The CMO Podcast

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...

Every CMO faces the same question: how do you balance long-term brand equity with short-term performance marketing? In the fifth episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook, hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, along with guest co-host Lindsey Wehking, tackle one of the most heated debates in modern marketing: brand versus performance. Is short-term activation enough, or does long-term brand building ul...

A repeated theme on this show is the goal of a well-lived life, and one of the ways Jim aims to live well is through working out. Moving your body, building strength, and finding balance are essential to living fully.  Our guest this week on The CMO Podcast  is helping millions of people do exactly that through one of the most ambitious brand transformations in the industry. Nicholas “Ni...

This week on The Brand Builder’s Playbook, Jim, Ryan, and Cait dive into one of marketing’s toughest questions: how do you prove the ROI of a brand? In a world where every dollar spent needs justification, they explore how marketers can connect creative storytelling to measurable business growth. To help unpack it, they’re joined by Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s Chief Marketing & Communication...

If you live in Minnesota, you know there are two things that keep you going through the long winters: a good pair of boots, and a great cup of coffee. For years, that coffee often came from Caribou, where Jim's guest this week, Erin Newkirk, most recently served as Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, helping guide a beloved global coffeehouse with more than 850 locations across 11 countries.&nbsp...

The consumer sets the price. That simple truth reframes how we think about brand strength and its real business impact. In the third episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook , hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, along with guest co-host Cait Lamberton (Professor of Marketing at Wharton), unpack one of the most powerful—and often misunderstood—outcomes of strong brand building: pricing power. Our gue...

They call it the Land of 10,000 Lakes, we believe it may also be the Land of 10,000 Great Brands. Welcome to a very extraordinary live roundtable edition of The CMO Podcast . This week Jim is coming to you from the Twin Cities, Minneapolis–St. Paul, to try to answer a big question: what’s in the water here that’s helped so many companies thrive for decades? He is joined by four powerhouse marketer...

Tune in each Friday to enjoy our most recent episode of The Brand Builder's Playbook... --- How do you turn customer love into business growth? In the second episode of  The Brand Builder’s Playbook , the team explores how emotional connection fuels measurable results, from loyalty and repeat purchase to long-term enterprise value. Jim, Ryan, and Lindsey dive into what it really means to buil...

Whether it’s the Wolves lighting up the court or the Lynx dominating the playoffs, few understand the power of fan passion quite like Jim’s guest this week on The CMO Podcast — Mike Grahl , Chief Marketing Officer of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx. The Wolves are one of the NBA’s most dynamic rising franchises, and the Lynx—a four-time WNBA champion—are a powerhouse team that embodi...

We’re kicking off this week’s episode with something special — and in a city that knows a thing or two about creativity, resilience, and great music. For the next five weeks, we’re coming to you from Minneapolis, Minnesota — home of Prince, more than 10,000 lakes, and a vibrant business community. For the very first time, The CMO Podcast is recording on-site at the Best Buy Studios, in partnership...

This week we're very excited to share with you an exciting new show we've launched this week! It’s called The Brand Builder’s Playbook …a special 8-part series created in partnership with our friends at BERA.ai. In a world where CMOs are expected to do more with less—drive revenue, prove impact, and keep pace with accelerating change— The Brand Builder’s Playbook is your guide to what actually wor...

School is back in session—and so is the CMO Podcast, live from Penn State’s Alumni Leadership Conference. In our annual tradition, Jim welcomes three remarkable Penn State alumni on stage to explore the art and science of decision-making. Together, they dive into the vulnerable moments that shaped their lives, the career pivots that defined their paths, and the lessons learned when decisions didn’...

Not many CMOs can say they’ve had just one job their entire career, but our guest this week can say he can. Joining Jim is Colin Kelton, the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Vanguard, the 50-year-old investment management giant founded by legendary investor John Bogle. Vanguard is a pioneer in asset management, with a unique investor-owned company structure. It has a simple and powerful purp...

