Building Brands with Courage: Voices from Hinge, Essity, and Be LOVE

This May, Jim will celebrate six years of The CMO Podcast. He has had the opportunity to welcome over 330 marketing leaders to this show, many of whom have become friends, and of each other. Well in 2025, we are looking to lean more into this community, by hosting reunions, in-person and virtual. So for this week’s episode, we kick it off with a bang as Jim welcomes Tim Armstrong, founder and CEO of Flowcode, and author, professor, entrepreneur and fellow podcaster, Scott Galloway, back to the show. Both were early guests all the way back in 2019.This episode was recorded live in-front of an audience of fellow CMO Podcast alumni–about 70 of them. Jim, Tim and Scott dove head first into topics that are affecting us as business leaders, but also as members of society. Tim and Scott first talk about how they’ve built their own rules around goal setting, and their efforts to stick to their goals. And no surprise if you know Scott–the conversation went quickly to the state of young men in America. Jim then wraps up the conversation by opening to questions from the audience, which took the conversation–which was already deep, raw and real–to some new places. Places which we do not normally talk about on The CMO Podcast. So join Jim as he welcomes Tim and Scott back, for this remarkable and important podcast. ---Scott Galloway joined Jim as an early guest in June 2019: https://tinyurl.com/3v8fhdu5Tim Armstrong has joined Jim on multiple occasions, July 2019: https://tinyurl.com/39ba2ate And November 2022: https://tinyurl.com/4pkuznsdSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Feb 50min

Jim's guest on The CMO Podcast for a special Valentine day edition is Michelle Peterson, the Chief Marketing Officer of Kendra Scott, the 23-year-old fashion lifestyle brand founded by Kendra Scott in Austin Texas. This is one unusual brand: it is guided by a three-pronged brand platform: family, fashion, and philanthropy. Its organization is 96% women, with a multigenerational consumer base. Along with organizing up to 25,000 love events a year. It has about 140 stores and is distributed in retailers like Nordstrom and Neiman Markus, and has an estimated value of roughly $1 billion. Michelle has been CMO at Kendra Scott for about three years. She has overseen explosive growth in sales, new customers, and in her organization’s growth. Before Kendra Scott, Michelle spent 16 years in a variety of roles at General Mills, and then worked at LifeSpa, Intercontinental Hotels, and Pressed, the cold-pressed juice and plant-based treats company, where she was CMO. This is your reminder to order a necklace or ring for your love ones, and tune in for our Valentine conversation with the CMO of Kendra Scott!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Feb 59min

January is always the month of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. So it’s fitting before this month ends that Jim talks with a CMO who knows lots about consumer electronics trends than most. Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Jennie Weber, the Chief Marketing Officer of Best Buy, the $40 billion plus in sales consumer electronics retailer. Best Buy–with its 1000 plus stores, ecommerce platform, retail media network, and assorted services–is the world’s largest consumer electronics specialty retailer. A long way from its founding in 1966 by two gentlemen in St Paul, Minnesota. Jennie has spent most of her career at Best Buy–about 16 years, with an additional two years at Best Buy subsidiary Geek Squad. She was appointed CMO roughly two years ago. Jennie grew up across the upper western United States, and graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in history. She’s a skier, a hiker, a road biker, and a mother of four. Tune in for an episode with a CMO with fresh insights about this year’s CES, as well as how to make marketing a profit center.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

29 Jan 54min

Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Victoria Lozano, the EVP of Marketing at Crayola, the 122-year-old brand founded in Easton, Pa. by Edwin Binney and C. Howard Smith. The first Crayola product was a box of eight crayons, and sold for a nickel. Crayola is one of the most well-known brands in the world–brand awareness in the US is 99%.Since the mid-1980s, Crayola has been part of the Hallmark portfolio of brands, which includes Hallmark and Hallmark Media. Today’s Crayola is a very different business than it was even 15 years ago. Its purpose is unchanged–to help parents and educators raise creatively active kids. But it has morphed from a product company to a brand in the entertainment, content and experience spaces. Victoria has been with Crayola 15 years, about three as EVP of Marketing. Before Crayola, Victoria studied Classics at NYU and then earned her MBA there at the Stern school. After stints in CPG with Pfizer and Cadbury, Victoria moved to Crayola, where she has found the perfect fit for her. Tune in for a conversation around creativity, brand building and parenting.--Watch the videos as part of the Campaign for Creativity: https://www.crayola.com/featured/campaign-for-creativityLearn more about Crayola Creativity Week: https://creativity-week.squarespace.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

