The CMO Podcast

Long before our guest this week became the CMO of Levi’s, he was rocking the brand as a kid, breakdancing with his brother in shell-toe Adidas and Levi’s denim. Fast forward a few decades, and he’s now leading one of the most admired brands in the world. This week Jim welcomes Kenny Mitchell, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of the Levi’s brand at Levi Strauss & Co. The legacy brand was founded...

If the role of a CMO is to make a brand interesting, why does so much marketing today feel anything but? This week Jim sits down with Nick Law, Creative Strategy & Experience Lead of Accenture Song, the $20 billion creative services division of Accenture, to explore what’s gone wrong in modern marketing, and what leaders need to do to fix it. In 2019,  Accenture Song (then called Accentur...

If you think the biggest growth opportunity in marketing is Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen Alpha, this episode may change your mind. We kick off a special monthly series focused on how marketers approach different generations, starting with Gen X and Baby Boomers. To explore the 50+ audience, Jim welcomes Brent Rivard, CEO and co-founder of Geezer Creative, an agency built around one bold premise: the...

More and more CMOs are ascending to the CEO role. Starbucks, Hinge, Revlon, Avon, and Brinker International are all companies that have elevated former CMOs to CEO. Joining Jim this week is a guest who joins that group. Diana Haussling is the Chief Executive Officer of hello, the bold, happy, design-forward oral care brand. Founded in 2012 by Craig Dubitsky with the goal of being a “friendly” alte...

What does it take to build a brand that cuts through the noise in a world where most people are trying to ignore you? Jim’s guest this week is Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Chief Marketing Officer at DoorDash, who has spent the last seven years helping transform the company from a restaurant delivery app into a multi-category commerce platform with over $14 billion in revenue and more than 3.2 billion orde...

If culture moves at the speed of TikTok, then today’s CMO has to move just as fast.  This week, Jim is joined by Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing and Commercial Partnerships at TikTok. Since launching in the U.S. in 2018, TikTok has reshaped culture, content, and marketing. And its mission, to inspire creativity and bring joy, has fueled extraordinary growth, even as the com...

To kick off Women’s History Month, Jim welcomes Lara Balazs, the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Global Marketing at Adobe. A company at the center of creativity, transformation and technology. Founded in 1982, Adobe is a software company that is famous for its creativity, innovation, and strong employee and customer-centric culture. Their purpose is to change the world through person...

What does it take to revitalize a 150-year-old company? Jim’s guest this week, Conny Kalcher, has done it twice. First at LEGO during its historic turnaround, and now at Zurich Insurance as their Group Chief Customer Officer, where she’s proving that empathy is not a soft skill but a strategic advantage.  Conny spent 33 years at LEGO, where she helped navigate one of the most dramatic brand t...

This week we return with one of our most anticipated episodes of the year…the 8th annual Super Bowl Advertiser Roundtable. As is tradition, Jim is joined by Gary Vaynerchuk to welcome a collection of marketing leaders behind this year’s most talked-about Super Bowl campaigns.  Our Featured Guests are… Ahmed “Meddy” Iqbal, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Cadillac F1 Team Gail Horwood, the C...

We’re living through one of the biggest shifts in the internet since it began: a move from building content for people to building content for machines, on behalf of people. On this week’s episode, Jim Stengel is joined by James Cadwallader , Co-Founder and CEO of Profound , and Daniel Shin Un Kang , Head of Organic and Agentic Search at Expedia , for a thoughtful, practical conversation about AI...

In the first month of 2026, many leaders are recommitting to being more consumer-centric and more human — inside their organizations and in the market. This episode of The CMO Podcast is designed to help you do exactly that. Jim Stengel hosts a roundtable discussion around the book The Consumer Insights Revolution: Transforming Market Research for Competitive Advantage , which chronicles PepsiCo’s...

With the NFL season in full swing and the Super Bowl just weeks away, Jim sits down with Tim Ellis , Chief Marketing Officer of the National Football League, for a timely conversation about leading one of the most powerful brands in the world.  Recorded live at the ANA Masters of Marketing in Orlando , this episode explores how the NFL continues to evolve beyond the game itself into a cultura...

The auto industry is changing faster than ever, yet cars remain deeply personal, symbols of freedom, connection, and possibility. Few companies embody that spirit like General Motors, a brand that has shaped culture for more than a century and is now leading the charge toward an electric and connected future. Jim’s guest this week is Norm de Greve , Chief Growth Officer of General Motors. GM is, o...

At CES 2026, the conversation around AI often swings between hype and fear — but for marketers the real question is far more grounded: How do you scale intelligence, creativity, and performance without losing the human connection that brands are built on? In this bonus episode of The CMO Podcast, recorded live on the C Space stage at CES, Jim sits down with Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO of Hav...

When you think about the technology that connects our world—the phones in our hands, the cars we drive, the networks powering everything around us—there’s a good chance Qualcomm is behind it. Jim's guest this week is Don McGuire , Global Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Communications Officer of Qualcomm. Since becoming CMO in 2021, Don has helped transform Qualcomm’s narrative, elevating the com...

Some leaders talk about the power of creativity, and a select few leaders build a career proving it. Jim's guest this week is one of those. Andrew Robertson is the long-time leader of BBDO Worldwide, one of the most awarded and effective creative advertising  networks in the world. He served as President and CEO from 2004 to 2024 before stepping into his current role as Chairman. During his t...

Very few brands have reinvented themselves as successfully, or as culturally, as Coach. On this week's episode, Jim sits down with Joon Silverstein, Chief Marketing Officer of Coach, to unpack the bold transformation behind one of fashion’s most compelling modern growth stories.  Coach is part of Tapestry, Inc., the New York–based global house of iconic accessory and lifestyle brands that als...

Few brands define connection quite like AT&T—not just through technology, but through trust. And trust is not a word historically associated with telecom companies. Jim’s guest this week is at the center of AT&T’s transformation: Kellyn Smith Kenny, the company’s first-ever Chief Marketing & Growth Officer. Since 2020, Kellyn has helped usher in what she calls the “Accountability Era,”...

Audio has a magic all its own. The power to connect deeply, inspire emotion, and build lasting trust.  In this week's episode, Jim Stengel sits down with Jenny Nelson , Chief Marketing Officer of Audacy , one of the nation’s leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment companies. Founded in 1968 (then known as Entercom Communications Corporation) and rebranded as Audacy, Inc. in 202...

From tennis rackets to Beyoncé, Microsoft to Apple…brand legends David Aaker and Marcus Collins have seen it all, and they’re here to close out our series with a masterclass on brand-led leadership. In the final episode of this season of The Brand Builder’s Playbook , hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker reflect on the journey through our previous seven episodes before welcoming two of the biggest vo...

When you think about brands that have truly reshaped an entire category, few have done it as quickly or as effectively as Chipotle Mexican Grill, a brand that turned fast food into fast casual, and purpose into a powerful growth engine. Jim’s guest this week is Chris Brandt , the President and Chief Brand Officer of Chipotle and one of the most respected marketers in the industry. Since joining th...

Brand building or performance? TV or TikTok? Data or gut? Every marketer wrestles with how to spend smarter, not just more. In the seventh episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook , hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, along with guest co-host Kate Lamberton, dig into the art and science of the marketing mix. They explore how brands can cut waste, make every dollar work harder, and balance the short-...

When you think of some of America’s most recognizable household brands: Brawny, Angel Soft, Dixie, Quilted Northern…there’s one company behind them all: Georgia Pacific.
And at the helm of marketing for that incredible portfolio is Jim's guest this week, Laura Knebusch, the Senior Vice President of CPG Marketing and Customer Experience.   Laura is a seasoned marketing leader and transfor...

What do LEGO, Megan Thee Stallion, and a Ford Mustang have in common? They’re all proof that the right partnership can supercharge a brand. In the sixth episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook , hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, joined by guest co-host Lindsey Wehking, explore why not all partnerships deliver equal value…some enhance brand equity, while others can dilute it. This week’s guest is...

If you are Canadian, and you hear the words Tim Hortons, you conjure up a wide and deep range of emotions. Few brands inspire the kind of passion that Tim Hortons does in Canada. With nearly 6,000 restaurants in 22 countries, the 60-year-old brand continues to grow like a startup while holding a special place in Canadian culture. In this week's episode of The CMO Podcast , Jim sits down with Hope...