CMO Confidential

A CMO Confidential Interview with Greg Creed, Former CEO of Yum! Brands. Greg also served as CEO and CMO of Taco Bell, where he championed the "Think Outside the Bun" campaign. Greg discusses why executives are becoming less courageous, why brands are losing their distinctiveness, and why "sales overnight, brand over time" is the CMO's real job. Key topics include: - Why the brand and the people a...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. Dan McCarthy, marketing professor at the University of Maryland. Dan discusses how customer lifetime value and customer-based corporate valuation connect marketing to the CFO and Wall Street. He explores why paid delivery subscriptions such as DashPass and Instacart+ can create tension between company profits and consumer savings, why positive average savings...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Tim Huelskamp, CEO and Co-Founder of 1440, a news and knowledge platform. Tim shares his thoughts on the idea that "just because all knowledge is available, doesn't mean all questions have been asked" and why the intersection of User Generated Content (UGC) and AI has created an opportunity to engage "knowledge obsessed consumers" in the middle of the marketing fu...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of Business. Pete discusses the application of Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) to the business side of sports, the use of analytics to manage the fan base, and how baseball has gone from resisting technology to embracing things like dynamic pricing and facial recognition. Key topics include: - Why the Ge...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Kip Knight, the founder of CMO Coaches and operating partner at Thomvest Ventures, formerly the President of H&R Block Retail and CMO of Taco Bell. Kip details his belief that marketers shouldn't "silo themselves" in B2B or B2C, why marketing strategy always matters, and the case for B2B to spend more on marketing. Key topics include: - The importance of story...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Bob Liodice, the long-time CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). In Part 2, Bob shares thoughts on where marketing dollars are really going, the ANA's investigations into media transparency and waste, why brands still aren't valued as financial assets on balance sheets, and the growing pressures facing modern advertising agencies. Key topics includ...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Bob Liodice, the long-time CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Bob shares thoughts on the rapidly evolving marketing landscape, why AI won't necessarily translate to growth, the challenges of the CMO position, and the importance of lifelong learning and curiosity to successful careers. Key topics include: - Why you need to rip up your playbook ev...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot and author of the newly released book, "Loop: A New Growth Model for an AI-First World." Kipp discusses why the marketing funnel is no longer useful, his belief that AI has ushered in a new era where judgement and taste provide the biggest edge, and why "great marketing has to hurt." Key topics include: - The importance of mentions and...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Michael D'Esopo, CEO of Lippincott, formerly the President and Director of Brand Strategy. Michael shares research on more than 500 senior marketing leaders which highlights the pressures on CMOs to balance their focus between growth, AI, the customer experience, immediate results, and more. Key topics include: - The risk of having too much focus on short-term res...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Emily Frager, Chief Client Officer at FleishmanHillard, board member of USC Annenberg Center for PR, formerly CMO of Lennar Ventures. Em discusses why public relations has become a much more important business function, how AI has changed the game, and the need for speed in reputation management. Key topics include: - The shift from downstream reaction to upstream...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Aneesh Dhawan, the Co-Founder and CEO of Knit, an AI Native Research Firm. Aneesh shares toplines from Knit's AI Trust Survey of 150+ enterprise research leaders and details how the biggest fear has morphed from potential job loss to AI outputs without expert, human judgement. Key topics include: - The difference between data, insights and storytelling - Why resea...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Rishad Tobaccowala, author of "Rethinking Work," formerly the President of Starcom and the Publicis Chief Strategy & Growth Officer. Rishad discusses the rise of "alien intelligence" and why it is unstoppable and ungovernable, how the generational divide is getting worse, and his belief that many marketers have "outsourced marketing." Key topics include: - Why...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Kristin Wozniak, Chief Growth Officer and Data Officer at Cosmo5, formerly SVP Analytics and Strategy at Cossette Media. Kristin discusses why she believes many leaders have developed an unhealthy obsession with data, how "the need for certainty" stifles innovation, and Goodhart's law, which states "when a measure becomes a target, it's no longer a good measure."...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Maryam Banikarim, Chair of The Wall Street Journal CMO Council, Co-Founder of The Longest Table, and 5-time CMO. Maryam discusses how the industry is evolving, the continuing importance of data and storytelling, why many leaders are wondering "if they want the job," and how every CMO job is different. Key topics include: - Why so many people have a side hustle - H...

