Humans of Martech 57: Adriana Gil Miner - Marketing is the most diverse department
What’s up folks, today on the show we are joined by Adriana Gil Miner.
- Born and raised in Venezuela, she’s a 20+ year marketing exec who got her start as a data analyst and went on to work at American Express.
- She then worked with some of the top brands in the world after moving into PR and digital strategy at Weber Shandwick, an A-list agency according to Ad-age
- Adriana then ended up going through a wild growth ride leading Brand marketing at Tableau– a well known analytics platform.
- Today, she’s CMO at Iterable, one of the top customer-led marketing automation platforms on the planet.
Adriana, it’s a pleasure to be chatting today, thanks so much for your time.
In-house marketing vs agency
You’ve had a fascinating career bouncing from agency to in-house roles.
- Agency for 2 years
- In-house for 5 years at Amex
- Freelance for 2 years
- Back to agency for 5 years at two different firms
- But along the way you got the in-house itch again and joined Tableau where you ran Brand marketing for 6.5 years.
- And you’ve been in-house ever since, getting the CMO gig at Qumulo and now Iterable.
Talk to us about what you loved and hated most about in-house vs agency and why you ultimately settled on in-house.
Follow-up: At what point in your journey did you decide you wanted to be a CMO? Was there ever a point where you considered staying IC and focusing on data vs leadership and people management?
How ‘hands-on’ do marketing leaders need to be in the product they sell?
Jon and I are no strangers to the world of BI having both spent parts of our career at an SMB focused dashboard tool in Klipfolio. As the SVP of Brand Marketing at Tableau, how close were you to the product and how skilled would you say you had to be in data analysis? CMO of 2030 -- what should they be working on today?
Storytelling, data and technology
You’ve said in several places that you love bringing together the art of storytelling, technology, and marketing. Talk about some of your most memorable breakthrough campaigns that exemplify this idea bridging story, tech and marketing.
The power of storytelling
Let’s dive a bit deeper into that. Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways for humans to learn. The best content and brand marketers know this and use it to persuade the rational and the emotional brain. How can marketers get better at storytelling? How can we make stories more relatable – practically, how can stories be more real, vulnerable when you’re selling a B2B tech product?
Spotting up and coming marketing superstars
You’ve written about having a lot of pride in discovering and nurturing up-and-coming marketer rockstars. Walk us through your approach for discovering some of these future rockstars and what are some of the early signs and qualities you look for.
Customer advocacy and community marketing
Something that was a big part of your time at Tableau was prioritizing community marketing. Walk us through some of the benefits that this can have on brand growth and customer advocacy opportunities. The relationship between how we use marketing technology and community? Why is community such an integral part of successful B2B products?
Branding gets a bad rep
“I don’t believe in brand marketing. If you build a good product and people love it, they will share it.” I’ve heard too many technical CEOs say this. What do you say to a business leader that doesn’t believe in brand marketing and how would you respond to that if – as CMO – your CEO walked in a room and told you that? Follow-up do you think there’s anything marketers can do to change a founders mind if they don’t believe in branding? Do you think founders and CEOs need to create the brand so that marketers can drive the brand?
Branding vs positioning vs GMT vs demand gen
Marketers get a bad rep for all the buzzwords we throw around but don’t all agree on what we mean when we say them:
- Branding
- Positioning
- Go to market
- Demand generation
For professionals who are supposed to be good at communication, we don’t do a good job at making ourselves understood. Walk us through your definitions and how we might better align with how we use them?
Future of marketing
There was a viral tweet on the future of marketing last week that I thought was interesting and would love your take on. This is from George Mack, “Don't try to create great content. Instead, try to create Red Pills (dramatically transformed perspectives) that groups are thinking about but nobody is talking about.” How can marketers create more Red Pills? Being in the marketing automation space for a bit now, what do you think are some of these perspectives that need to be transformed?
LatinX women in tech
You’ve written bravely and powerfully about your experience as a Latina immigrant and shared your thoughts on the Caucasian male narrative that dominates much of the world. Talk about your change in mindset when it comes to the importance and power of checking that box despite not always feeling like you fit the stereotype people often have.
Time management /staying happy
One question we ask all our guests is how do you remain happy and successful in your career? How do you find balance between all the things you’re working on while staying happy?
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Adriana's Twitter: https://twitter.com/agilminer
Adriana’s LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agilminer/
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