Fourteen years ago, Simon Mulcahy startled his boss by turning down a promotion. He then proceeded to a pub ("This is what you do in England," he said) and was later joined by his wife to ponder their future. Together they reviewed an issue of The Economist that listed the best places to work and live in the world and, remarkably, they...

When you spy the occasional B2B ad campaign that is both surprising and relevant, veterans of the trade can't help but wonder, "Why wasn't that new 'organ' rejected by the corporate body?" To answer this question, it helps to spend time with the top marketing surgeon (aka CMO). In the interview below, Lauren Flaherty, CMO at CA Technologies, helps dissect the...

It's inevitable that a new chief marketing officer will launch a new campaign within 18-months of taking the marketing helm. In many cases, this new work will be no more effective than previous messages, simply because it's like a new coat of paint on a rickety old house. However, when the new campaign is combined with an innovative product or...

Maybe it was his years on the agency side but Burt Rosen, chief marketing officer of HealthSparq, a health care software solutions provider, just refuses to speak health care. Describing the industry as an "echo chamber" that has "little to no idea how to talk to people," Rosen is a man on mission, looking to reshape not just the vocabulary...

One of the most bizarre yet pervasive quirks of the business world is that everyone thinks they are a qualified marketer. The collective rationale is that because they consume products like other humans, their opinions must be valid. Well folks, I've witnessed a rocket launch but that doesn't make me a NASA scientist. Marketing is an increasingly sophisticated discipline requiring...

One might think that a conversation with Chandar Pattabhiram, chief marketing officer of Marketo, would eventually lead to the aspirational, grandiose vision of someone who believes automation is the future of marketing. While Pattabhiram certainly does feel this way, he also touts the power of a more human side of marketing, in the form of storytelling. Recently, Pattabhiram helped Marketo rebrand...