Scratch: CMO Interviews

Bob Moesta talks about how he overcame a disability to be a hugely successful businessman, marketer and educator. Bob is one of the authors of the Jobs-to-be-Done theory, which posits that consumers hire products or services to do jobs in their lives. According to Jobs-to-be-Done, companies need to better understand how their products and services fit into people’s lives.  Bob talks about how to a...

In today’s episode, Dean Aragón joins Eric in a conversation with David Rubin, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of The New York Times, the storied newspaper with many millions of paid subscribers. The paper’s first CMO in its 100+ year history, David talks about how celebrating the NYT’s product leads to the business’ success.   There was lots of pushback when the New York Times made the...

Scott Brinker, known as the “godfather of martech” and currently VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, talks to Eric about everything marketing technology from how to stay on top of it all to how best to implement changes in your organization. Scott explains that the No Code movement represents a fundamental shift towards empowerment of business users and marketers. It’s not just about letting people...

Rupen Desai, CMO of Dole Sunshine Company, talks about a world in which we stop considering shareholders' profits above all else and start considering the overall global benefits of business decisions to the environment and to human rights. He insists that while profit should not be the end all be all of business, true sustainability does not need to come at its expense. If you are curious about h...

This week, Eric talks to Attest CEO and Co-Founder, Jeremy King, about how data leads to better, smarter business decisions with no guesswork. He argues that with the right data, business leaders and marketers are able to know precisely when certain risks are justified and when they’re not, and they are able to understand their target audience, not just their current customer base. Coming from a b...

Raja Rajamannar is a true giant in the field of marketing. President of the World Federation of Advertising and CMO of Mastercard since 2013, Raja argues that there is no such thing as brand loyalty. Raja warns marketers not to mistake consumers liking your brand for consumer loyalty to it. What marketers confuse for brand loyalty is merely brand stickiness. Marketers need to understand the true d...

In this week’s episode, Eric and co-host Dean Aragon are joined by a giant of the marketing world, Jim Stengel, the former CMO of Procter & Gamble, author of Unleashing the Innovators (2017) and Grow (2012), and host of The CMO Podcast . Jim insists that most marketers aren’t curious enough about what’s around the corner, and get too bogged down in short-term priorities. He explains how to balance...

Soyoung Kang, CMO at eos, a company known for its lip balm, talks about how she embraces the unknown by constantly calibrating and always choosing the option that will teach the most. By embracing the unknown early and always budgeting for experimentation, Soyoung helped eos become a giant on TikTok, where it has nearly 900k followers, and Instagram, where it has 1.7M.  Soyoung and Eric discuss eo...

Scott Monty talks about his journey from premed student to marketing expert, and the elephant in the room - his amazing voice. He explains how understanding timeless human nature and psychology is key to effective communication and marketing. He encourages marketers to focus less on the platforms and more on the fundamentals, on storytelling and connecting to people.  Scott deeply believes in the...

This week, Eric talks to Chris Skinner of The Finanser. Chris is well known for his extensive writing, speaking and advising on the disruption necessary in the banking and fintech worlds and is a proud self-proclaimed troublemaker because “the more trouble you make the more you can fix things.”  In this week’s conversation with Eric, Chris explains everything from why he focuses his lens so intens...

In today’s episode, Eric talks to author, podcaster and content marketing expert, Robert Rose about everything from whether your marketing function can become a profit center to the fate of traditional advertising as we know it. As promised, here are Robert’s recommended business books, his "mini-marketing-MBA": The Practice of Management – Peter Drucker The Management of Marketing Costs – James C...

Abba came to Habito from a background in media and is now proud to make “batshit crazy mortgage ads” that speak to Habito’s strong purpose of setting people free from the hell of getting a mortgage. Abba explains that everything they do creatively comes from customer insights and admits that they do it “in a ludicrous manner.” There are, for example, TV ads showing animated characters being grueso...

Tina Cassidy, CMO of GBH talks to Eric about the rebranding of Boston’s public broadcaster and the largest creator for public media in America. Trust is not only central to GBH as a company, it is central to GBH’s mission as a source of trusted news and information. It goes without saying that we find ourselves in an ever-changing information landscape where news is no longer traditionally produce...

This week, James Kyd of Xero talks about how the online accounting platform with over 3 million customers has successfully built a community around the brand. By fostering a deep commitment to understanding the “real human costs” of running a business, Xero has nurtured a community composed mostly of accountants and small business owners. This dedication to understanding and addressing consumers’...

In this wide-ranging conversation, Eric talks to Zaid Al-Qassab , CMO of Channel 4. With his rich career history, Zaid offers insight into the burning issues on the minds of every marketer, from in-house vs. agency, how to market in a post-third party data world, and how to marry the best of the challenger and incumbent models.  While Channel 4 has two in-house agencies, 4creative - a full-service...

In this week’s episode, Eric talks to the nicest people in the business, Jasper Martens and Rachael Oku from PensionBee , about how the company has managed to stay true to its customers along the journey from launching as a small fintech start-up to going public. Rachael and Jasper talk about how letting their brand purpose guide both their company culture and marketing has given their brand a dis...

In this week’s episode of Scratch, Eric talks to GE CMO, Linda Boff, and Global Head of Brand Marketing, Zara Mirza, about GE’s Purpose Campaign and how discovering and amplifying its brand purpose keeps a global company like GE in touch with its many employees, teams, partners, investors, and customers. Eric’s favorite video to come out of the Purpose Campaign is the brilliantly produced Employee...

In today’s episode, Eric talks to the brains behind one of the world’s biggest brands, Shell. Jane Keate, Shell’s Global Brand Standards and Assurance Manager, and Dean Aragón, CEO & Vice Chairman of Shell Brands International, explain how a brand as massive and well-known as Shell connects to its employees, customers and external stakeholders through its all-in approach to sonic branding, and how...

Gary Vaynerchuk is truly an epic interview with so much insight and foresight into the world of business and branding. Eric and Gary go back over a decade, as Eric was one of Gary’s first hires for VaynerMedia back in 2010, and would go on to launch VaynerMedia in EMEA in 2016. In today’s catch up, Gary and Eric talk about NFTs, and how harnessing their power can turn your marketing function into...

Introducing Scratch, a podcast by Rival. Learn what the world's most successful marketers do differently. Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated...