Marketing Vanguard

Latest Episodes:

The Tech Titans Rewriting the Rules of Growth Marketing ft. the CMOs of Meta, Instacart, and Chime May 04, 2026

Show notes

A new age of Super Bowl marketing has dawned upon us, and it’s time to embrace it. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, marketing leaders from Meta, Instacart, and Chime reveal how their brands are redefining Super Bowl marketing by prioritizing social-first strategies, earned media, and authentic creator partnerships over traditional metrics. Tune in to learn why the biggest marketing opportunities now live in subcultures and algorithmic feeds and how to tap into conversations happening off-screen.

What You'll Learn:

How to shift from awareness metrics to earned social conversation as your primary Super Bowl success measure
Why a social-first strategy is non-negotiable and why niche communities outperform monoculture campaigns
How to design ads that crack culture through hyperbole and surprise
The strategic partnership framework beyond logo placement
How to unlock innovation by protecting brand fundamentals while experimenting relentlessly
Why in-house creative teams, powered by AI, can deliver portfolio-defining work at a fraction of agency costs
The non-negotiable marketing-product alignment tactic

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Refusing to Become Irrelevant: Victoria Lozano on her Crayola Journey Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

Surely a legacy brand like Crayola has done all it could to grow, right? Wrong. In this episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast, recorded live at Brandweek in Atlanta in November 2025, Victoria Lozano, former CMO of Crayola, proves that the growth work of even the most iconic brands can and should never stop. From how nostalgia can be leveraged to the advantage of expanding into unexpected categories, this conversation covers it all.

Victoria Lozano, former Chief Marketing Officer of Crayola, is renowned for her expertise in brand strategy, category expansion and omnichannel marketing across iconic consumer brands. With a career spanning Fortune 500 CPG companies including HBC, beverages and confectionery, she has built a diverse track record in product innovation, location-based entertainment, and educational strategy. Her work at Crayola demonstrates how legacy brands can evolve, redefine brand categories, unlock new consumer segments and build enduring marketing strategies that transcend traditional product boundaries, all while maintaining emotional resonance.

What You'll Learn:

How to merge nostalgia with future-forward relevance
Why a CMO's role with high-awareness brands requires category expansion
The framework for segmented messaging across stakeholder groups
How to unlock hidden revenue streams in plain sight, like recognizing that 57% of Crayola purchases are made by adults without children
The power of branded sensory identity as a defensible competitive advantage
Why ecosystem thinking matters more than individual business unit performance

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benoit Vatere's Case for Keeping Liquid Death Dangerous at Scale Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

How can you sell water in a can successfully, without making it a gimmick? In this live episode of Marketing Vanguard from Brandweek Atlanta, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Benoit Vatere, Chief Media Officer at Liquid Death, to explore how he, as a non-traditional entrepreneur with an engineering background, is scaling a cult beverage brand through unconventional media strategy, retail partnerships and aggressive upper-funnel investment while protecting the brand's core mystique.

Benoit Vatere is Chief Media Officer at Liquid Death, where he drives growth strategy and media planning for one of the most distinctive brands in the beverage industry. With a background as an entrepreneur and engineer who spent 25 years building ad tech products in Los Angeles, Benoit brings unique expertise in bridging creator marketing, retail commerce and consumer conversion. His work at Liquid Death demonstrates how data-driven media strategy, disciplined creative positioning and deep retailer partnerships can scale challenger brands into category leaders while maintaining distinctive brand equity

What You'll Learn:

How to shift from DTC obsession to retail-first strategy
The frequency-over-reach principle for mental availability
How to build a tech stack that bridges awareness to retail conversion
Why a CEO-CMO creates organizational competitive advantage
The conquest strategy in competitive categories
How to maintain brand mystique while scaling

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Art of Making Fintech Cool with Catherine Ferdon of Coinbase Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

Taking risks and having them pay off in an industry as regulated as fintech can seem like an impossible task. But Coinbase’s success in bold and unique marketing proves it isn’t. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, Coinbase CMO, Catherine Ferdon, reveals why bold creativity matters when it comes to marketing intangibles, how to build financial brands that don't feel sterile and the key strategies behind Coinbase's high-profile Super Bowl and Oscars campaigns.

Catherine Ferdon is the Chief Marketing Officer at Coinbase, bringing nearly fifteen years of fintech expertise to one of crypto's most established brands. With a background spanning Square, Cash App and Afterpay, she has built her career giving voice to complex financial products through bold, unconventional creativity. Her work exemplifies how CMOs can translate intangible, complex products into compelling narratives that drive mainstream adoption - a critical lesson for marketers navigating emerging technologies and regulatory constraints.

What You'll Learn:

Why understanding intangible products in depth is the key to marketing them successfully
The risk-taking framework for breakthrough creativity
Why educational complexity requires participatory, not didactic marketing
How to design media moments for their environment
The leadership principle of strong opinions, softly held
Why AI amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Atlanta Became the Hub of Marketing in the US ft. Alex Gonzalez Apr 02, 2026

Show notes

Atlanta, a paradise for CMOs with 70% of Fortune 500 companies, thousands of startups, and immense talent, is often underestimated. Live from Brandweek, Alex Gonzalez, Metro Atlanta Chamber's Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer, explains why Atlanta is a top marketing hub and how brand positioning can shape a city's economic future on this episode of Marketing Vanguard.

Alex Gonzales is the Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, leading efforts to brand Atlanta as a premier destination for talent, business and innovation. With a background spanning finance, business development and corporate marketing at industry leaders like GE, Chubb Insurance and Equifax, Alex brings deep expertise in transforming marketing strategies for Fortune 500 organizations and emerging tech ecosystems. His work establishing the "Atlanta Where You Belong" brand and fostering the Atlanta Growth Collective has positioned the region as a model for regional marketing and innovation ecosystems.

What You'll Learn:

How to leverage a CMO advisory council to build authentic city branding by assembling chief marketers
Why "place branding" requires defining emotional belonging, not just economic benefits
The talent flywheel strategy and making the most of the city’s academic ecosystem
How to position B2B companies as part of your city's DNA
Why the startup ecosystem infrastructure (Atlanta Tech Village, Russell Innovation Center, South Downtown development) should be central to city marketing
The multi-geography branding challenge and how to solve it

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Brockelman’s Unconventional Playbook for Financial Marketing Success Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

Financial services marketing is one of the hardest kinds of marketing to crack. But John Brockelman and his team at State Street Investment Management have proven, campaign after campaign, that it can be done well and done right. Tune in for his playbook on how financial services marketers can drive growth, connection and culture.

What You'll Learn:

How to align marketing with sales and business objectives
The importance of simplifying brand architecture for market expansion
How to build intentional talent strategies by mixing specialized and generalist expertise
Why guerrilla marketing and experiential activations outperform traditional advertising in regulated industries
How to use strategic partnerships to reach new audiences
How to scale AI adoption across marketing operations without replacing human creativity

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why the Super Bowl Still Matters ft. Leading CMOs from the SF 49ers, Mars, Comcast & Liquid I.V. Mar 20, 2026

Show notes

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world - not just for the game and its players, but for marketers too. So, how do you make sure you win the game? In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, four industry-leading CMOs - Gabrielle Wesley (Mars Wrigley), Stephanie Rogers (San Francisco 49ers), John Gieselman (Comcast) and Stacy Andrade-Wells (Liquid I.V.), reveal their personal playbooks on making the most of the Super Bowl opportunity, cutting through the hype and executing at the highest level.

What You'll Learn:

How to build a solid business case for Super Bowl marketing investment
Why you should capitalize on the intersection of creative disruption and brand strategy
How to activate beyond the 30 or 60-second spot through ecosystem thinking
Why simplicity and cultural relevance are your competitive advantages
The "uncomfortable gut reaction" test for evaluating creative readiness
How to measure impact across different time horizons without becoming paralyzed by metrics

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Archer Roose Is Flipping the Wine Industry on Its Head with CMO, Conley Downing Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

Wine was a gatekept category, suffering from the dreaded perception of being "boring." That is, until Archer Roose, the canned wine company, redefined the category and made it fun for Gen Z. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, CMO of the brand, Conley Downing, unpacks how they leveraged “fun” marketing (instead of educational marketing) to make wine accessible and interesting again.

What You'll Learn:

How to reposition a legacy category by identifying and eliminating barriers to entry
Why product format innovation creates distribution and occasion expansion beyond traditional compete sets
The strategic value of celebrity partnerships rooted in authentic brand alignment and commercial acumen
How to build sustainable growth through data ownership and omnichannel funnel strategy
Why founder-led startups must balance rapid scaling with long-term positioning and acquisition readiness
How transparency and ingredient clarity are becoming table stakes in beverage marketing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Disrupting the Marketing Landscape with Purpose with Sarah Leinberger of Yoobi Mar 05, 2026

Show notes

Staying authentic and mission-driven while scaling aggressively may be the toughest problem in marketing to solve. But Sarah Leinberger, VP and Head of Marketing, Yoobi, has a pretty solid take on how to do it. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, recorded during Brandweek in Atlanta, Sarah reveals how CMOs can build authentic brand equity through strategic collaborations, why agility trumps budget in today's market, and the key strategies to balance rapid iteration with meaningful purpose.

What You'll Learn:

How to leverage borrowed equity without diluting brand identity
Why speed and flexibility are competitive advantages for challenger brands
The foundational framework for retail media success
How to build meaningful retailer partnerships that go beyond “exclusive.”
The key strategies to optimize high-impact small teams
Why authentic leadership accelerates team performance and trust

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acing Brand Experience with Nic Brandenberger, CMO, Mammut Sports Group AG, at the World Economic Forum Event Feb 26, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, live from the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Nic Brandenberger, CMO of Mammut, the 164-year-old Swiss mountaineering gear company, unpacks why Davos represents a unique opportunity for C-suite marketers and how the experiences brands create matter far more than the products they sell.

What You'll Learn:

How to shift the definition of “brand” from product provider to experience giver
Why breaking out of the marketing silo is a critical competitive advantage
The strategic advantage of being a part of Davos
How to balance wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels
How consumer-centric foundation separates great marketing from mediocre execution
Ways to identify and penetrate niche communities in fragmented markets like US mountaineering

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected