Many associate marketing with innovation, but it is also about anticipating what’s next.  If anyone can look around corners as a strategic and transformational leader focused on driving growth, it’s Charlie Chappell of The Hershey Company. 

Few people have held such a diverse range of marketing roles—from product development at Kimberly-Clark to brand management and marketing at P&G to senior roles at Hershey that span Global Marketing Excellence, Media Leadership, and now Vice President of Innovation and R&D.  

Today, we examine the qualities that make a future-driven marketing leader, particularly in an era of constant change. And what does that mean for brand innovation?

Not all visionaries are people of action.  Amy Williams is both.  

She recognized the need to redesign online advertising, making annoying internet ads a force for good.  In 2016, she co-founded Good-Loop as a simple and profitable way for major brands to do good through their advertising.

So far, her Good Formats have raised over $10 million for good causes globally.  Today, we’ll discuss how she accomplished it.

Mike Nichols’ career has been at the intersection of business, sports, and philanthropy—an inspiring but not typical combination. As Chief of Sponsorship and Activation at Group 1001, an Indiana-based financial and insurance collective that includes brands like Gainbridge®, Delaware Life, and Clear Spring, he “brings to life” the group's values with partnerships that build community through education and sports. 

“Parity Week by Gainbridge®: Investing in the Future of Women’s Sports” is one example of collaboration between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including Gainbridge®, Parity, and the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF®).  At the event in November 2024, $150,000 in grants were awarded to 21 deserving organizations and athletes that support girls and women through sports and/or education.

Throughout his career, Manos Spanos has been consistently motivated by the intersection of marketing, innovation and technology—whether working for large multinationals or startups.   Now, as the Chief Commercial Officer of Sunny Sky Products, a leading producer of beverage solutions, he talks about turning bold ideas into realities while offering his perspective on the potential of AI, purposeful branding, and rising above the clutter.

According to Kate Price, “High-performance marketing means integrating the drivers of brand and demand – long-term customer perceptions and short-term sales.  

Kate, a partner at Prophet's New York office specializing in marketing transformation, shared findings from a recent report by the consultancy, titled Brand & Demand: A Relationship Guide (to Marketing’s Great Love Story).  

The study, based on a survey of over 300 marketing leaders in North America, demonstrated that companies outperforming their competitors are three times more likely to integrate brand building with performance marketing.   In our discussion, we examine the strategies employed by these top-performing companies and identify what distinguishes them from those lagging behind.

TRENDSETTERS:  Parity Reveals a “Silver Lining” for Brands in Support of Women Athletes Parity, the sports marketing and sponsorship platform that’s revolutionizing the financial model for women athletes and creating impactful opportunities for brands, released some new research quantifying the economics of being a woman athlete. Leela Srinivasan, Parity’s CEO, discusses some key takeaways from the organization’s “Beyond the Game” study and outlines a “silver lining” for brands that can also make a “very meaningful” or “life-changing” difference to the athletes themselves.

Ask Marla Kaplowitz about her outlook for the agency business in 2025, and she’ll begin by reminding you that ad agencies operate in a constantly evolving environment.  In fact, they often do their best work and deliver their greatest value during periods of significant change. She does have several critical items on her New Year agenda. First among them is an agency “compensation reset” that goes beyond the standard Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) model.   This month also marked a redesigned 4As website with new features and an updated logo.

Bob Liodice, the ANA's chief executive officer, is bullish on AI. Not only has the term been chosen three times as the "Marketing Word of the Year" through voting by the ANA membership, but he believes that GenAI has the capability to help his members become better marketers. 

"AI," he says, "will change the entire productivity scale. Marketers are learning rapidly that our work can be done much faster, more easily, and more productively. ...The beauty of AI is that it is a tool that not only promises something but also delivers quite a bit. We have seen data that suggests the overall increment in productivity is nearing 10% in the two years that GenAI has been in the market."

Brian Wieser is one of the few people who can outline a career with such roles as investment banker, equity research analyst, long-time agency executive, and developer of two of the global advertising industry's most widely relied upon data sets.  His firm, Madison and Wall, operates at the intersection of how trends in media spending and advertising budgets affect marketers and investors.   He’s an ideal person to discuss the pros and cons of the announced Omnicom—Interpublic (IPG) merger and the industry outlook for 2025.

Ask Ruth Bernstein about her concept of Brand Beacons, and she’ll tell you they set the next standards in business.  While that may sound like a monumental task or an extraordinary description of a brand’s potential, after a 30-minute conversation, I was convinced about the power of beacon status.   Ruth Bernstein is the CEO and Co-Founder of Yard NYC, an independent creative company that helps inspire cultural and emotional connections to brands.  She proves that brands can transform companies, communities, and causes—and that’s just a start.   
Today, we discuss some of her foundational beliefs and some of the brands that achieve the highest aspirations of beacon status.