Renegade Marketers Unite

Gina McDuffie of VER, one of the largest video/audio equipment providers in the world, shares how she helped evolve what was Video Equipment Rentals into VER, not just from a naming standpoint but also how they marketed and interacted with their global customer base. 

Lamenting the fact that the healthcare industry “says the same thing and blends into this mush,” Arra Yerganian is “working to change the conversation” about Sutter Health. To achieve this goal Yerganian is “leaning in when others lean away” and seeks to “embrace the digital experience and create one-to-one relationships for the 3.5 million people that we serve.” Believing that this promise needs to go deeper than marketing, Yerganian works in “really close partnership with Sutter’s patient experience folks, executive leadership and operations” to “lay the foundation for a new [customer] experience.” Yerganian joined Sutter Health’s not-for-profit network as its first chief marketing & branding officer in August 2015. “Recognized by colleagues as an innovator in residence, a marketing visionary and a customer experience evangelist,” Yerganian has lead a comprehensive repositioning of Sutter Health, which you’ll learn about in our podcast. Prior to joining Sutter Health, Yerganian served as chief marketing officer for San Francisco-based One Medical, an innovative primary care network focused on transforming patients’ experiences through improved quality and accessibility of care. Before that Yerganian served as CMO for University of Phoenix and held senior international marketing roles at Procter & Gamble, the Dial Corp. and Atari.

The notion of having a large-scale content studio in-house would be radical for many brands but that’s just the opening scene for David Beebe who “set out to establish [Marriott] as the largest producer of travel lifestyle content.” A veteran of Hollywood, Beebe has turned Marriott into a content powerhouse by “not asking for permission all the time” and by focusing initially on “really premium storytelling.” Noting that successful content needs to be scalable, built around a community and have a commerce component, Beebe advises, “You’re not making a commercial, you’re not talking about yourself and your features anymore.” David Beebe leads Global Creative and Content Marketing for Marriott International’s portfolio of 19 brands, which includes Marriott Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Bulgari, EDITION, Renaissance, Gaylord Hotels, Autograph Collection, AC Hotels by Marriott, Moxy Hotels, Delta Hotels, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Spring Hill Suites, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Protea Hotels, Marriott Executive Apartments, Marriott Vacation Club with over 4,200 hotels in 82 countries. Beebe leads a global creative + content marketing group responsible for the strategic and creative development of consumer facing creative, content marketing, influencer marketing, and real-time marketing with teams in Bethesda, MD, Hong Kong, London, and Dubai across four divisions, including Marriott Creative Agency (MCA), and in-house agency and Marriott Content Studio (MCS) an in-house studio that develops, produces, distributes, and monetizes original content including webisodes, documentaries, short films, television shows, magazines, books, animated series, and live programming. In short, when it comes to content, he’s a king.

As a long-time financial services marketer, you would expect Dan Marks to have the science of marketing down pat. And indeed he does, having built a predictive marketing spend model at First Tennessee Bank (see my book The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade's Guide to Marketing!) and the marketing tech infrastructure in his current role. But Marks sees the trend towards data-driven marketing going too far, explaining that, “Just doing the science without starting with the purpose is a recipe for failure.” Embracing the art-side of his job, he encourages his team to “remember that we are ultimately serving people” and to look at what’s happening with people in other categories.” Dan Marks is the CMO for Hancock And Whitney Bank, a regional bank in the Gulf South spanning from Houston, Texas, to Tampa, Fla. At the bank, Marks is responsible for overall strategy and execution of marketing and leading a digitally enabled client-focused transformation. Recognitions have included the Presidents Circle CMO Award, “Top CMO on Twitter,” and “Top 40 under 40.”

With over 70% share of the premium tequila market, it would be easy for Patrón’s CMO to rationalize a conservative marketing approach. Instead, Lee Applbaum believes that success can only be found by “challenging long-standing norms in luxury and in spirits marketing,” and by “always staying ahead of the curve.” To these ends, Applbaum is focused on showcasing Patron’s authenticity as a handcrafted tequila via advertising, influencer programs, social media and an innovative Oculus VR experience. During is over 3+ years as CMO at Patrón, Lee Applbaum has launched successful line extensions (La Roca) and won numerous awards including two from The CMO Club. But what’s more impressive is that he has helped keep the growth streak alive as Patron continues to find new fans while maintaining a highly loyal following. Applbaum started his career at Coca-Cola in sales after earning his MBA at UMass Amherst. After Coca-Cola, he held increasingly senior marketing jobs at Schlotzsky’s, Footstar Athletic, David’s Bridal, Radio Shack and even spent 8 months in Melbourne, Australia working with Target. Most importantly, in addition to his strong marketing background, Applbaum knows how to mix the perfect margarita, a skill that comes in handy remarkably often in his current role.

Packaged goods companies are well known for their marketing discipline and not the place you’d expect to hear a CMO express the need for “tolerating a lot more chaos and ambiguity in the culture and the way we work in order to get to the good stuff.” But that’s just the starting point with Eric Reynolds, CMO of The Clorox Company, who among other things advises against using influencers on a broad scale and believes that unless your brand gets talked about via the “holy trinity of the brand story, the message, and the content” then the idea isn’t big enough to cut through.  Eric Reynolds was named CMO in January 2015 and according to Clorox, “As CMO, he has global responsibility for all marketing functions, including brand strategy and management, personnel staffing and development, consumer insights, advanced analytics, agency management, consumer promotion, digital capabilities, media planning and buying, commercial production, and graphic design.” In short, he’s the real deal. Reynolds overseas marketing for a wide range of brands including Brita, Burt’s Bees, Formula 409, Glad, Hidden Valley, Kitchen Bouquet, KC Masterpiece, Soy Vay, Kingsford, Liquid-Plumr, Mistolin, Pine-Sol, Tilex, S.O.S., and Fresh Step, Scoop Away and Ever Clean cat litters.

  Described by Inc as one of the “sharpest minds” in marketing, Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast host Drew Neisser is a recognized authority on cutting-edge techniques and has won innumerable awards for creativity and campaign effectiveness. In Episode 0, Drew tells you what he's learned from interviewing over 200 Chief Marketing Officer in the last five years and how these lessons can be applied to just about any marketing challenge.   Ranked among “50 Thought Leaders over 50” by Brand Quarterly for 3 years in a row, Drew has been a featured marketing expert on ABC News, CNBC, CBS Radio, iHeart Radio and the Tony Robbins podcast series among many others.  Drew is the author of the highly regarded book, The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade’s Guide to Marketing. He is a frequent keynote speaker and emcee at top marketing conferences including the 2017 Marketo Marketing Nation Summit and is counted among a small group of IBM Futurists. Last but very definitely not least, Neisser is the founder and CEO of Renegade, the NYC-based marketing agency that has been helping CMOs find innovative ways to cut through since 1996.