Marketing Today With Alan Hart

Sarah Acton is the Chief Marketing Officer at BILL and brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing and brand-building work in both consumer and business markets. She had an interest in marketing early on and started her career in media buying, then went back to business school, moved into consumer packaged goods, spent some time on the agency side, and eventually opened her own small business. After that, she returned to technology, where she was responsible for global brand oversight during pivotal periods of growth at LinkedIn and consumer marketing leadership at Yahoo!, then led both marketing and sales at Athos, a wearables company in the athletic performance space. She has now been with BILL for the past 18 months. Sarah believes one of the roles of marketing is to build and reinforce trust with your customers and the market at large, and she is grateful to be immersed in a culture of people who have a shared respect for small businesses as well as a shared connection to the mission and values t

Kadian Langlais is the Chief Marketing Officer at Renfro Brands, a 100-year-old legacy sock and hosiery design and manufacturing company. In her role, she oversees Renfro’s diverse portfolio of brands and maintains its position as the largest manufacturer of socks in the U.S., producing three million pairs per week. Kadian grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, where she developed a love for interior design and has always had a passion for fashion. After immigrating to New York, she initially planned to go into investment banking but decided to follow her passion instead and enter the business side of the fashion world. Prior to joining Renfro, she consulted with leading brands and retailers on their e-commerce and digital marketing strategies.In this episode, Alan and Kadian discuss her pathway to becoming the CMO at Renfro, the role of DEI and how she’s focused on it, and an initiative she helped launch called Project Footprint. When Kadian joined Renfro in 2018 as Vice President, DTC and Digital, she was tasked wit

Matt Lattman is an avid traveler and serves as the Senior Vice President for Card Acquisition Marketing at Discover. Prior to Discover, Matt was Chief Marketing Officer at Zero Financial, a financial technology startup. He also spent six years at Capital One in various roles, most recently as Head of Acquisition Marketing for their Consumer Bank. He joined Discover in 2019 as VP of Marketing, Pricing, and Product Strategy in Personal Loans. With his start date being just 4 months before the pandemic, Matt quickly got to see firsthand how Discover helps its customers through hard times, meets their needs, and keeps empathy at the core of the brand and operations. Now, he is working to optimize the discovery of Discover through the journey of customers getting their cards, both through cross-selling and net new acquisitions, to ensure people find the products that are right for them.In this episode, Alan and Matt discuss how he conceptualizes Acquisition Marketing at Discover, the critical aspects of getting Ac

Joshua Hollin is the Digital Associate for the Born This Way Foundation, where he executes digital content in service to the mission of building a kinder, braver world. He's passionate about combating the stereotype that young people are lazy, apathetic, or indifferent to the world around them by showing that they are empowered, resilient, and creative.In this episode, Alan and Joshua discuss Born This Way Foundation initiatives, the impact social media has had on young people, and what the Foundation is doing for the LGBTQ+ community. Founded in 2012 by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, the Born This Way Foundation is on a mission to support the mental health of young people and build a kinder and braver world. They aim to make kindness cool, validate the emotions of young people, and eliminate the stigma around mental health.In this episode, you'll learn:How is the Born This Way Foundation supporting the mental health of young people and working with them to build a kinder and braver world?How c

Lauren Weinberg is a proud boy mom, a loving dog mom,and currently the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Square, driving global marketing and communications strategy. She started her career by measuring media metrics, then made her way into b2b media, and eventually moved over to the consumer side of marketing strategy. She spent some time running her own consulting business, then landed at Square where she has been for the past 6 years. Previously, she held leadership roles at Yahoo!, MTV, and AOL. Lauren sees marketing at Square as the growth engine, and her team is responsible for the brand, the perceptions, and the acquisition of new customers. In this episode, Alan and Lauren discuss Square's business model, how it has dimensionalized and expanded over the years, the impact of data on Square's marketing efforts, and the incrementalism and principled risks that marketing organizations need to take in order to be competitive. Square started in 2009 with the purpose of enabling any individu

When Amrita Mathur joined Superside as their first marketing hire in 2019, there was no product, no platform, and no recurring revenue. She is no stranger to being called in when companies are at a strategic inflection point with their growth strategy, so she did what she spent a career in B2B marketing learning how to do: implement a marketing-led growth strategy that translated into $8 million in subscription revenue in the first year and 400% year-over-year growth since then. Amrita is passionate about community, but she denotes an important difference between community building and a sense of community. For her, it’s about a sense of goodwill and feeling like you have someone in your corner. Now as VP of Marketing, with that sense of community top of mind, she and her team are revolutionizing design at scale for ambitious brands like Amazon, Meta, Shopify, and Coinbase.In this episode, Alan and Amrita discuss her journey from developer to Marketing VP, the moves that played a key role in taking Superside

Raj Pudipeddi currently serves as the Chief Product and Marketing Officer for Align Technology, makers of Invisalign, and its Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region. Through his dual roles, Raj has global responsibility for product, marketing, strategy, and clinical teams, as well as for the market development and commercial execution of all Align Technology products and services in the Asia Pacific region. Raj is an engineer by training who spent nearly 22 years at Procter & Gamble after he received his MBA. Today, he considers himself an "accidental marketer" who gets his joy out of serving the business and believes that ordinary people can deliver extraordinary outcomes when they are empowered to do so.In this episode, Alan and Raj discuss the first steps he took when he arrived at Align Technology and how he has transformed the organization to deliver on the brand purpose. Align Technology encompasses several brands (Align Tech, Invisalign, Itero, and Exocad) that combine to provide end-to-end

Hiroki Asai is the Head of Global Marketing at Airbnb, overseeing all marketing efforts and in-house creative teams. Hiroki grew up as a skateboarder in the 80s, loved the design aspect of that world, and started his career as a graphic designer. Eventually, he learned how to apply what he knew about creativity and design to solve business problems. He spent 18 years at Apple and served as Vice President of Global Marketing Communications and Executive Creative Director, where he was responsible for a variety of iconic marketing campaigns for a range of products, including the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Now, Hiroki is responsible for maintaining Airbnb’s strong global brand and sharing the stories of our millions of hosts who offer unique homes and experiences to guests around the world.In this episode, Alan and Hiroki discuss Airbnb’s post-pandemic rebalancing of spend between performance and brand, why he is a firm believer in the importance of in-house creative teams, and what he thinks mak

Oded Netzer is a world-renowned expert in data-driven decision-making. He serves as the Vice Dean of Research and the Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, Oded is the first in his family to attend college. After graduation, he spent some time working in a chicken house but quickly decided that wasn't for him. After a quick stop at a consulting firm, he returned to college to climb the academic research ladder and pursue a career in education. Currently, he splits his time between teaching as an affiliate of the Columbia University Data Science Institute and consulting as an Amazon Scholar. He has published dozens of papers in the world's leading marketing and management science journals, and his award-winning research is widely read and highly cited.In this episode, Alan and Oded discuss "Decisions Over Decimals," Oded's latest co-authored book with Christopher Frank, Vice President of the Global Advertising and Brand Management team at Ameri

Guillaume Bouvard is the COO, CMO, and co-founder of Extend. He founded the company with two friends and credits their success to complementary skill sets, trust, shared values, and education. Before starting Extend, Guillaume spent 12 years at American Express in various roles, advising the C-Suite as a leader of the Strategic Planning Group for several years. Before Amex, Guillaume led marketing efforts at Capital One and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.In this episode, Alan and Guillaume discuss what Extend does, why it uniquely benefits marketers and agencies, and how they utilize marketing within their b2b2b model. Extend is a platform that turns business credit cards into a full spend management platform. They do not compete with banks but rather partner with them and empower them to offer better add-on products to their clients. Those banks then have to give Extend access to those clients, the real end users. This B2B2C or B2B2B model has unique challenges. Extend must be strategi

Zach Kitschke is the CMO of Canva, the online visual communication and collaboration platform. In his comprehensive role as CMO, Zach oversees the international brand and drives growth initiatives. He closely collaborates with teams responsible for product marketing, PR and communications, affiliates and performance, content, SEO, brand development, creative innovation, advertising, and product growth. Zach joined Canva in 2013, the year it launched. Since then, with a mission to empower the whole world to design, it has grown to over 130 million users each month in over 190 countries around the world, with more than 13 billion designs created.In this episode, Alan and Zach discuss how visual content fits into our world today, Canvas's approach to marketing complexity, and the inspiration behind their newest "What will you design today?" campaign. Additionally, Zach provided insights from the recent Visual Economy Report, sharing noteworthy findings from a survey of 1,600 global business leaders. These insigh

Katie Krum started her career at PURE in 2006 as the sixth employee at the insurance start-up. She played a significant role in shaping the brand, and throughout this process, she discovered her passion for marketing. Katie eventually left to develop her skill set at Nickelodeon, Marriott, Under Armour, and Weber Shandwick. She now leads a "small but mighty team" as the CMO at PURE, where she oversees all aspects of marketing communications and PR. One of the driving factors that drew her back to PURE was her incredible boss and her determination to explore innovative approaches to generate interest in insurance. She firmly believes in the power of collaboration, as she sees teams achieve more together than as individuals.In this episode, Alan and Katie discuss the challenges involved in transitioning PURE from a company to a brand tailored specifically for high-net-worth families. Katie highlights the significant impact that service experiences have on driving progress. Katie's expertise from other industrie

Tony Marlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for LG Ad Solutions, where he uses data-driven insights to lead all aspects of marketing and communications. Since the beginning of his career, Tony has always been interested in technology, thought leadership, and helping people understand why they should embrace emerging tech. He has served as CMO at Integral Ad Science, CMO at Data Axle, Global Head and VP of B2B Marketing at Yahoo, and a consultant for Nielsen Online. As an avid athlete, his training for triathlons and Iron Man races has taught him a lot about efficiency in planning and tenacity in execution, which he brings to his professional life as well.In this episode, Alan and Tony discuss "The Big Shifts" in consumer viewing behavior and how CTV is accounting for the new ways in which people consume media. LG Ad Solutions is a CTV advertising company with over 150 million smart TVs worldwide, where they deliver video and native units on the biggest screen in the home. The first phase of the shift in consum

Vincent Washington is the Vice President of the Unified Customer Experience Management Best Practices Group at Sprinklr. With four years of experience at the company, Vincent has a diverse professional background, having worked previously at Amazon, UPS, LinkedIn, and BlackBerry. With his extensive experience in various roles and seeing technology come and go, he has learned that only authentic relationships built on mutual respect and genuine interest stand the test of time. When it comes to CXM, Vincent advocates for the inclusion of relevant insights related to existing conversations rather than forcefully inserting messages that do not align with the context, resulting in the best long-term outcomes.In this episode, Alan and Vincent discuss the evolution of Sprinklr, which has transformed from a digital listening and social media management platform to a comprehensive Unified-CXM solution. Through breaking down data silos and gaining a deeper understanding of customers, Sprinklr, in collaboration with Ado

Lara Krug is the CMO of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs. Before entering the NFL, she worked at Avon, L'Oréal, and Anheuser-Busch, where she learned the GTMs for beauty and beer weren't all that different. During the pandemic, Laura and her family moved back to her husband's hometown, Kansas City, and it wasn't long before she was contacted about being the Chiefs' first-ever CMO. They had never had a formal marketing team, so she has been working hard to build foundations and help the organization understand the role of marketing. They are more than just a team; they are a brand.In this episode, Alan and Lara discuss what it's like to start and lead marketing efforts for an organization that isn't just a business but a source of entertainment as well. Lara and her team don't just market Mahomes and the boys; they also market the concerts and other events at the stadium, youth programs, and corporate partnerships. They are essentially an internal agency working to entertain fans at every touchpoint u

Ryan Fleisch is Adobe's Head of Product Marketing and Real-Time CDP and Audience Manager. Being a lifelong chess player, it makes sense that he is passionate about looking beyond the immediate use cases of AI and trying to understand and anticipate ways the technology will impact workflows and the nature of marketing in the future. He learned from his dad that "the day you stop learning is the day your career becomes nothing more than a job." This wisdom has kept him intellectually curious and lends itself perfectly to the cutting-edge work being done at Adobe.In this episode, Alan and Ryan discuss customer data platforms, what makes Adobe's CDP "real-time," new features to help businesses operate effectively in the cookieless world, and how generative AI will transform how companies use data. At Adobe, "real-time" isn't a buzzword; it's a key component they have been optimizing since day one. They have built a globally distributed network of servers to be able to handle data and use it in milliseconds. This

Bridget Esposito has been the Vice President and Global Creative Director at Prudential Financial for nine years. She is also a visual problem solver, a mother of two, a professor teaching design to nondesigners, and a former D1 softball player and coach. She still plays softball and credits the sport with her philosophy around leadership, team dynamics, and culture. The best piece of advice she has received is that "the game doesn't know" anything about you. All it knows is your level of effort on that given day. This advice has helped her fight the fear of hierarchies in business and approach her career with a "why not me?" attitude.In this episode, Alan and Bridget discuss the launch of Adobe Firefly and how it's helping calm fears and answer questions about AI for marketers and creatives. She advises professionals not to be scared of AI replacing them but instead to use it as a tool and understand how it can support them. She also gives us insight into the marketing focus at Prudential and the benefits an

Nate Burke is the Chief Marketing Officer at cybersecurity solution provider Axonius. Axonius is Nate’s fifth startup and his third in cybersecurity. He was Axonius' first US employee, starting before they had a product, which allowed him to develop relationships and lean into the "solve, don't sell" mindset that really sets Axonius apart. Nate wanted to join a company that was simply solving a big problem that was getting worse and where he loved the founders. He found his perfect fit at Axonius and is now working to deliver on their promise of "controlling complexity."In this episode, Alan and Nate discuss Nate’s approach to marketing to one of the most skeptical audiences ever, cybersecurity professionals, and how Axonius is doing it differently. Axonius tackles one of the most fundamental problems in cybersecurity: understanding what businesses have. They aim to be the system of record for all the digital infrastructure in a company and refuse to use FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to market to their c

Tom Nolan serves as CEO of Kendra Scott, where he balances day-to-day functions and strategy. He was the first person in his family to graduate high school and attend college on sports scholarships. He worked the summers and never did an internship, so getting a job after graduation was difficult. Despite this, his work ethic landed him a cold-call sales job at a publishing company. His competitive spirit and work ethic caused him to rise quickly through the ranks, which helped him become successful in his career, earn multiple board seats, and achieve his goals. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, Tom oversees Kendra Scott's substantial omnichannel growth, global expansion, and evolving retail model. He has more than two decades of experience in brand building, management, and results-driven strategic planning from a diverse range of companies and is happy to be able to use his skills at a company that sees value in giving back.In this episode, Alan and Tom discuss how determination led to his

Jason Andree is the CMO of one of the fastest-growing companies in the country, Nufabrx. He grew up on a farm, and showing cattle translates surprisingly well to being a CMO. Jason joined Nufabrx from GlaxoSmithKline, where he led their global digital marketing department, executing marketing strategies across global categories. He is now a senior-level marketing executive with over fifteen years of success within the healthcare industry and is forging a new path in Healthware with Nufabrx.Nufabrx puts medicine in clothing by making it water-soluble, infusing it into yarn, and coating it onto textiles. The company started in Seattle but soon relocated to Alan's home state, North Carolina, to be closer to experts in the textile industry. Due to its proximity to suppliers and researchers, Nufabrx is able to source all of its product materials within 90 miles of its manufacturing plant.In this episode, Alan and Jason discuss why biohacking is becoming mainstream and the challenges of operating in the "white spac