To celebrate our 175th episode, we sit down with Neal Mann, CEO and Co-Founder of NOAN (an AI-native fact layer business), formerly the Global Head of Transformation at Anomaly and News Corp journalist. Neal shares his thoughts on what it takes to create and manage AI agents, the importance of "structure," and how to combat "AI Slop."  Key topics include: - How onboarding an agent is similar...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. Ed Dobbles, Founder of Dobbles. AI and former VP of Analytics and Insights at Diageo, H&R Block, and SUPERVALU. Ed discusses the evolution of analytics from the Almanac to BI to Generative Analytics and explains his thinking on why great tools often don't get used.  Key topics include: - Why "Analytics is hard, but people are harder" - How generative...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Brent Rivard, co-founding Partner of Geezer Creative, previously CMO of Internova Travel and President of Mass Minority. Brent shares his thoughts on the tunnel vision, reliance on "safe" playbooks, and faulty KPIs that often prevent marketers from seeing the elephant in the room.  Key topics include: - Why you shouldn't confuse media with sales - The relentl...

A CMO Confidential Interview With Aarron Spinley, Director at the Field Bell Institute and Author of "The Customering Method." Aarron discusses his belief that customer management deserves its own discipline as part of marketing, that understanding customer needs is the foundation of sales, and why popular metrics can be misleading. Key topics include: - Why you should "learn the asset versus lear...

This week on CMO Confidential, we are revisiting one of our favorite conversations with Rob Ward from January of 2026. A CMO Confidential Interview with Rob Ward, co-founder and General Partner of Meritech Capital, a top Silicon Valley venture firm. Rob shares his take on what he calls a "super terrifying and exciting time" and provides perspective on AI receiving the most capital of any technolog...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Michael Treff, the CEO of Code and Theory. Michael shares his belief that the ambiguity in markets is here to stay, why traditional B2B playbooks aren't working like they used to, and why this is the "dawn of a new era for creativity." Key topics include: - Three key B2B questions companies are asking - The concepts of "stacking talent" and "forward-deployed teams...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Drew Pinto, EVP and Chief Revenue and Technology Officer of Marriott International. Drew discusses the concept that architecture and data should be viewed as a means to an end, methods for assessing legacy systems, and why tech is critical to customer experience. Key topics include:  - Why he believes in "built to change” - Ways to assess your data - Why mark...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. David Bray, Distinguished Fellow and Chair of the Accelerator with the Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council and bipartisan advisor on cyber, space, AI as well as countering terrorism, inauthentic information campaigns, and bioterrorism. David shares thoughts on why geopolitics have become so important so quickly, the universal breakdown in trust, how anxiety f...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Joe Gagliese, Co-Founder and CEO at Viral Nation, a full-service digital and social agency.  Joe discusses the concept of social as "the people's media," details why he believes "discovery begins with social" and outlines how brands might think about becoming "social centered."  Key topics include: Why social has become a prerequisite for certain categor...

A CMO Confidential Interview with Mike Kaput, the Chief Content Officer at SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute and co-host of "The Artificial Intelligence Show." Mike shares research across 2000 companies regarding AI adoption and highlights the gap between what companies say they are doing and what is happening, the fact that only 25% of companies have achieved "scaling" status, and how larg...

This week on CMO Confidential, we're revisiting our conversation with Tom Goodwin from August of 2025 - this is one of our favorites with topics just as relevant to marketers today.   Tom discusses his belief that today's CMO's are overly focused on efficiency versus marketing principles and that the contemporary playbook has been created by tech companies focused on performance metrics. &nbs...