Quote of the Day

October 15, 2020
When we talk about Danone’s mission, which is one planet, one health, all of our brands are committed to delivering that vision, but of course in a way that is authentic to that individual brand and its brand purpose. We know that today more and more consumers care about brand purpose. They want to buy brands and believe in brands that share their values. We are living in this value-driven world, so it is more important than ever that we are building brands that have a purpose in the world.

When we talk about Danone’s mission, which is one planet, one health, all of our brands are committed to delivering that vision, but of course in a way that is authentic to that individual brand and its brand purpose. We know that today more and more consumers care about brand purpose. They want to buy brands and believe in brands that share their values. We are living in this value-driven world, so it is more important than ever that we are building brands that have a purpose in the world.

Linda Bethea
Head of Marketing, Danone
watch session video
October 14, 2020
Almost every company is shifting towards giving employees the choice of where to work and when. People aren’t going to come to the office five days a week anymore and there's going to be less and less willingness from employees to sit in the same chair for ten hours a day. The core themes here are more employee empowerment and a more distributed way of working. Instead of having a one-size-fits-all workplace, you’ll see more diversity in spaces and the ability for employees to move throughout.

Almost every company is shifting towards giving employees the choice of where to work and when. People aren’t going to come to the office five days a week anymore and there's going to be less and less willingness from employees to sit in the same chair for ten hours a day. The core themes here are more employee empowerment and a more distributed way of working. Instead of having a one-size-fits-all workplace, you’ll see more diversity in spaces and the ability for employees to move throughout.

Jamie Hodari
CEO, Industrious
watch session video
October 14, 2020
Companies have been so focused on communicating their brand value and their value proposition to their consumers that there has been some neglect on the employee side. Even if you segment workers and employees beyond the segment of generations but by where they’re actually at in their career and the options they're considering, the brand of the employer becomes really important. Relating to shared values, it's really an opportunity for companies to stand for something and really talk about what those values are - not to make everyone carbon copies of one another but to be on the same page on how we make decisions.

Companies have been so focused on communicating their brand value and their value proposition to their consumers that there has been some neglect on the employee side. Even if you segment workers and employees beyond the segment of generations but by where they’re actually at in their career and the options they're considering, the brand of the employer becomes really important. Relating to shared values, it's really an opportunity for companies to stand for something and really talk about what those values are - not to make everyone carbon copies of one another but to be on the same page on how we make decisions.

Amy Bixler
Global Brand Design Leader, Gensler
watch session video
October 13, 2020
During quarantine I think it was clear that this is a nation that was starving for sports. People were watching NBA players play Xbox, so by the time when fall came around and football season was approaching, there was a lot of anticipation built up for really wanting to see that all. While there's still a lot of uncertainty, there is one thing that was certain: people are going to be watching from home. Everyone was talking about the stadiums, but guess what, over 90% of football fans watch from their homes anyhow.

During quarantine I think it was clear that this is a nation that was starving for sports. People were watching NBA players play Xbox, so by the time when fall came around and football season was approaching, there was a lot of anticipation built up for really wanting to see that all. While there's still a lot of uncertainty, there is one thing that was certain: people are going to be watching from home. Everyone was talking about the stadiums, but guess what, over 90% of football fans watch from their homes anyhow.

Todd Kaplan
VP Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo
watch session video
October 13, 2020
Right now, it’s all about the speed to market. Things happen in real time at the restaurant level, so we're basically getting feedback at the restaurant level and we don’t have the option to wait 2-3 days to react. We need to react on the spot - pull promotions out of the store or introduce something new to the store, or ship merchandise because a product is not selling as well as we would like it to be selling. There is a big shift in that need for flexibility, agility and speed to market.

Right now, it’s all about the speed to market. Things happen in real time at the restaurant level, so we're basically getting feedback at the restaurant level and we don’t have the option to wait 2-3 days to react. We need to react on the spot - pull promotions out of the store or introduce something new to the store, or ship merchandise because a product is not selling as well as we would like it to be selling. There is a big shift in that need for flexibility, agility and speed to market.

Bruno Cardinali
Chief Marketing Officer, North America, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
watch session video
October 8, 2020
It’s so easy to just cast multicultural faces in your advertising. That has to be just the beginning. When you’re impacting communities and lives through your advertising, that’s when you make a difference. When you start to employ people behind the camera that reflect that diversity on screen, that’s when brands really make a short-term and a long-term difference and that’s what we’re working to do at Cadillac.

It’s so easy to just cast multicultural faces in your advertising. That has to be just the beginning. When you’re impacting communities and lives through your advertising, that’s when you make a difference. When you start to employ people behind the camera that reflect that diversity on screen, that’s when brands really make a short-term and a long-term difference and that’s what we’re working to do at Cadillac.

Alexis Kerr
Head of Multicultural Marketing | Multicultural Strategy, Content and Execution, Cadillac
watch session video
October 8, 2020
I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

Alia Kemet
Vice President, Creative & Digital Communications, McCormick & Company
watch session video
October 8, 2020
As we look at the end to end ecosystem, it’s about workforce, it’s about products and services, it’s about supplier diversity. How do your brands and products and services show up in the marketplace? And more importantly, how can your Chief Diversity Officer not have a say in that? What really matters at the end of the day is the values that your brand stands for, and how you live that truth. You can say you stand for values, but in the moments that it’s critical, will you stand up for those values?

As we look at the end to end ecosystem, it’s about workforce, it’s about products and services, it’s about supplier diversity. How do your brands and products and services show up in the marketplace? And more importantly, how can your Chief Diversity Officer not have a say in that? What really matters at the end of the day is the values that your brand stands for, and how you live that truth. You can say you stand for values, but in the moments that it’s critical, will you stand up for those values?

Mita Mallick
Head of Diversity and Cross-Cultural Marketing, Unilever
watch session video
October 7, 2020
First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

Brian Voynick
CRM Campaigns Manager, BMW of North America
watch session video
October 7, 2020
We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

Matthew Coleman
Marketing Director, State Farm
watch session video

Previous Quote's of the Day

Christine White
Director, Social and Content Marketing, Ulta Beauty
Alia Kemet
Vice President, Creative & Digital Communications, McCormick & Company
I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

Matthew Coleman
Marketing Director, State Farm
We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

Brian Voynick
CRM Campaigns Manager, BMW of North America
First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

Elle McCarthy
Head of Brand, Electronic Arts (EA)
EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

Surbhi Martin
VP Marketing, Danone
I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

Fernando Machado
Global Chief Marketing Officer, RBI
Kathleen Braine
Senior Director of Brand Marketing, BABE Wine, Anheuser-Busch InBev
It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

Amanda Goetz
VP Marketing, The Knot Worldwide
Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Ishita Ahmed
Director of Loyalty, CRM, and Personalization, Taco Bell
I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

Gilbertson Cuffy
Brand Marketing Director, PepsiCo
I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

Scott Donaton
Head of Creative, Hulu
There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

Shenan Reed
SVP, Head of Media, L'Oreal
Doug Palladini
Global Brand President, Vans
Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Heather Hinkel
Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Minnesota Twins
Natalie Bowman
Managing Director, Marketing and Advertising, Alaska Airlines
During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

Gabriela McCoy
Director, Strategic Insights and Analytics, Bacardi
Chris Hollander
Chief Marketing Officer, Panera Bread
Elizabeth Rutledge
Chief Marketing Officer, American Express
This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

Previous Quote's of the Week

Transparency, inclusivity, and diversity is core to Ulta’s mission, so when we moved into that time of civil unrest and social injustice, it made a lot of sense to really make sure that our mission was clear to our guests and consumers. We really needed to understand fundamentally the role our brand plays in that narrative and the specific positions that our consumers expect from us. A lot of that was represented through the work we’ve been doing with our influencer network and the Ulta Beauty collective in celebrating our black creators, uplifting and celebrating the black brands we have, and also acknowledging the work we have in front of us in terms of where we need to go and how we need to continue those partnerships.

Transparency, inclusivity, and diversity is core to Ulta’s mission, so when we moved into that time of civil unrest and social injustice, it made a lot of sense to really make sure that our mission was clear to our guests and consumers. We really needed to understand fundamentally the role our brand plays in that narrative and the specific positions that our consumers expect from us. A lot of that was represented through the work we’ve been doing with our influencer network and the Ulta Beauty collective in celebrating our black creators, uplifting and celebrating the black brands we have, and also acknowledging the work we have in front of us in terms of where we need to go and how we need to continue those partnerships.

Christine White
Director, Social and Content Marketing, Ulta Beauty
I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

Alia Kemet
Vice President, Creative & Digital Communications, McCormick & Company
We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

Matthew Coleman
Marketing Director, State Farm
First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

Brian Voynick
CRM Campaigns Manager, BMW of North America
EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

Elle McCarthy
Head of Brand, Electronic Arts (EA)
I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

Surbhi Martin
VP Marketing, Danone
Our vision is to have the most loved brands in the restaurant industry, and ultimately, to be the most loved brands out of any industry. If that is your big dream, you need to be doing things that make your brands relevant for the long run. In order to do that, you need to be doing good for the world. Coming here has been a journey in terms of creating the right projects and unlocking the right resources to evolve the brand and the company. I’m a firm believer that the future is already here. You need to look at what's happening on the edges and try, and learn. You're going to lose if you just lean back and wait to see what's going to happen. We need to write the future, and that requires some creativity and experimentation.

Our vision is to have the most loved brands in the restaurant industry, and ultimately, to be the most loved brands out of any industry. If that is your big dream, you need to be doing things that make your brands relevant for the long run. In order to do that, you need to be doing good for the world. Coming here has been a journey in terms of creating the right projects and unlocking the right resources to evolve the brand and the company. I’m a firm believer that the future is already here. You need to look at what's happening on the edges and try, and learn. You're going to lose if you just lean back and wait to see what's going to happen. We need to write the future, and that requires some creativity and experimentation.

Fernando Machado
Global Chief Marketing Officer, RBI
It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

Kathleen Braine
Senior Director of Brand Marketing, BABE Wine, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Amanda Goetz
VP Marketing, The Knot Worldwide
I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

Ishita Ahmed
Director of Loyalty, CRM, and Personalization, Taco Bell
I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

Gilbertson Cuffy
Brand Marketing Director, PepsiCo
There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

Scott Donaton
Head of Creative, Hulu
You’re seeing a meteoric rise of influencers, and I attribute some of that to the fact we haven’t been able to go shopping with friends. We often say that friends and family are the biggest influencers on a purchase. If I can’t go shopping with my best friend in California, where is that influence coming from? It’s likely going to come from those content producers that are entertaining, engaging and really building a relationship with you. I think influencers carry a strong sense of authenticity to their followers. They’re really careful about who they partner with. They feel their personal brand is on the line. And it’s as much a compliment to be chosen by them as it is for you to have a partnership with them.

You’re seeing a meteoric rise of influencers, and I attribute some of that to the fact we haven’t been able to go shopping with friends. We often say that friends and family are the biggest influencers on a purchase. If I can’t go shopping with my best friend in California, where is that influence coming from? It’s likely going to come from those content producers that are entertaining, engaging and really building a relationship with you. I think influencers carry a strong sense of authenticity to their followers. They’re really careful about who they partner with. They feel their personal brand is on the line. And it’s as much a compliment to be chosen by them as it is for you to have a partnership with them.

Shenan Reed
SVP, Head of Media, L'Oreal
Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Doug Palladini
Global Brand President, Vans
My first seven months at the Twins, I was focusing not so much on the sport but concentrating on the brand itself. The biggest learning curve for me is there's two different entities: there’s the brand and then there’s the sport. When it comes to the actual sport of baseball, there's nothing I can really change. I'm not on the field or on the coaching staff so I spent a lot of time learning the brand - learning how the organization works and where the opportunities were. The world is changing so fast in terms of entertainment and even though we are a sports team, we’re an entertainment brand as well. If we start to think of ourselves as an entertainment brand over a sports team, our runway is extremely strong.

My first seven months at the Twins, I was focusing not so much on the sport but concentrating on the brand itself. The biggest learning curve for me is there's two different entities: there’s the brand and then there’s the sport. When it comes to the actual sport of baseball, there's nothing I can really change. I'm not on the field or on the coaching staff so I spent a lot of time learning the brand - learning how the organization works and where the opportunities were. The world is changing so fast in terms of entertainment and even though we are a sports team, we’re an entertainment brand as well. If we start to think of ourselves as an entertainment brand over a sports team, our runway is extremely strong.

Heather Hinkel
Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Minnesota Twins
During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

Natalie Bowman
Managing Director, Marketing and Advertising, Alaska Airlines
I like to say, it’s not the new normal, it’s now the normal. Thinking about the new now, the biggest change for us is how people are purchasing our brand. Spirits was one of the last products to join eCommerce, and Covid forced us to speed this up. What we were seeing in one week we are now seeing in one day. What we had planned to do in two years we are now doing in two weeks. Covid is pushing us. Within a week, we created a platform for bartenders to make money and share our brand. Our brand is built at the bar. Every day at 5pm we had a bartender make a new drink. Every dollar that went on this platform went straight to the bartender. To think the agility that it took to do this in a week of shutdown was amazing.

I like to say, it’s not the new normal, it’s now the normal. Thinking about the new now, the biggest change for us is how people are purchasing our brand. Spirits was one of the last products to join eCommerce, and Covid forced us to speed this up. What we were seeing in one week we are now seeing in one day. What we had planned to do in two years we are now doing in two weeks. Covid is pushing us. Within a week, we created a platform for bartenders to make money and share our brand. Our brand is built at the bar. Every day at 5pm we had a bartender make a new drink. Every dollar that went on this platform went straight to the bartender. To think the agility that it took to do this in a week of shutdown was amazing.

Gabriela McCoy
Director, Strategic Insights and Analytics, Bacardi
In challenging times, the most important thing for a company to do is go back to your mission and let that lead your North star. We want to make sure that everyone has access to good eating. We think good eating brings out the best in all of us, and it’s more than just the food you eat: It’s how you eat it, where you eat it, what you know about the food and where it comes from. In Panera’s case, we say ‘Leave feeling better than you came in,’ and that implies a dining-in experience. Now, if we want to make good eating available for all, it’s about making it available safely and stress free. We’re doubling down on what that means in a pandemic, and a lot of our actions have stemmed directly from that belief.

In challenging times, the most important thing for a company to do is go back to your mission and let that lead your North star. We want to make sure that everyone has access to good eating. We think good eating brings out the best in all of us, and it’s more than just the food you eat: It’s how you eat it, where you eat it, what you know about the food and where it comes from. In Panera’s case, we say ‘Leave feeling better than you came in,’ and that implies a dining-in experience. Now, if we want to make good eating available for all, it’s about making it available safely and stress free. We’re doubling down on what that means in a pandemic, and a lot of our actions have stemmed directly from that belief.

Chris Hollander
Chief Marketing Officer, Panera Bread
This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

Elizabeth Rutledge
Chief Marketing Officer, American Express

Previous Quote's of the Week

Christine White
Director, Social and Content Marketing, Ulta Beauty
Alia Kemet
Vice President, Creative & Digital Communications, McCormick & Company
I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

I started working very early, when I was 14. I had a unique first job; I worked in a stock room at a retail store and learned how to dress the windows, which is really when I learned about targeting. You have to understand targeting in order to dress the window. I would tell the young people today to start your work ethic early. Working is like a muscle; you have to come to work and put all of yourself into it. I find that many young people who haven’t had to work, when the work is put on them, they’re like ‘Woah, wait a minute, we’re still in it?’ To anyone trying to break in, you need to be gritty, especially if you’re a person of color. I hate to bring up this mantra, but it’s true. If you're a person of color, a black person in particular, you have to work harder than the next person. So I come to the table with my goal being ‘Always win against myself.’ I have high standards. I want to be that person that comes in and does something that no one else has done before and completely transform business results.

Matthew Coleman
Marketing Director, State Farm
We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

We’re founded on making sure we’re building relationships, helping customers in communities and just being a good neighbor. That’s further shaped by the mission, vision and values that we have. Every interaction we have with our customers is pivotal to that brand promise. When you’re thinking of the environment we’re in right now, whether that’s wildfires or hurricanes, we know those are crucial moments where we have an opportunity to show up and really help people. We call that the moment of truth. But it’s not just in those environments that people are looking for help. If you think about COVID, people are really concerned about their health, their loved ones, and leaving their legacy, and that’s where State Farm comes in. Being able to meet the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their life stage is really important to us.

Brian Voynick
CRM Campaigns Manager, BMW of North America
First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

First party behavioral data trumps psychographic which trumps demographic. As long as you can see the customer’s actions and intentions, that’s the best way to create any sort of experience. That makes you a better marketer and provides better content. This is the age of context. If you’re not delivering experiences that are contextually relevant to the consumer, they’re getting bombarded from all different cylinders and you won’t catch their attention. We need to make sure that when we present someone with an opportunity that it fits into what they actually need. Every once in a while, I get an ad and I’m so enamored by it, that I have to buy the product, because it was targeted too well. Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn’t, but I bought it. That’s the goal.

Elle McCarthy
Head of Brand, Electronic Arts (EA)
EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

EA hasn’t had someone looking after EA as a brand before. How do you reinvigorate a hero brand from scratch from the privacy of your own living room? We were founded to lift up gaming as the entertainment medium of the world and to hero our developers and make them be at the center of our business. All of these founding principles are so rich and steeped in history, so I had been thinking a little bit about that and looking at our player data, and created the simplest brief you could imagine. It had three rules. What can we do to help people connect during this time?. What can we do to help people connect to our developers and our talent? And what can we do to help people connect to things that we miss in the real world? Those first two things, any gaming company can do that, the third one, is actually leaning into the thing that really differentiates us through time.

Surbhi Martin
VP Marketing, Danone
I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

I joined Danone for two reasons. One is that there's a real sense of purpose at Danone, A lot of companies talk about purpose but the fact that Danone is the world's largest public benefit corporation, brings a lot of credibility to what that means at Danone. It means that we are actively talking about purpose - about how we will use business as a force for social good. It's really quite unbelievable to me that on a daily basis, I'll join some sort of conversation about how we’ll walk the talk around purpose and being a certified benefit corporation. It's a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of heavy lifting to become a certified public benefit corporation so the credibility that Danone has, is one of the key reasons I joined the company. Working on a brand like Two Good is really just a dream.

Fernando Machado
Global Chief Marketing Officer, RBI
Kathleen Braine
Senior Director of Brand Marketing, BABE Wine, Anheuser-Busch InBev
It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

It is really important, especially when you are a consumer good and a lot of your brand is based in these emotional moments that are relevant in the world today, to really be tapped into that culture and to be able to react to it. You can have the best social listening in the world but if you are not able to react to it immediately then why are you listening? We really think especially at BABE we have our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about and then we try to look for what that human insight is and look for where our brand can authentically play. It is not enough to just comment on things. If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one, so how do you join cultural moments and really think about what is happening in the world and still be a human and be authentic to that brand and to who your consumer is. It’s a delicate balance.

Amanda Goetz
VP Marketing, The Knot Worldwide
Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Being open minded from a content perspective is a huge pillar for us. Our core focus is that we believe anyone should marry who they want, when they want, and if they want - the if is actually really important because we care a lot about the marriage more than just the wedding. We {as a society} have to remind ourselves that all of the time, it’s not about spending a lot of money on one given day. it’s about two humans coming together, and how we can use our product and platform to prepare people for that, and that’s talking about relationship health, how to love yourself, what it means to go to therapy - normalizing those aspects and talking through what it’s like to experience it. Also, celebrating second weddings - it’s important to show that there is no right or wrong way to live your life and we are here to support everyone. We are a brand that stands for acceptance, helping people feel good about living their life; however they choose to define it.

Ishita Ahmed
Director of Loyalty, CRM, and Personalization, Taco Bell
I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of Taco Bell’s loyalty program - a program that has been in the works for a couple of years. It had to go through a lot of different levels of approvals to make this happen, and believe it or not, the pandemic actually delayed the launch. Something I noticed when I joined Taco Bell was the ability of speed to customers. With the pandemic, Taco Bell did a really great job of reacting to the customer and meeting them where they needed to be. With the safety precautions, ordering ahead in the app and all of the different technical pieces took priority to the loyalty program. We had to put the customer first and make sure the customer knows that we’re on the same road of concern with safety that they are.

Gilbertson Cuffy
Brand Marketing Director, PepsiCo
I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

I think it's important to recognize that we do benefit from culture. It’s the reason why brands want to get involved in cultural conversations - especially today with impressions, likes, news recaps, essentially the roundups. If everyone is talking about the Grammys or the Super Bowl - and you’re taking part in those big moments, hopefully, you’re a part of the broad conversation that is attached to it, which could lead to brand affinity, then sales. Brands need to go beyond participating in culture - what are you adding in value? There is something called a culture vulture and consumers are really good at sussing that out. It’s up to us as brands to recognize that whatever audience we’re targeting at that moment, you are actually adding to the moment instead of taking from it.

Scott Donaton
Head of Creative, Hulu
There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

There are three primary things that my team does. We work on the Hulu brand, the Hulu content strategy and we work with Hulu’s advertising partners to help them do things beyond the traditional advertising units. In all of those cases, when it comes to my internal teammates, I don’t want them to think of us as an in-house agency because the danger is that your co-workers begin to treat you as a vendor. The people that we work with are not our clients - we are their partners and teammates. When we work with outside agencies, which we always will because we want to become navel-gazers and there are certain capabilities and resources that we don’t have in-house, we don’t want to be seen as a competitor to them - but instead as a collaborator. When we work with our advertising and brand partners, we don’t want their agencies to think of it as us trying to take their role. I think of us as an in-house creative studio, but I don’t think of us as an agency.

Shenan Reed
SVP, Head of Media, L'Oreal
Doug Palladini
Global Brand President, Vans
Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Vans is an inclusive brand by nature. Ubiquity is not our objective. We had to live up to our commitment in saying Black Lives Matter. A lot of people come on our site to criticize our Black Lives Matter stance, and they say “All lives matter. I'm throwing my vans in the trash.” And what we’re saying is, that’s ok. We think if you can’t get your head around Black Lives Matter, then maybe Vans isn’t the brand for you. It can be really hard for brands to have that fortitude to let people go. Again, in our mind, it’s quality over quantity of our fans....Posting about Black Lives Matter is easy. The harder thing to do is consistent and ongoing actions by our brand until anti-racist actions are done and we no longer have a system that breeds bigotry, hate and racism in this country.

Heather Hinkel
Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Minnesota Twins
Natalie Bowman
Managing Director, Marketing and Advertising, Alaska Airlines
During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

During Covid, our role was very focused on communicating to ease people’s minds. For people traveling, we wanted them to understand that the air on an aircraft is safer than in your office building. But we were not actively promoting travel, we were trying to be very cautious and not encourage people to do something that they’re not ready for. Now we’re hoping we’re getting closer to a place where we can start actively promoting travel. I have a revenue target that I know I have to hit with a combination of promos, performance media and driving storytelling on our owned channels. Four years ago, marketing looked like picking menu items and not contributing to revenue performance, so to be in this position I’m really excited and a little nervous.

Gabriela McCoy
Director, Strategic Insights and Analytics, Bacardi
Chris Hollander
Chief Marketing Officer, Panera Bread
Elizabeth Rutledge
Chief Marketing Officer, American Express
This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

This crisis certainly has reminded me how important shared experiences are and I truly believe they’re going to come back. Right now we have to reimagine them. We have to figure out where our customers are and what their needs are, whether it’s thinking about virtual conferences or live experiences that follow social distancing principles. We’re actually executing and testing on those ideas as we speak. Whether it's live streaming theater productions, holding virtual office hours or events for our business customers who need so much help, we've had to think differently. I think you'll see some of these shifts continuing even as the shelter in place restrictions are being lifted across the globe. You have to adapt, and that's what we're doing.

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