Lara Richardson likes to describe her first year as chief marketing officer for Crown Media Family Networks less in rebranding terms, and more in the language of a makeup artist.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many initial challenges for Allyson Witherspoon, U.S. chief marketing officer for Nissan Motor Corporation -- chief among them, the nationwide closures of its dealerships during the first weeks of lockdown. 

Few marketers were more prepared for the overnight switch to remote work in the pandemic era than Aruna Ravichandran, chief marketing officer of Webex by Cisco.

One of the first items on Linda Lee’s agenda when she first came to Campbell Soup Company in late 2019 as chief marketing officer, meals and beverages, was perhaps the most daunting: spearheading a redesign for the company’s signature soup can – the first in over 50 years for the 123-year-old brand. 

Patricia Corsi, global chief marketing & digital officer at Bayer Consumer Health, opted to spend the first months of the pandemic providing her global team with the best resources needed to adjust to the suddenly virtual world instead of a monolithic brand message. 

“It’s as much science as it is art,” Paul Suchman says of the intensive process that went into shaping and naming the new brand for Audacy, formerly known as Entercom, which Suchman joined as chief marketing officer in the fall of 2019.