A CMO’s View: Top Marketers From The World’s Biggest Brands Share Insights On Mobile, Video & More

Since our first interview last October, Marketing Land’s A CMO’s View series has given a number of Chief Marketing Officers the chance to share their frank opinions on digital marketing strategies that have had an impact on their brands.

Taco Bell’s Chris Brandt discussed how his company is breaking new ground with its mobile marketing efforts; AOL’s Allie Kline talked content marketing; and Heineken’s Nuno Teles addressed brand sponsorships in light of his brand partnering with the World Soccer League.

While each of the CMO interviews takes a deep dive into a specific marketing topic, we ask every CMO to list their top three rules around their subject matter. Here’s what they told us.

A CMO’s View: The Takeaways

Yext CMO Jeff Rohrs on MarTech

• Technology is a tool to solve problems, not the solution itself.
• Invest as much in your people as you do in your technology.
• Align your technology and people with clear short- and long-term objectives to ensure your investments are both strategic and productive.

AOL CMO Allie Kline on Content Marketing

• A strategy that balances culture and code is crucial to brand success now more than ever.
• Take control of your data, take risks, test out new platforms and select partners that help you tie all of these efforts together.
• Today’s audience can spot inauthenticity a mile away. Content marketing is about adding value to consumers, not advertising to them. Do that.

Cole Haan CMO David Maddocks on Domains

• What is the purpose of your brand? What is its mission, and what are its values? Who is your audience, or better, what stakeholders and constituencies are you engaging with?
• Let the answers to these questions guide every decision you make.
• Consider a domain strategy that makes engagement more expedient, more honest and more rewarding for everyone.

Heineken CMO Nuno Teles on Sponsorships

• Compare your goals and see where there is overlap — This will ensure that sponsorship activities will benefit both the brand and the organization.
• Be true to your brand. Make sure that a partnership amplifies an established brand platform or the brand values.
• Ensure that it creates the opportunity for new, bold ideas that drive digital conversation. This will keep the conversation going beyond the festival, the season or the event.

Tough Mudder CMO Jerome Hiquet on Video Marketing

• Shorter is better than longer, but always keep a close eye on your analytics, and keep learning.
• Each platform merits its own approach. What works on your website might not on Facebook.
• Your team knows your brand and customers best. You can outsource production, but don’t ever outsource creative direction.

Taco Bell CMO Chris Brandt on Mobile Marketing

• Stay true to your brand. Apps are built to connect with your loyalists, and they need to feel everything that they love about your brand in that experience.
• Your “traditional” competition is not the only competition; there are 1.2 million apps in the app store, and you compete with every one of them. In order to break through, you need marketing built into the experience and work that will get people talking.
• Be prepared to live in beta. You really need to listen to your customers and constantly evolve.

Porch.com CMO Asha Sharma on Data & Analytics

• Data drive prioritization, and prioritizing the right things often maifests into success.
• Data drive operational excellence, making sure your efforts are efficient and measured.
• Data drive growth, ensuring all your investments in product and marketing are actually solving your core problems better than any other opportunities.

ZipRecruiter CMO Allan Jones on Integrated Marketing

• Discover and communicate the simplest message that speaks to the largest percentage of your target audience.
• Keep a unified message and a fluid end-to-end experience.
• Be married to your analytics and your data, but be thoughtful of your instincts and your gut.

AppleMark

Wix.com CMO Omer Shai on Omni-channel Marketing

• Appreciate the unique attributes of each platform and tailor your content for these different channels. Great content isn’t just about the quality of what you produce, but also about the fit for a given medium.
• It’s so easy to forget your goals by getting caught up in what everyone else is doing. Focus your efforts on the specific targets that are going to help you improve and grow your business, and design strategies that maximize the likelihood of achieving these goals.
• Taking risks is great, but timing them properly is even more important. We have been thinking about a Super Bowl ad for years and have been so excited to tackle this challenge, but we were patient enough to wait until the time was right for us to be able to maximize the opportunity.

BorrowersFirst.com CMO Penny Holt on Branding

• Create brand identity that doubles as company strategy.
• Establish brand as “single lens” to view your business and drive operations.
• Implement a “brand council” to involve executive team members in all brand initiatives.

You can find a full archive of our A CMO’s View series, along with other CMO profiles and coverage of brand campaigns, in Marketing Land’s CMO Zone.