3:27 – Discussing key elements of getting email “right” these days.5:50 – Discussing common mistakes.8:00 – What are other ways to

This is part of a 3-part series of episodes from “Marketing Today”.  Host Alan Hart interviews Craig Evans, Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman.  In this interview, Alan and Craig discuss the challenges related to modern creative departments as they deal with marketing across multiple, ever-changing channels and platforms.  They also discuss how AI is changing the world of marketing and the boundaries of personalization.Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today” has a new Q&A feature! Ever wish you could ask a question on the show? Well, now you can. Just click this link and ask your question — it's that easy. And if we can, we'll answer it on the next podcast. We're looking forward to your questions!Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:1:12 – Introducing Craig Evans1:30 – What skills are necessary for cross-channel experience design?2:32 – How are changing technologies changing creative departments?5:2

This is part of a 3-part series of episodes from “Marketing Today”.  Host Alan Hart interviews Molly Crawford, VP and Creative Director at Digitas Atlanta.  In this interview, Alan and Molly discuss strategies for conveying messaging across multiple marketing channels (email, web, social, etc.).  They discuss how to utilize modern personalization elements and ways to balance consistent messaging with the features and audience types for different channels.Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today” has a new Q&A feature! Ever wish you could ask a question on the show? Well, now you can. Just click this link and ask your question — it's that easy. And if we can, we'll answer it on the next podcast. We're looking forward to your questions!Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:1:03 – Introducing Molly Crawford1:20 – How do you define cross-channel design2:00 – When is it done right?2:45 – What considera

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan hosts two guests. Carrie Bienkowski is CMO with Peapod, the online grocery ordering and delivery service. Prior to her time with Peapod, Bienkowski was based in London as head of fashion for eBay, and, previous to that, she spent 10 years in marketing with Procter & Gamble. Vic Drabicky is the founder and CEO of January Digital, a digital marketing agency, consultancy, and analytics firm working with brands ranging from David's Bridal to Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta, and Vineyard Vines. During the course of their conversation with Alan, Bienkowski and Drabicky reveal the thinking behind the ways they operate and the ways their companies work together. And the dynamic nature of this in-tandem podcast episode leads to greater insight as the Bienkowski and Drabicky build on each other's points.Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today” has a new Q&A feature! Ever wish you could ask a question on the show? Well, now you can. Just click th

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Dawn Colossi, the new chief marketing officer at FocusVision. Colossi is a transformative marketer who has experience in the tech and B2B spaces, and she has also spent time in public relations and publishing. During the podcast, Colossi and Alan discuss at length her recent LinkedIn article, “My First 90 Days as a CMO.”In talking about her article, Colossi reveals her belief that it's an organization's people who power and deliver success. “If I've learned anything in my career and as a professional, it's that the people are really the most important thing of what you do,” says Colossi. “And if you don't have good, engaged, happy people, they're not going to share your passion, and you're never going to get where you're going.”Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today” has a new Q&A feature! Ever wish you could ask a question on the show? Well, now you can. Just click this link and ask your

In this episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan speaks with Chris Moloney, chief marketing officer at TaxSlayer. Prior to joining TaxSlayer, Moloney served as CMO at CAN Capital and CEO at Gremlin Social, and he has held key roles at brands like Wells Fargo Advisors, Scottrade, and Experian.In this wide-ranging conversation, Moloney shares, among other things, how the original Apple Macintosh computer inspired a sensibility that led to his career in marketing and how the combination of his personal and business lives make him a more effective marketer.He also talks about how challenger brands can thrive in competition with more established rivals. “If you are a challenger brand,” says Moloney, “take advantage of the fact that bigger companies sometimes move a lot slower and have more bureaucracy, and it takes them a while to make decisions. If you can be nimbler and faster, you can take advantage of market trends much more quickly.”Let Your Voice Be Heard“Marketing Today&r

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Alex Withers, chief sales and marketing officer for InMotionNow, a creative workflow software platform that powers creative and marketing collaboration in the cloud. Withers is a seasoned digital technology marketing executive with previous experience working at Pepsi, ESPN, United States Golf Association, Financial Times, Sageworks, and LexisNexis.In his conversation with Alan, Withers discusses the value InMotionNow can bring to marketers, particularly its ability to minimize the amount of time creatives spend on administrative tasks, the importance of data, and his belief that marketers should not lose sight of the power of creativity. InMotionNow recently released the 2018 In-house Creative Management Report, which highlights key trends and challenges internal teams are experiencing. Withers addresses the trend we're seeing of companies bringing creative work in-house and the reasoning behind it: “I think that CMOs are enjoying having creat

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, chief marketing officer at Mozilla. Previously, Kaykas-Wolff served as CMO at BitTorrent and Mindjet, and he is the co-host of his own podcast, “This is Your Life in Silicon Valley.”In his conversation with Alan, Kaykas-Wolff touches on, among other things, trust, data and lean data practices, and what it means for a company to stand for something. Kaykas-Wolff points out that, in this age of data breaches and companies unwittingly sharing consumer information, lack of trust is at a crisis level. “In the U.S., trust is not just declining — it's crashing,” says Kaykas-Wolff. “In the last year, we've had almost a 20 percent decrease in trust, in the popularly informed public, in the U.S. alone. This is a crisis of confidence that the general population has in businesses.” Kaykas-Wolff went on to add, “We're not taking good care of our customers' data, and that impacts the trust that t

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 fac

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.”Highlights fr

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