For the first time in its 122-year history, Ford Motor Company has launched a singular global campaign— Ready Set Ford . To mark the occasion, Jim Stengel and The CMO Podcast traveled to Detroit to sit down with Ford’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lisa Materrazzo, at the company’s cutting-edge NewLab near the iconic Michigan Central station.  With two decades at Toyota behind her, Lisa joined For...

Who doesn’t remember the Chili’s jingle— “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back…” ? Or maybe you’ve seen the viral TikToks about Chili’s Triple Dipper. Chili’s is back in culture in a big way, and much of that credit goes to their Chief Marketing Officer, George Felix. George is one of today’s most dynamic marketing leaders. He started his career at P&G—where, like me, he worked on the leg...

Fall is here, which means back to school, football season, crisp apples, and the world’s biggest blend of tech conference and music festival: Dreamforce. Now in its 22nd year, Dreamforce 2025 returns to San Francisco on October 14th to the 16th, featuring headline speakers like the CEOs of Google and Starbucks, plus musical guests Metallica and Benson Boone. In this week's episode, Jim welcomes Ar...

 This week, The CMO Podcast is serving up a rich and flavorful conversation as Jim sits down with Jessica Padula, Vice President of Marketing and Sustainability for Nespresso USA. Nespresso, part of Swiss-based Nestlé, started in the 1980s with one bold idea: that anyone should be able to brew a café-quality coffee at home. Fast forward to today, and that idea has become an $8 billion global...

This week, we’re wrapping up the summer with the final episode recorded in the south of France at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Captured at Chez Vayner, this roundtable brings together three powerhouse leaders to explore how trust, courage, and community are driving the next wave of brand growth—and why the return of creative simplicity may be the key to long-term success. Joining Jim i...

In a world of constant disruption and global uncertainty, how can marketing leaders keep their teams focused, inspired, and moving forward? In this week’s episode, recorded live at the Deloitte Digital Apartment during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Jim welcomes four senior marketing leaders who share how they lead with resilience, creativity, and conviction across industries and borders...

In this week's episode The CMO Podcast , Jim sits down with Calum Laming, the Chief Customer Officer of British Airways. He and his team are responsible for a creative replatforming of British Airways, celebrating the airline as a British Original. For their remarkable creative work, Calum and team won the highest honor last year at the Cannes Lions Festival, the coveted Grand Prix.  Wit...

On this week's episode of The CMO Podcast, Jim is joined by three remarkable leaders who are at very different stages of their careers and lives, but all share a bold vision for leadership and creativity.  Aimee Egan , Chief Enterprise Officer of Shutterstock, brings the perspective of driving growth and transformation in one of the world’s most influential content companies.  Sophie Bam...

Jim’s guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Jonnie Cahill, the newly appointed SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of International Foods at PepsiCo. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Jonnie stepped into this role in April 2025 after more than 12 years at Heineken, where he most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for the U.S. PepsiCo is a global food and beverage powerhouse with nearly $95 bill...

This week, Jim welcomes Melody Lee, the Chief Marketing Officer of Mercedes-Benz USA. Mercedes-Benz is one of the world’s most enduring luxury brands and will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. Melody’s career in marketing had an inauspicious start. She graduated from Georgia Tech with both a BS and an MS in international affairs, took a $12/hour internship at a PR firm, and never looked b...

In this special roundtable episode of The CMO Podcast , recorded live at the Brand Innovators LVMH Villa, presented by Shutterstock. Jim Stengel sits down with four powerhouse marketing leaders to explore the timeless—and timely—question: What does it take to build a brand people truly love? Joining Jim are... Matt Spiegel , EVP of TruAudience Growth Strategy at TransUnion Nicole Parlapiano , Chie...

Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Brian Irving, the Chief Marketing Officer at Lyft,  the 13-year-old, San Francisco-based  company whose purpose is to improve people’s lives with the world's best transportation. Lyft does business in the US and Canada, and has about $6 billion in revenue Brian has been at Lyft for about 15 months. Before that, he has worked at three of the wor...