What Do Game-changing CMOs All Have in Common?

Nadine Dietz, Adweek’s Chief Community Officer and host of the CMO Moves podcast, was recently interviewed about the makings of a game-changing CMO on Future Proof: The marketing podcast from Saïd Business School, Oxford University and Kantar. Here, we share the key takeaways from the episode on what these game-changers all have in common. They Have Passion. “I've interviewed about 80 CMOs on the show now and I think the number one thing I see immediately that links all of them together is their passion for what they do and their willingness to not just do the status quo. They're always looking for innovation. They're always looking for ways to improve the game of their team. ‘How do I help empower them? What tools do they need? How do we ensure that we're always on top of the latest information, that we are working well, that we have a great ecosystem of partners that is bringing us also an outside perspective in? And then how are we looking up and down and across the organization to ensure that we have inclusivity for all so that when we do have these bright individuals on the team, no matter where they are, their voices are being heard?’” They are Leaders and Enablers First. “I love the fact that we're here in Cannes because it's all about celebrating creativity. But I think sometimes people quickly misunderstand that creativity is pure artistic talent. I think we've all heard the phrases: chief magic officer, chief logic officer, modern CMO or performance CMO. At the end of the day, you need all of that and I think the most talented CMOs are the ones who can look across all the things that are required to take a concept from beginning to end and assemble the right team behind it to make it happen and also empower it with the right technology and the insights. I'm fortunate I talked to many of those CMOs who have those very strong capabilities and the ability to see across, not just deep into one thing.” They’re Embracing the Creator Revolution. “We are having a radical shift in the marketing ecosystem today and rather than us brands, marketers, agencies, creating the content and pushing it out, it's the consumers who are creating the content. Whether you like it or not, you do not own your brand anymore – they own your brand. And so we have to focus less on how do we try to push content at them and really work on understanding them and enable them to tell the story of the brand in the way they want to. And you see a lot of new [content creation tools], like our Gen ZEOs group, some of the tools that they're creating are going to be those new tools.” They Focus on Branding from the Inside Out. “You have to ensure that your team, your company, understands what that brand vision is as well as you are hopefully communicating to the outside world with your consumers. And what I think a lot of marketers do very, very well is they really understand their consumers. But in today's environment with all this new thinking, all these new tools, you cannot be an expert in everything and you have to create an environment where everyone can shine. So, I feel like the biggest difference in the role today is the emphasis on people development on the inside. And that is a very unique position for the CMO because they have to work even that much more closely with their CHROs, especially around the employer branding and communications and really being mindful of important topics around diversity and inclusion and talent development and being authentic.” They Dream Big. “I was chuckling earlier because I was remembering that I wrote an article once called The Secret Dreams of CMOs and it was after my 16th episode. I always asked the same question at the end of every podcast. I always ask if money and talent were no object and you took those off the table entirely and you weren't doing what you were doing, what would you be doing? And it comes back to passion. In each of their answers, it was creativity and it was a passion for doing something that [they had] not done already. It was from breaking new ground and continuing to explore new spaces. I mean, when you hear what they would love to do outside of their role, it is so eye-opening and reminds me every single time how we're all just human.” For more insights on the role of the CMO today, take a look at the three people-centric shifts in the evolving role of the CMO written by Nadine. She is inspired by not only each of her podcast guests but how the CMO community has rallied around many of these themes, in particular at our last CMO Symposium in Cannes. Stay tuned for the key learnings from that Symposium and more CMO insights on CMO Moves.

CMO Moves

What Do Game-changing CMOs All Have in Common?

Heide Palermo

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Heide Palermo