Scratch: CMO Interviews

As CMO of Temenos, a world-leader in banking software, Martin knows a thing or two about the B2B space.  He argues that marketers need to innovate constantly but, more than anything, need to be focused on the customer experience. 

Three things Martin recommends:

1. Don't think about leads, think about your customer
2. Don't think about B2B, think about B2H or to B2P (Business to Human or Business to People)
3. Don't invest in push marketing, instead focus on pull marketing

To connect with Martin, find him on LinkedIn

To learn more about Temenos, visit their website: https://www.temenos.com/

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and author, talks with Eric and co-host DuBose Cole about everything from payment models to a London shop called Bacon Sandwich. Rory is fascinated by the intersection between behavioral science and advertising. A true advertising legend, Rory's latest book is Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformit (2021). 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Marketing strategist, author and adjunct professor,  Mark Schaefer argues that the CMO must be in charge of the entire customer experience, and how some brands - like Glossier and Everlane - are doing it right. 

In a world where isolation and loneliness are on the rise, community is more important than ever. Mark argues that consumers want to believe in the brands they support, that they to want to participate in and to belong to a brand. Belonging is such a human drive - and Mark believes that beyond purpose, companies will need to start using technology to connect to people in deeply personal ways. 

For more from Mark, check out his podcast, his  books, and his blog at Businessesgrow.com.

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Today's episode was produced by Leanne Kilroy and hosted by Eric Fulwiler. 

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter. Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler. Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you. If you prefer to watch this episode, visit (and subscribe!) to Rival's YouTube channel.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

This week, Yonca Dervişoğlu talks to Eric about so many things from how she makes sure she has time to spend on her prioritises, how the pandemic has helped her connect to her teams, and how she approaches new roles and new challenges. 

Yonca discusses how her family and childhood experience moving from Istanbul to California - with its often unbridled optimism about technology - have shaped her and led her to where she is today, the CMO of many markets for Google, and how this has informed her priorities for EMEA's role in the future of technology. While EMEA can tend towards being overly concerned with new tech, Yonca actively seeks to push the region to embrace a more active role in new technology with a focus on the values particular to it, including privacy and equality. 

This is a great conversation for anyone interested in the bigger picture. If you want to hear more from Google's head of marketing for EMEA, you can find Yonca on LinkedIn. 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Bob Moesta talks about how he overcame a disability to be a hugely successful businessman, marketer and educator. Bob is one of the authors of the Jobs-to-be-Done theory, which posits that consumers hire products or services to do jobs in their lives. According to Jobs-to-be-Done, companies need to better understand how their products and services fit into people’s lives. 

Bob talks about how to apply the theory to brand-building and reminds marketers that they need to be in lockstep with those creating the product. Bob insists that marketers tend to over-emphasize the who and ignore the when, where and why of consumption. 

Bob and Eric could have easily filled three podcasts - so if you want to hear more, send us your questions for Bob at [email protected] and we’ll have a special Q&A episode of Scratch with Bob. 

To hear more from Bob, check out his most recent book, Demand-Side Sales, look out for his upcoming Learning to Build, and check out his new podcast The Circuit Breaker. You can reach out to Bob on LinkedIn.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

In today’s episode, Dean Aragón joins Eric in a conversation with David Rubin, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of The New York Times, the storied newspaper with many millions of paid subscribers. The paper’s first CMO in its 100+ year history, David talks about how celebrating the NYT’s product leads to the business’ success.  

There was lots of pushback when the New York Times made the controversial decision to place a paywall in front of some of its products back in 2011. But the decision to charge readers for the news paid off and now it has paywalls to aspects of its core product, Cooking, Games, and the newly acquired Athletic. How does the NYT convince customers to pay for their product when there is so much free news out there? The answer comes down to quality. David and his team highlight “how the sausage is made” in the brand’s ad campaigns, emphasizing that subscribing is the best way to help in its journalistic mission, and help maintain the journalism’s unparalleled quality. (And for all your Wordle aficionados, David insists that the game did not become more difficult after being purchased by the Times. Tell that to my mom, David.)

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Scott Brinker, known as the “godfather of martech” and currently VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, talks to Eric about everything marketing technology from how to stay on top of it all to how best to implement changes in your organization.

Scott explains that the No Code movement represents a fundamental shift towards empowerment of business users and marketers. It’s not just about letting people build software applications without having to code them, it’s about allowing the average person to self-service their ideas. 

And while culture change and adoption of new technologies and workflows are necessary, it inevitably requires a huge investment. Scott’s tips for success include:

1. Make sure you’re allocating the space in people’s responsibilities to learn new tools, technologies and approaches
2. Once you have the tools and people know how to use them, you have to make sure from a process re-engineering perspective, you actually look at how people will use these new tools and determine where the constraints are and work to see how to overcome those constraints working collaboratively with the new technology and getting things done. 

While Scott admits the world of marketing technology is too large to stay on top of at this point, he also lets us know how he does his best. 

To see the famous Marketing Technology Landscape Graphic click here. 

For more from Scott visit www.chiefmartec.com

Find him @chiefmartec on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Today's episode was produced by Leanne Kilroy and hosted by Eric Fulwiler. 

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter. 

Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler.

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you. 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Rupen Desai, CMO of Dole Sunshine Company, talks about a world in which we stop considering shareholders' profits above all else and start considering the overall global benefits of business decisions to the environment and to human rights. He insists that while profit should not be the end all be all of business, true sustainability does not need to come at its expense. If you are curious about how to shift your business towards being truly purposeful and doing better for the planet and its people, this is the conversation for you.

Dole has produced some pretty remarkable advertising in the last few years. To see their Malnutrition Facts campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSBEyblzw0. Learn more about Dole’s mission here: https://sunshineforall.com/en/our-promise

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Today's episode was produced by Leanne Kilroy and hosted by Eric Fulwiler.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com. 

Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler.

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you. 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

This week, Eric talks to Attest CEO and Co-Founder, Jeremy King, about how data leads to better, smarter business decisions with no guesswork. He argues that with the right data, business leaders and marketers are able to know precisely when certain risks are justified and when they’re not, and they are able to understand their target audience, not just their current customer base.

Coming from a background in both science (as an undergraduate) and business (at Harvard Business School, no less), Jeremy approaches business problems in novel ways, recalling cases from both business school and the natural world to gain new perspectives on seemingly unsolvable issues. Rather than operate on intuition and our unspoken but ever-present biases, Jeremy insists that businesses should operate like scientists in a world where data is king and bias is a crime. This conversation will undoubtedly inspire you to see the ways in which data can help you make better decisions.

To get in touch with Jeremy, find him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremykingjk/

And to learn more about Reach 2 Academy Trust, visit https://www.reach2.org/ 

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Today's episode was produced by Leanne Kilroy and hosted by Eric Fulwiler.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter.

Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler.

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you. 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Raja Rajamannar is a true giant in the field of marketing. President of the World Federation of Advertising and CMO of Mastercard since 2013, Raja argues that there is no such thing as brand loyalty. Raja warns marketers not to mistake consumers liking your brand for consumer loyalty to it. What marketers confuse for brand loyalty is merely brand stickiness. Marketers need to understand the true drivers for customer choices in order to leverage them and encourage stickiness.

Raja shares his advice for marketers just getting started building their careers. The most important thing is trying to stay ahead of the curve - grounded in commercial realities. The second thing is to have formal internal and external mentors. Third thing is networking, both internally and externally. All of this is facilitated by a strong work ethic, dependability and know-how.

If he could start over from the beginning, Raja would spend a lot more time learning about technology and consulting, where marketers gain exposure to multiple industries at once and thus huge amounts of learning. 

Raja’s advice for marketers: 

1. Learn: Dedicate time and effort to learning and staying on top of things around them
2. Broaden: you should have multi-industry experiences
3. Broaden: If you’re in the US, leave! Don’t restrict yourself to your surroundings.
4. Broaden: Don’t stay put  in marketing. Stints in sales, finance, technology, data will help you understand your role. You have to be a general manager with deep marketing expertise.

To learn more about Raja’s industry-shaping ideas, check out in his latest book, Quantum Marketing. 

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Today's episode was produced by Leanne Kilroy and hosted by Eric Fulwiler. 

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter. 

Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler.

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you. 

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.