Champions of Growth Podcast

Bryan Barletta, a partner at Sounds Profitable, a research and advocacy firm focused on the business of podcasting, joins host Matthew Schwartz to discuss why analysts are lowballing the overall value of podcasting, how a downturn in the economy may affect the market, and why the industry has barely scratched the surface when it comes to ad creative.

Nicole Balsam, associate partner and head of brand and digital at executive search and human capital research consultancy Eastward Partners, joins host Matthew Schwartz to discuss the results of the company’s U.S. CMO Market Report released in 2022. Balsam talks about the trendlines in CMO compensation, why the growing pressure on CMOs to bolster their digital capabilities transcends tenure, and why the current business climate is an opportune time for CMOs to craft what Balsam calls a “second-first impression” with the rest of the C-suite.

The growing popularity of QR Codes is a potential window into the proliferation of technologies that combine the physical and digital worlds. QR Codes are a perfect example of how technology does not move as fast as people think and marketers need to be careful not to get too ahead of their skis these days.

In this episode of Champions of Growth, host Matthew Schwartz is joined by co-authors of the study, Doug Novack, managing director, business and industrial markets at Google, and Peter Dewey, managing director and partner at global management consulting firm BCG, to talk about the upside of more B2B branding and how it justifies bigger investments.

Love is a many splendored thing, right? But what about brand love? Does such a thing exist? Shouldn’t high quality and consistent service be good enough for consumers? Aaron Auvia, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and author of the recently published The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are, joins host Matthew Schwartz to discuss the contours of brand love and how companies should think about when it comes to getting their message out and growing their audiences.

Community Powered Marketing, or brands building closer relationships with their most valued customers via online channels, may be taking on new currency. Sue Frech, founder and CEO of Vesta, a software firm that specializes in community powered marketing, joins host Matthew Schwartz to talk about why community powered marketing could be the antidote to the demise of third-party cookies as well as the most effective way to refurbish customer loyalty programs that are getting long in the tooth.

Despite possessing massive spending power, the 50-plus crowd — or the so-called “silver economy” — has long been ignored by brands and advertisers. On the first-ever Champions of Growth podcast POV, host Matthew Schwartz explains why advertisers who ignore the silver economy in favor of chasing younger generations do so at their own peril, causing them to leave both revenue and growth potential on the table.

Despite dramatic and accelerating changes in aging and the rise of the so-called “Silver Economy,” brands mostly traffic in stereotypes and/or default to magical thinking when it comes to engaging the 50-plus crowd. Michael Clinton, special media adviser to the CEO of Hearst Corporation, and author of “Roar Into The Second Half of Your Life (Before It’s Too Late),” joins host Matthew Schwartz to discuss why ageism persists in marketing and advertising and what brand managers can do about it.

Marketers face a bevy of challenges this year, ranging from a potential recession to sharpening their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy to getting a better grip on their tech stack. ANA Champions of Growth podcast host Matthew Schwartz sits down with his colleague Mike Berberich, host of the ANA Marketing Futures podcast, for an illuminating discussion regarding what’s in store for CMOs and marketers in 2023 and beyond.

Jim Habig, VP of Marketing at Linkedin Marketing Solutions, joins host Matthew Schwartz to talk about how B2B ad creative is changing, why there is less and less daylight between B2B and B2C marketing playbooks, and the kind of content B2B buyers are looking for when they go into purchasing mode