The CMO Podcast

January is always the month of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. So it’s fitting before this month ends that Jim talks with a CMO who knows lots about consumer electronics trends than most. Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Jennie Weber, the Chief Marketing Officer of Best Buy, the $40 billion plus in sales consumer electronics retailer. Best Buy–with its 1000 plus stores, ecom...

Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Victoria Lozano, the EVP of Marketing at Crayola, the 122-year-old brand founded in Easton, Pa. by Edwin Binney and C. Howard Smith. The first Crayola product was a box of eight crayons, and sold for a nickel. Crayola is one of the most well-known brands in the world–brand awareness in the US is 99%.Since the mid-1980s, Crayola has been part of the Hallm...

As we look into 2025, listen in as Jim is joined by three lively and inspiring previous guests from last year of the podcast to reflect on the major themes of the 50 episodes and felt by CMOs in 2024. Jim's guests are DeLu Jackson, the Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer at security company ADT, Melissa Hobley, the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Tinder, and Michelle Crossan-Matos, the Chie...

For this week’s episode, Jim is returning to Deloitte’s Next Generation CMO Academy, with a listen into several of the conversations he has had with fellow marketing leaders, on how we hone and build the skills needed to be a CMO in this fast-paced world. With that theme in mind, we've pieced together snippets from a few special conversations from the event. First, Jim is joined by Norm Yustin, th...

Happy New Year! Last year Jim had over 50 thoughtful conversations on The CMO Podcast, and he's kicking off 2025 with a doozy. The business of entertainment is increasingly the business of brand building, so Jim is beginning this year with a woman who really gets entertainment. His guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Dea Lawrence, the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Variet...

It is no surprise to any of you that the more meaningful your brand is to people, or customers, the more successful it will be. Well the good news is there is a company–Havas–who has been researching what makes a brand meaningful every year for the past 15 years. And this week Jim will talk with two leaders at Havas who oversee this annual research. Jim's guests on The CMO Podcast are Mark Sinnock...

We have had a number of banking CMOs on this show over the years, and, perhaps counterintuitively, every one of them has been insightful and interesting. This week's show continues that trend. Jim's guest on The CMO Podcast is Michael Lacorazza, the Chief Marketing Officer of US Bank. Headquartered in Minneapolis, US Bank is the fifth largest commercial bank in the US, with revenue in the $40 bill...

The holiday season is in full swing, so this week Jim is paying a visit to one of the most loved retailers in the world. The guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Joe Cano, the Chief Marketing, Merchandising and Growth Officer for Zappos, the e-commerce company famous for its customer-obsessed culture. Zappos was founded in 1999 by Tony Hsieh, and sold to Amazon in 2009 for about $1.2 billion in a...

Many of you listeners here in the US are right now planning your Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and the centerpiece for most of you is a beautiful turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Thursday. Well today–to get you in the spirit–Jim welcomes two special guests on The CMO Podcast: Kyle Lock, the VP of Marketing for the Butterball Company, and Christa Leupen, the Director of Purpose and Consumer Communicat...

The growth and popularity of Formula 1 racing is one of the great marketing stories of the past five years, and on this week's episode Jim is going behind the scenes to understand why. His guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Louise McEwen, the Chief Marketing Officer of McLaren Racing, the global leader in high-performance supercar production, and elite motorsports. Founded in 1963 by racer, eng...

This week Jim is joined on The CMO Podcast by Greg Lyons, the Chief Marketing Officer for Pepsico Beverages North America. Greg looks over about $28 billion in revenue, with 10 Billion dollar brands, including Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and Bubly. PepsiCo Beverages North America is part of PepsiCo, a $91 billion food and beverage global powerhouse. Greg has been with PepsiCo for over 25 ye...

With the holidays nearly upon us, this episode of The CMO Podcast offers some insight and perspective on this year’s holiday season. Joining Jim this week is Claudine Cheever, the VP and Global Head of Brand and Marketing at Amazon. Since its founding in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon has profoundly changed life and business. Thirty years later–Amazon’s revenue is nearly $600 billion, with a market ca...

It’s election season in the U.S., with some brands taking on a special responsibility and role at this time. Among them is The Wall Street Journal, and this week Jim speaks to Sherry Weiss, the Chief Marketing Officer of Dow Jones–the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, and a portfolio of business intelligence assets, including Factiva.&nbsp...

It's the spookiest time of the year! For this Halloween-themed episode of The CMO Podcast, Jim welcomes Gabrielle Dallas Wesley, the Chief Marketing Officer of Mars Wrigley North America. Privately held since its founding in 1911, Mars Wrigley is a giant in the consumer goods industry. The company boasts about $50 billion in sales and includes famous brands like M&Ms, Snickers, Orbit, Pedigree...

This week's guest on The CMO Podcast is one of the foremost experts in the world of Artificial Intelligence and marketing, Professor Jim Lecinski. Jim is the Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing at Northwestern Kellogg. We use the term “Renaissance man or woman” too loosely these days, but in this case it's an appropriate moniker. Consider these highlights from Professor Lecinski's curriculum...

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Emily Silver, the SVP and Chief Marketing & Athlete Experience Officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods, the $13 billion-by-revenue retailer. Dick’s was founded by Dick Stack in 1948 with his first product line, a bait and tackle. Today, Pittsburgh-based Dick’s Sporting Goods has more than 850 stores and a variety of other experience centers and platforms, all focus...

The guest today on The CMO Podcast is Emily Ketchen, the Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets for Lenovo. The Intelligent Devices Group–as you might expect–is Lenovo’s division with Personal Computers, Smartphones, and AR/VR solutions. Lenovo is a $57 billion global technology company–the largest PC company–with business in 180 countries. It also ma...

Fall means it's time for your annual flu and Covid shots! So, this week on The CMO Podcast, Jim welcomes Kate Cronin, the Chief Brand Officer for Moderna, the 14-year-old pioneering biotech company. Moderna achieved nearly instant awareness and fame in 2020, when it received the CDC recommendation for its COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna’s name combines the words "modified" and "RNA" to signal the core e...

This week on The CMO Podcast, Jim welcomes Ramon Soto, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Northwell Health, Based in New York, Northwell Health is one of the largest health-care providers in the US, with 21 hospitals, 900 outpatient facilities, 12,000 affiliated physicians, 87,000 employees, and 2 million patients a year. The Wall Street Journal recently featured the nonprofit company f...

The guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Maya Wasserman, the Head of Marketing for Personal Entertainment, Home Entertainment and Brand Marketing for Sony Electronics. Maya oversees a large scope of products–from TVs, soundbars, headphones, and more. Founded in Japan in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, Sony has been a fixture in popular culture for the better part of eight decades–think Walk...

We're entering the beginning of a new school year and the American College Football season begins this weekend! For the first time in this podcast's history, Jim welcomes a CMO of sorts from a large University: Pedro Ribeiro, the VP of Public Affairs and Communications for the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. When it comes to strong University brands, Notre Dame represents one of t...

For this week’s episode, The CMO Podcast returns to Penn State University–Jim's MBA alma mater–for a live panel discussion on authentic leadership. This panel wrapped up another successful annual Alumni Leadership Connections Conference in Happy Valley. Joining Jim on stage for the Authentic Leadership panel are three fellow alumnae: Dana H. Born, Faculty Chair of Harvard Kennedy School & a Re...

This week, Jim welcomes Isabelle Sakai–the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Vancouver-based Mark Anthony Brands–to The CMO Podcast. The company was founded in 1972 by Anthony von Mandl. Mr. von Mandl’s is a classic entrepreneurial story; at 22, he began selling imported wines out of his car, and now the company–which is still private–is estimated at about $4 billion in revenue. Mark Anthony Brand...

 This week on The CMO Podcast, Jim brings you a packed bonus episode, featuring eight guests he spoke with earlier this Summer during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.  This recording is part of a special episode of Vayner’s Marketing for the Now series. Each guest joined Jim in the much-desired air conditioning to chat about creativity, leadership, what’s inspi...

With the Olympics off to an incredible start, Jim welcomes a guest on The CMO Podcast who's in the middle of all the excitement–Gene Foca, the Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer at Getty Images. Founded in London in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, Getty Images is a global visual content creator and marketplace, with annual sales approaching $1 billion. Getty has an enormous library of stoc...