Marketing Today With Alan Hart

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.” 

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 career

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

And now for something completely different…This week's episode of Marketing Today was recorded live before an audience and features conversation and performances from Magic Giant, a Los Angeles band that combines equal parts alternative, indie-folk, and pop with infectious spirit and passion to deliver magical, uplifting shows. The band came to Alan's attention at, of all places, a CMO Club Summit in Santa Monica, and a friendship was formed on the common ground of connecting with people in powerful ways.The band has been touring incessantly behind their debut album “In The Wind,” and they are appearing at festivals this spring and summer, including this month at Coachella — Billboard calls them a Top 10 Act to see there.The case can be made that musicians are the original cause marketers, and Magic Giant certainly fits that mold. They have relationships with a cryptocurrency, greening organizations, and a nutrition bar, among others. And the thing tying them together with the brands

This week in “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Molly Catalano, vice president of marketing and communications at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Catalano joined Five Guys over 13 years ago when the company had just 30 stores. Today, through sustained growth fueled by franchising, Five Guys has over 1,500 locations in 10 countries.At the heart of the Five Guys success story is the importance they place on the customer experience, a flag planted by the founders, the Murrell family, from day one. It's something the company — and Catalano — have never lost sight of. “The hardest part of my job is I don't want to ruin that,” says Catalano. “I never want to do anything marketing-wise that takes away from the purity of the brand, which is that focus on the customer experience.”   Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include: Catalano relates the Five Guys story — growing from a single store to an international prese

In this episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Manoj Goyal, who joined Marketo as chief product officer in May of 2017 before assuming his present role there as chief technology officer just this year. In his role as CTO, he is responsible for engineering teams that oversee the Marketo engagement platform.During his conversation with Alan, he touches on a wide range of topics, including the difficulty in implementing and driving innovation, which has played a major part in many stops in his career. “The best innovations I've seen are ones that simplify the experience,” says Goyal. “If you can't use it in 10 to 15 minutes, if you can't understand the value in a half hour or less, then it's probably not a great innovation.” Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:Goyal discusses his career and the path that led to Marketo. (1:35)Goyal talks about being named to the Adweek 50 and Marketo's partnership with Google. (4:00)For Goyal,

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Tom Klein, chief marketing officer at MailChimp, the world's largest marketing automation platform. He worked at Nabisco and Chanel before landing at MailChimp, a company he long admired, and he is an authority on digital marketing, e-commerce, and brand marketing.During the podcast, Klein talks about his views on the best use of marketing automation: “I see automation as doing the things automation is good at and, ideally, it's opening a window for a marketing person to really put heart and soul into communication.” Later in his discussion with Alan, Klein touched on where he believes marketing is heading and where automation fits in. “What's fascinating is, in many ways, everybody's being turned into a marketer…all of marketing is being democratized,” says Klein. “I feel like marketing and communication is just going to keep getting better and better. And I think it's up to us to take advantage

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and President, Healthcare Business at Mastercard. Rajamannar started his career at Asian Paints before moving over to the payment industry, holding numerous positions with Citi as well as two years spent as chairman and CEO of Diners Club of North America. He then spent time in the health care industry at Humana and WellPoint before assuming his current role at Mastercard.Rajamannar and Alan spend a great deal of time discussing the incredible 20-year run and global impact of Mastercard's “Priceless” campaign, which has cut across cultures, manifesting itself in 58 languages and 110 countries. Most recently, Rajamannar and his team shifted the focus of the campaign with its new iteration, “Start Something Priceless,” which launched at this year's Grammy Awards.Rajamannar also talks about the importance of brands being socially aware and standing for something at a tim

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Susan Vobejda, chief marketing officer at The Trade Desk, the fastest-growing demand-side platform (DSP) agencies, aggregators, and their advertisers can use to manage their digital campaigns.Vobejda's career started in finance, but she quickly made the leap to advertising — confessing that advertising seemed so cool to her that she thought it was something she would do without getting paid — beginning at Leo Burnett as an account supervisor. From there, she moved on to stops at Gap Inc., Walmart, Bloomberg, and Tory Burch, among others, before landing in her current role at The Trade Desk.During the course of her conversation with Alan, Vobejda touches on many topics, but perhaps most interesting was her discovery of just how special the people and culture at The Trade Desk are.She and her team were in Ventura, California, for a planning session in December of 2017. While there, they were forced to flee from the Thomas Fire, the largest