22 Jan 55min

As we look into 2025, listen in as Jim is joined by three lively and inspiring previous guests from last year of the podcast to reflect on the major themes of the 50 episodes and felt by CMOs in 2024. Jim's guests are DeLu Jackson, the Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer at security company ADT, Melissa Hobley, the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Tinder, and Michelle Crossan-Matos, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ulta Beauty. What a perfect panel to both reflect on past learning, and to look forward, so tune in for an ambitious episode–to reveal the central themes from CMOs in 2024, and to invite our guests to share their insights and advice on each theme. ---Listen to our previous episodes...Discovering Your Inner Joy and Beauty with Michelle Crossan-Matos - https://tinyurl.com/3sk5pybxCelebrate Black History Month with BECA - https://tinyurl.com/y559n6juSwipe Right with Melissa Hobley - https://tinyurl.com/2479sdxcSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

15 Jan 48min

For this week’s episode, Jim is returning to Deloitte’s Next Generation CMO Academy, with a listen into several of the conversations he has had with fellow marketing leaders, on how we hone and build the skills needed to be a CMO in this fast-paced world. With that theme in mind, we've pieced together snippets from a few special conversations from the event. First, Jim is joined by Norm Yustin, the Customer Activation and Growth Global Practice Leader for Russell Reynolds, a leading executive search and leadership advisory firm. Norm talks us through his path through marketing to becoming a recruiter, how he looks to support the leaders he hopes to place, and the decision of CEOs to hire internally or externally.Then, we welcome three alumni from a previous Deloitte Academy to speak about their experiences and how they were able to bring their learnings back to their companies and teams. Michael Chao, the Vice President of Marketing at Lidl. Sylvia Hooks, the Vice President Edge to Cloud Integrated Marketing for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Anthony Toguchi, the Head of Institutional Digital Marketing for Vanguard.And finally Jim wraps up this special episode with a leader working to bring equality to women’s sports. Colie Edison is the Senior Vice President and Chief Growth Officer for the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association. Colie is a veteran strategic leader and transformative marketer, becoming the league’s first-ever Chief Growth Officer in January 2022. We learn how she stepped into the role at the WNBA, at the same time becoming a mother, alongside working with her fellow c-suite team. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

8 Jan 46min

Happy New Year! Last year Jim had over 50 thoughtful conversations on The CMO Podcast, and he's kicking off 2025 with a doozy. The business of entertainment is increasingly the business of brand building, so Jim is beginning this year with a woman who really gets entertainment. His guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Dea Lawrence, the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Variety, the number-one source of entertainment business news. Variety was founded 120 years ago–amazing–and it has evolved into a multi-platform content company. Its iconic publication is available in 84 countries, but Variety in 2025 is so much more: 90 plus live events, podcasts, television specials, a content studio, and on and on. Variety is privately owned by Penske Media, which also owns Rolling Stone and Deadline Hollywood. Dea is not just a COO and CMO, she is also an actor, which has helped build a foundation for her experience rising to become an executive. Dea has been CMO at Variety since 2015; in the last three years she has also been the Chief Operating Officer. Join Jim and Dea as they ring in the new year with a conversation full of predictions and resolutions!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

1 Jan 44min

It is no surprise to any of you that the more meaningful your brand is to people, or customers, the more successful it will be. Well the good news is there is a company–Havas–who has been researching what makes a brand meaningful every year for the past 15 years. And this week Jim will talk with two leaders at Havas who oversee this annual research.Jim's guests on The CMO Podcast are Mark Sinnock, the Global Chief Strategy, Data and Innovation Officer at the Havas Group, and Joanna Lawrence, the global chief strategy officer at the Havas Media Network. Havas is one of the oldest and largest global communications companies. Founded in 1835 in Paris by Charles Louis Havas, today the group does business in 100 plus countries, with roughly 23,000 people; annual revenues approach $3 billion Euros.Each year since 2009 the Havas group has designed and fielded a massive research project called Meaningful Brands. The intent is to provide insights and guidance on how to build a brand that has deep meaning for its customers, thereby driving sustained growth and profitability. The scope is impressive: more than 1.5 million interviews, in 24 countries, with 41 categories and 2600 brands analyzed. Tune in as Jim chats with Mark and Joanna about learning from the latest Meaningful brands study.Havas’ 2024 Meaningful Brands™ Global Report: https://meaningful-brands.com/reports/2024report/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

18 Dec 202455min