Smartphone Killed the DSLR

When thinking about the fate of the camera business to frame my conversation with Matt Sweetwood, President of Unique Photo, my mind jumped to the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" thinking it should be rewritten to say "Smartphone Killed The DSLR." This led to a YouTube search which landed me on the very cool video below. What I like about the...

CMO Insights: Innovative Marketing

The job of the detective is to not simply to take the facts as they appear but instead to dig for hidden clues and ultimately reassemble these into a cohesive fact-based narrative of what actually happened.  With this in mind, I would propose that Mayur Gupta, the Global Head of Marketing Technology and Innovation at consumer goods giant Kimberly-Clark, is the Sherlock...

CMO Insights: Customer Satisfaction

A conversation with Bob Kraut, CMO of Papa John's, is a wonderful reminder that despite all the new communication channels and the potentially transformative power of big data, successful marketing can still be boiled down to a few simple truths: product quality matters, customer satisfaction is bellwether metric, employees are a critical part of the brand experience, get your message right and then,...

CMO Insights: Content Marketing

Creating relevant content has quickly become one of the most effective ways to engage with an audience. But that's just part of the story since content marketing in isolation rarely moves the needle.  Today's CMO needs to being able to understand how to pull all of the available marketing levers working to get the mix just right for his/her brand....

CMO Insights: Corporate Social Responsibility

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I really truly want to believe that companies that are driven by a purpose that includes the betterment of the world will outperform those that simply want to make a profit.  As the theory goes, a clear mission translates to a more...

Why CMOs Should FLAIC Out on Their Personal Brands

Whether you call it Cobbler’s Children Syndrome or just basic neglect, talk to a cross-section of CMOs and you’ll discover a startling anomaly—though they dedicate their careers to building brands, very few have made time to take care of their own personal brands. This oversight leaves many a senior executive poorly positioned - especially when they become suddenly unemployed around...

Niche Social Networks

Gerry Regan, Co-Founder & Executive Producer of  The Wild Geese, was kind enough to not only join a panel on social media for Duke Alums earlier this summer but also to recap some of his observations in the Q+A below.  As you will soon discover Gerry brings a world of experience to his latest venture, a relatively new peer to...

Social Media and Content Marketing

Every once in a while one's past and present collide in fun and unexpected ways.  Such was the case when several Duke alums gathered for a conversation on social media in front of a crowd of about 150 fellow Dukies.  With the ambitious title, “Like it Or Not: The Pervasive Influence of Social Media,” representatives from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, The Wild...

CMO Insights: Social Media Innovation

As CMO of the Grammys (officially titled National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences),  it would seem that Evan Greene doesn’t have to go out on a limb to create engaging content. Most fans are already engaged, eagerly awaiting the next photo or tweet about their favorite music artist. But he and his team maintain that the biggest contributor to...

CMO Insights: Marketing the Lifestyle

Every once in a while I meet someone whose job sounds like a lot more fun than mine.  After interviewing Chris Brull, Head of Marketing at Kawasaki Motors, I definitely had pangs of jealously.  I mean who wouldn't want to ride bikes, ATVs and Jet Skis all in the name of customer and product research?  And then there's the fact that...