Scratch: CMO Interviews

Scratch: CMO Interviews

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Scratch: CMO Interviews episodes

  • How Satisfy Built The Most Adored Brand In Running

    Instead of following trends, Satisfy chooses to build a brand that’s different. Daniel said it best: “The easiest way to do something quite different is to not look at anything at all.”

    In a landscape where brands benchmark competitors and chase fleeting trends, Satisfy focuses on culture. They hire for it before skill, treat customers as guests, and think in decades rather than moments.

    This philosophy shines through in the Satisfy Pro Team. It’s not just a sponsorship roster, but a reflection of the brand’s commitment to process and discipline. 

    The key takeaway: Most brands chase relevance, but Satisfy builds consistency. They react to culture, while Satisfy hires for it. They aim for long-term impact, not short-term hype.

    This conversation is a masterclass in long-term brand strategy and the discipline of saying no.

    Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/CRUMwdDoj5o

    🖊️Mentioned in the show:

    • Satisfy Pro Team - https://satisfyrunning.com/pages/satisfy-pro-team

    -Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Daniel Groh of SATISFY in this episode

    Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

    Find Eric on LinkedIn

    Find Daniel on Linkedin

    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.

    45 min
  • Community beats influencers: How Grind Coffee became the UK's most popular coffee brand

    They dig into the mechanics of building a cult brand identity, exploring how Grind used its iconic pink aesthetic and London first attitude to create a lifestyle rather than just a caffeine hit. Stacey and Frankie explain the thinking behind the pivot into compostable pods, how they scaled their digital presence during global shifts in consumer behavior, and how Grind balances its physical cafe culture with a rapidly growing DTC business.

    The conversation also explores what this approach means for marketing a high growth challenger brand. Stacey and Frankie reflect on the importance of creative agility, how to build a community that advocates for you, and the challenges of staying authentic while scaling at pace. Whether it’s choosing the right collaborators or leaning into bold, minimalist design, they reveal what it takes to stay at the forefront of a crowded category.

    Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube: 🖊️Mentioned in the show:

    • Amp By Rival 
    • The Rival 50: The Best Challenger Brands of 2025 
    • The Rival 50: Brands to Watch for 2026
    • Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Stacey Britt Fitzgerald and Frankie Cook of Grind Coffee in this episode

      FFind Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn. 

      Find Eric on LinkedIn

      Find Stacey  on LinkedIn

      Find Frankie on LinkedIn

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

      Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/CtFJ-DU7UR0

      Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by XXXXX of XXXXX in this episode

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

      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.

      If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗  https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

      54 min
    • How Brompton Built One of the Biggest Brands In Cycling

      In this episode of Scratch, Eric sits down with Chris Willingham, Chief Marketing Officer at Brompton Bicycle, to discuss the brand strategy behind Brompton’s global expansion. Chris shares how Brompton has grown from a distinctly 'British brand' into a global challenger across markets like China, Japan, the US, and Europe, and why international growth requires a clear point of view on what the brand stands for everywhere, not just what it sells.

      They dig into how Brompton built a global brand platform designed to scale, including how the team grounded its positioning in both product truth and human truth. Chris explains the thinking behind Living Life Unfolded, why the brand shifted focus from the mechanics of folding to the experience that unfolds once you ride, and how Brompton balances global consistency with the flexibility needed to resonate locally. He also shares how the brand is being rolled out in phases, prioritising focus and internal alignment over big-budget launches.

      The conversation also explores what this approach means for marketing leadership. Chris reflects on choosing agency partners that fit a challenger brand, the importance of distinctiveness and creative bravery in crowded categories, and how community and culture play a role in global relevance.

      Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2WLVQ_mnJaM   

      🖊️Mentioned in the show:

      • Favorite challenger brand: On
      • Amp By Rival 
      • The Rival 50: The Best Challenger Brands of 2025 
      • Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Chris Willingham of Brompton Bicycle in this episode

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

        Find Eric on LinkedIn

        Find Chris on LinkedIn.

        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.

        48 min
      • Inside Webflow’s Bet on an AI-Native Web and What That Means For CMOs

        In this episode of Scratch, Eric sits down with Adrian Rosenkranz, Chief Revenue Officer at Webflow, to explore how AI is fundamentally changing the way brands grow, compete and get discovered. As large language models reshape how people find and evaluate products, Adrian argues that marketing is shifting from a game of clicks and traffic to a game of relevance and answers, where your website, content and brand have to work for both humans and machines at the same time. We’re effectively marketing to bots at this point! 

        They dig into what this means in practice for CMOs, from how SEO and content strategies need to evolve, to why many AI initiatives stall inside large organisations. If you’re currently trying to bring AI to your marketing team (Who isn’t?) then Adrian has some practical guidance and perspectives to share to ensure that your AI initiatives actually deliver something valuable.  

        The conversation also goes beyond tools and tactics into leadership, creativity and culture. Adrian reflects on lessons from Salesforce, the importance of narrative and design thinking, and why creativity, taste and speed of adaptation are becoming the true sources of differentiation in an AI-native world. It’s a wide-ranging discussion about how marketing, growth and brand leadership need to evolve for the next era of the web.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube

            🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Favorite challenger brand: Ramp 
        • Best campaign: Duolingo 
        • Amp By Rival 
        • The Rival 50: The Best Challenger Brands of 2025 

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Adrian Rosenkranz of Webflow in this episode

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

        Find Eric on LinkedIn

        Find Adrian on LinkedIn.

        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.

        46 min
      • Rewriting The Sports Marketing Playbook: How Manors Is Becoming The Most Memorable Brand In Golf

        In this episode of Scratch, Viren sits down with Alex Ames, Marketing Director at Manors Golf, the challenger brand bringing new energy, creativity, and cultural relevance to a sport long seen as elitist and inaccessible. Manors believes golf is a game to be explored, not mastered, and they are reshaping the category one cinematic campaign at a time.

        Alex unpacks how Manors went from a small rebrand to a movement inspiring a new generation of golfers. He dives into the brand’s early struggles (“the Dark Ages”), how events helped them rediscover momentum, and how the team realised that attention—not product, was their true currency. He reveals the internal creative engine behind Manors’ iconic films, from Monday forensic reviews to Thursday idea punch-ups, and how viral thinking shapes every concept.

        The episode covers everything from the Reebok partnership (and why they avoid “brand soup”), to location-led campaigns, to how everyday golfers and celebrities ended up sharing the tee sheet at Manors events. For marketers, the message is clear: if you want to change a category, change the story people tell about it.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: YT Link

                  📚 Chapters:

        00:00 – Intro & Viren’s fanboy moment
        01:38 – Challenger brand shoutout: Satisfy Running
        03:03 – What Manors Golf actually does
        05:24 – Why golf needed a cultural refresh
        07:42 – Golf as exploration: the foundation of Manors’ brand
        14:31 – How insights were reframed for a new audience
        15:47 – How social media opened golf to younger players
        16:36 – Why storytelling became foundational to Manors
        18:55 – The “Dark Ages” & the moment everything shifted
        21:22 – Why events matter for brand building
        22:23 – Their unique influencer strategy (no follower-chasing)
        24:55 – The community-first mindset
        26:03 – The unseen advantage of having a strong brand
        30:23 – How Manors built its content machine
        32:36 – Inside the Monday forensic review & Thursday punch-up
        34:51 – How virality informs campaign execution
        39:48 – Hook-first creative thinking
        41:40 – “Blow up the golf cart”: Reebok collaboration
        55:32 – Most underrated channel for challenger brands
        58:08 – Closing thoughts

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Rival 50 - The Top Challenger Brands of 2025 - Rival's brand index with Imperial College London 
        • Future of the CMO Documentary - A documentary for CMOs about the future of the role featuring the CMO of Mastercard, Shell, Dr. Scholl’s and many more.
        • Satisfy Running – Favorite challenger brand reference for how to build culture around a sport:
        • Random Golf Club (Erik Anders Lang) – Referenced as one of the early lifestyle-led golf collectives before Manors’ rise
        • Arc’teryx – A key reference point for Manors’ positioning: “like Arc’teryx for golf.”
        • The North Face – Another anchor brand referenced to explain Manors’ performance-meets-lifestyle functionality.
        • Ryder Cup – Mentioned as the context for one of Manors’ biggest collection launches and a cultural moment in golf.
        • Golfers Journal – Inspiration for golf as exploration and the storytelling aesthetic Manners tapped into
        • Reebok x Manors “No Thanks, I’ll Walk” Collaboration: Campaign page.
        • Max Fosh (YouTuber) – Inspiration for using hook-first creative thinking during campaign development
        • Notion – The internal system powering Manors’ creative pipeline, punch-ups, and idea tracking.

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. This Scratch episode is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Alex Ames, Marketing Director at Manors Golf.

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

        Find Viren on LinkedIn

        Find Alex on LinkedIn.

        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.

        1 hr 4 min
      • Roots before Reach: YETI's Playbook To Building an Iconic Brand

        In this episode, Bill Neff, Head of Marketing at YETI, breaks down how the legendary cooler company became a culture-defining outdoor brand without relying on massive media budgets. From his Under Armour “locker room” days to leading one of the world’s most beloved challenger brands, Bill shares the operating system behind YETI’s rise, which is one built on community intimacy, real relationships, and equipment designed to last forever.

        And this year, YETI made The Rival 50, our index of the world’s top challenger brands redefining growth, a recognition that reflects the consistency, courage, and craft behind their approach.

        One key takeaway: Roots before reach. Bill explains why YETI invests four times more in community than brand, how third-party advocacy beats first-party hype, and why focusing on the micro-cultures around hunting, fishing, culinary, and outdoor craft fuels more growth than broad awareness ever could. If you’re building a premium brand or trying to scale without outspending your category, this conversation is your blueprint.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube ▶️: HERE

                  📚 Chapters:

        • (00:00:00) - Intro 🎙️
        • 05:00 Challenger brand pick: Turtlebox  🏆
        • 06:30 What YETI is today
        • 09:00 Listening that guides expansion (cast iron) 📊
        • 12:00 Depth via community
        • 14:00 Under Armour lessons: “locker room talk”
        • 16:30 Premium pricing & third-party advocacy  💵
        • 20:00 Getting started with advocacy 🤝
        • 23:00 People stories > product dumps
        • 28:00 Community-first team structure (4x brand)
        • 31:00 Mass brand without mass media
        • 34:00 Wrap up

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • ANA Global Day of Learning (Association of National Advertisers)
        • Turtlebox, favorite challenger brand
        • Under Armour, Bill’s previous work experience
        • Sitka Gear, Bill’s previous work experience
        • Duck Man (YETI campaign)
        • Drake Magazine (endemic example)

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Bill Neff, Head of Marketing at YETI, in this episode

        This episode was recorded at the ANA’s global day of learning. 

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

        Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler. 

        Find Bill on LinkedIn.

        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.

        35 min
      • From Cornwall to the World: How Finisterre’s community marketing strategy built a global brand

        In this episode of Scratch, Eric chats with Bronwen Foster-Butler, CMO of Finisterre, the cold-water surf brand from Cornwall proving that purpose and performance can coexist. Bronwen shares how community became Finisterre’s real growth engine, from “creating through community, not for it,” to rethinking top-of-funnel marketing and focusing on relationships over reach. She shows how listening to your customers can lower CAC, build loyalty, and create true advocates.

        Finisterre began with a simple insight: the surf industry’s glossy, tropical image that didn’t reflect the real, rugged world of UK surfers. Today, it’s a B Corp and leading challenger brand proving that you can grow profitably without losing your soul.

        And finally, she dives into how a strong sense of place in Cornwall’s coastline and the shipping forecast origins of the Finisterre name and thus gives the brand its distinct voice. Ultimately, the takeaway for marketers is clear: scaling through a niche isn’t limiting but it is the future. Staying true to who you are as a brand, and give a platform to your community to carry the story forward.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: HERE

                  📚 Chapters:

        • 00:00 – Devon vs Cornwall (and scones)
        • 04:00 – Challenger brand spotlight: Snow Peak
        • 07:36 – What is Finisterre?
        • 08:09 – The founder’s cold-water surf epiphany
        • 10:04 – Lessons from Lululemon’s turnaround
        • 12:44 – Rebuilding trust through community
        • 13:35 – “Create through community, not for community”
        • 21:09 – Ocean meets mountain: Kendal Film Festival
        • 23:50 – CAC, CLTV & data on community ROI
        • 28:49 – Cornwall, heritage, and the Shipping Forecast
        • 31:50 – Scaling through a niche
        • 37:00 – Doing more with less: top-of-funnel investment
        • 39:00 – Creative consistency and campaign focus
        • 41:33 – Alignment, enrollment, and growth metrics
        • 43:20 - Lightning Round ⚡

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Lululemon – Community-led brand lessons
        • Burberry – Global brand transformation
        • Snow Peak – Favorite Challenger Brand
        • Kendal Mountain Festival – Ocean & Seas collaboration
        • e.l.f. Cosmetics – “Too Many Dicks” campaign reference
        • BBC Shipping Forecast – The origin of the Finisterre name

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Bronwen Foster-Butler, CMO of Finisterre in this episode.

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

        Find Eric on LinkedIn and tweet him @efulwiler. 

        Find Bronwyn on LinkedIn.

        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.

        48 min
      • Inside Salesforce’s Marketing Machine: CMO Ariel Kelman on AI, Data, and the Future of Marketing

        In this episode of Scratch, Ariel Kelman, President & CMO of Salesforce, shows how a category leader can still think like a challenger through the power of education, not persuasion. Education beats persuasion when you make community the flywheel: by pairing product truth with peer proof through events like Dreamforce, Trailhead, and forums, so customers learn how to win with your product (not just why it’s great). That mindset turns advocacy into momentum.

        But teaching only lands if the tech actually works in the flow of “work”, so Ariel’s rule is being able to put data before demos. He emphasizes the need to harmonize and govern customer data in Data Cloud so AI agents have context, then deploy them where they matter. For example, a product Q&A agent spun up in weeks drove 700k+ customer chats, and their website/service agents have resolved 1.6M cases because they understand real customer history, permissions, and next best actions.

        Finally, as a brand, you need to be Customer Zero and balance quick wins with long bets. Dogfood your offerings first to iterate fast and convert internal proofs into external playbooks, then scale what works. 

        Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube ▶️: https://youtu.be/92Rfv19ypQE

                  📚 Chapters:

        • 00:00 – Intro & Ariel’s challenger lens  🎙️
        • 05:35 – Agentforce: AI agents in the flow of work 🤖
        • 10:40 – Data Cloud: the prerequisite for accurate AI ☁️
        • 12:56– Momentum: quick wins while building the platform 🚀
        • 13:23 – “Infinite SDR capacity” & rethinking lead flow  🔁
        • 14:39 – Autonomous vs. augmenting agents (Finnair)  🤝
        • 26:54 – Customer Zero: dogfooding at scale 🐶
        • 27:47 – Dreamforce: education as strategy 🎪
        • 36:10 – Community as the marketing flywheel 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
        • 41:35 – Salesforce’s AI point of difference (trust + data) 🛡️
        • 45:21 – Cutting through AI noise with use-case education 📚

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Challenger brand mentioned: Ramp – spend management platform with software-defined controls 
        • Salesforce Agentforce – AI agents embedded in Salesforce workflows
        • Data Cloud – Salesforce’s customer data platform (CDP) 
        • Dreamforce – Salesforce’s flagship community conference
        • Finnair – Finland’s largest airline (Agentforce case mentioned)
        • Akamai – content delivery network (CDN) pioneer
        • Amazon/AWS – cloud infrastructure & services
        • Siebel – Oracle’s legacy on-prem CRM suite
        • Snowflake – cloud data platform & data warehouse
        • Apple – hardware, software & services (self-cannibalization mindset reference)

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Ariel Kelman, President & CMO of Salesforce, in this episode.

        Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com & LinkedIn

        Find Eric on LinkedIn

        Find Ariel on LinkedIn. 

        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.

        48 min
      • Ocean Bottle’s Secret to Scaling Impact With 2 Billion Plastic Bottles

        In this episode of Scratch, Eric chats with Will Pearson, Co-Founder of Ocean Bottle, the brand turning reusable bottles into vehicles for global impact. One of the biggest takeaways from Will’s story is how Ocean Bottle has made impact completely non-negotiable in its business model; every purchase is tied directly to measurable change. Rather than chasing the traditional direct-to-consumer routes, the brand leaned into B2B partnerships as its true growth engine, scaling faster through collaborations like Ed Sheeran’s tour than through paid ads. 

        Will also highlights that in a purpose-driven category, the goal isn’t to outcompete others but to grow the category as a whole. Ocean Bottle’s marketing reflects this mindset, relying on storytelling backed by proof, from the Change Collective initiative to transparent reporting on every kilo of plastic collected. Ultimately, the key learning for marketers is clear: purpose isn’t dead; it is evolving. And partnerships are how purpose-led brands grow.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: [https://youtu.be/OQrmbdzNkg8]

        📚 Chapters:

        • 00:00 – Intro & Will’s background
        • 03:25 – Challenger brand shoutout: Freaks of Nature
        • 04:13 – Ocean Bottle’s mission & impact
        • 05:11 – Balancing purpose and profit
        • 07:22 – Competition (and why it doesn’t matter)
        • 11:12 - Mobilising community for impact
        • 12:48 – Launching B+ for leading B Corp brands
        • 19:09 – Marketing evolution: from DTC to partnerships
        • 22.05 – B2B growth channel (Ed Sheeran & others)
        • 23:25 – Lessons learned from 6 years of marketing
        • 25:13 – The next stage: scaling from 1M to 10M bottles
        • 26:48 – Differentiating through product innovation
        • 28:25 – Ocean Bottle’s culture of innovation
        • 31:47 – Lightning round (pizza, campaigns, pet peeves)

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Freaks of Nature – reef-safe sunscreen brand co-founded by Kelly Slater
        • The North Face – Ocean Bottle brand partnership
        • Ed Sheeran – Ocean Bottle bottles featured on his tour
        • Nike - purpose-led brand reference
        • Patagonia – purpose-led brand reference

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Will Pearson, Co-Founder of Ocean Bottle, in this episode.

        Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com & LinkedIn

        Find Eric on LinkedIn

        Find Will on LinkedIn. 

        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.

        38 min
      • How Barclays Adopts a Challenger Mindset to Innovate a 300-Year-Old Brand

        In this episode of Scratch, Eric chats with Lili, the Chief Marketing & Experience Officer of Barclays US Consumer Bank, about how she brought a challenger mindset from the hospitality and entertainment industry into one of the biggest banking players in the world. Lili shares how her experience at MGM shaped her approach to customer experience, and how she’s transformed Barclays to be more customer-centric, putting real people at the heart of every journey. Innovation at Barclays doesn’t start with technology; it starts with people: Lili introduced live client call listening for executives and designed accountable customer journeys to keep the brand ahead in a fast-changing industry

        The conversation also explores the delicate balance between digital efficiency and maintaining the human touch, why curiosity is now an essential skill for marketers, and the ways CMOs can leverage insights from outside their own category. Packed with practical advice and real-world examples, this episode is a must-watch for anyone looking to drive customer-focused growth and bring humanity back into marketing.

        Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️:  https://youtu.be/MgNhEchujRY

        📚 Chapters:

        • (00:00:00) – Intro 🎙️
        • (00:02:27) – Favorite Challenger-brand 🥤
        • (00:06:04) – Barclays US brand overview 🏦
        • (00:07:56) – Lili’s journey from Hospitality to Banking  🎰
        • (00:16:41) – “Make It Better” and mindset shifts 🚀
        • (00:18:43) – Customer journeys and accountability 🔑
        • (00:22:56) – Restoring humanity in marketing 🤝
        • (00:27:11) – Balancing AI efficiency with loyalty 🤖❤️
        • (00:33:11) – Lightning Round ⚡

        🖊️Mentioned in the show:

        • Poppi Soda
        • Tony’s Chocolonely – Scratch
        • Nationwide (UK) report - Customer journey organizational model

        Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Lili Tomovich, the Chief Marketing & Experience Officer of Barclays US, in this episode.

        Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com & LinkedIn

        Find Eric on LinkedIn

        Find Lili on LinkedIn

        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.

        43 min

      About Scratch: CMO Interviews

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      Why do some businesses grow faster than others? What do the marketers leading them do differently? How can we learn from them to grow our own businesses and careers?