For this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Cory Treffiletti, CMO of Voicera, a technology company that has created an AI virtual assistant named Eva (Enterprise Voice Assistant). Eva can be invited to meetings and will listen and take notes as well as follow up on identified action items and decisions.Previously in his career, Treffiletti was the head of marketing for the Oracle Data Cloud, SVP and CMO of BlueKai, and was co-founder of numerous startups. Treffiletti also writes a long-running column for MediaPost (every Wednesday for the past 18 years, without fail), one of which, “The Future of AI? Just Watch Your Kids,” he discusses with Alan.During the podcast, Trefffiletti also talks about the importance of building teams that are driven by ideas, not egos. “You can set up any kind of culture, and process and incentives, and organizational structures you want,” says Treffiletti. “But the people that you have and their approach to business, and

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks artificial intelligence, big data, and entrepreneurism with Carlos Mendez, the founder and CEO of Data Gran. After starting his career in advertising at JWT and then reviving an agency that had been owned by his family for 40 years, Mendez made another leap. With the knowledge gained from his career along with his educational background and entrepreneurial spirit, he decided to launch Data Gran, a company that is putting machine learning and AI into the hands of marketers.For Mendez, it's not so much that AI and big data are taking over marketing, it's providing more efficiency and effectiveness with less waste. “We believe in something called AI augmentation,” says Mendez. “It is how we bring AI to work with people…we don't want to replace people, we want to empower people with information so that they make better decisions.” He goes on to add, “We want to provide the tools so that we make people better.” H

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Adam Pierno, chief strategy officer at Santy and the author of “Under Think It.” Pierno is a living, breathing example of invention and reinvention. He started on the creative side of advertising — where he was an art director and, ultimately, a creative director — before making the leap to strategy. And, when faced with a paucity of solid, comprehensive training materials for his strategy team at Santy, he wrote a book to fill the void.In discussing his approach with the book, Pierno talks about his decision to steer away from what he calls the “jargonization of strategy” in an effort to communicate ideas powerfully and effectively. “Don't use jargon. Use little words,” Pierno says. “People can get their heads around them. People can pick them up and do something else with them on their own…it sets people free. And that's really what ‘Under Think It' is all about, is how to give peop

In this week's “Marketing Today,” Alan talks to Allen Adamson, co-founder and managing partner of the marketing company, Metaforce. Adamson is also the author of four books, the latest of which is “Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast-Changing World.”During his conversation with Alan, Adamson touches on a wide variety of topics. In addition to talking about the issue facing companies today that serves as the title of his book, he addresses the challenge of people's resistance to change — though, intellectually, they know they should embrace it — and how it affects the companies they work for and lead. “The notion is familiar is comfortable,” says Adamson. “Yesterday is more comfortable than tomorrow. You have to go in with the mindset that human nature is resistant to change.”He later weighs in on how a CMO can be an effective change agent for their company, something he refers to as “See and Seize.” In doing so, Ad

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with David Baldwin, CEO of Baldwin&, an advertising, design and strategy company in Raleigh, North Carolina. Baldwin is also the CMO of Ponysaurus Brewing Company, a film producer and, most recently, an author. His book, “The Belief Economy — How to Give a Damn, Stop Selling, and Create Buy-in,” takes a look at the seismic shift occurring in the marketing landscape and how brands can reach the next generation of influencers.During the course of the podcast, he offers his take on Millennials and iGen, who he sees as the key players in The Belief Economy, “We better figure out what they're about, we better figure out how they're wired, and we better figure out how to change the way we talk to them.” He goes on to add, “If you are being true to who you are, and you're smart about getting aligned with the people out there who love that, I think you can win.”As to why this book and why now, he says, “I'm a capita