Page 10 - Engage -- no.11 -- Winter 2018

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Winter 2018
COVER STORY
“The world, technology, and marketing options are changing so fast that they can’t do it alone anymore or rely on their agency,” Krainik says. “They need the experience and insights from peers that have tried it, come up with great ways to stay current, motivated their teams, and demonstrated success with their CEOs.”
The ever-evolving marketing landscape has made it important for even those with the biggest titles in the industry to look to previously unlikely sources for ideas. Krainik says that when he was at Mars, Inc. 15 years ago, the brand never really went outside the industry for insights.
“Today the roles have reversed, with so many bright smaller-company CMOs helping larger-brand CMOs in the club,” he reports. “Technology, marketing tools, new distribution networks, and customer engagement ideas are many times the sweet spot of smaller brands. At the same time, insights from larger- brand CMOs on leading the brand beyond
the marketing department, building a culture, and working effectively with your board are valuable to members.”
The willingness to learn is always a
good trait to maintain, even at the top of
the ranks within an organization. The top dogs of marketing in The CMO Club are not afraid to solicit advice, especially in the right environment. In 2016, the club rolled out a mobile app for its members, and now over 450 CMOs are accessing it each week. An “inner circle” section on the app, where CMOs can ask for help from their peers behind closed doors, is one of the most valuable programs for the group’s members. A member might ask if anyone has worked with a certain agency,
Listen Up, Grasshopper
Here’s Pete Krainik’s advice for young
marketers in a networking environment.
I’m a rm believer in the value of being face-to-face to form relationships that can then be built upon via digital conversations. In-person meetings are critical as long as the setting and framework for the events are clear to attendees. When you nd yourself in a networking situation—seminar, trade show, conference—keep these three things in mind in order to get the most out of it.
Collect people, not cards.
Focus on getting to know people versus getting business cards. Walk away from an event with three new friends. Ideally, you can help each other in the future. That’s far more valuable than getting 20 business cards that don’t respond to your follow-ups.
Look for aha moments.
Look for two or three key takeaways from an event that can help you change the way you approach your job or achieve your objectives.
Stay in the moment.
If you have committed time to attend an event, be all in and not on your phone or always leaving the room for calls. You miss high-impact things when you’re not engaged. If you are not all in, don’t bother going.
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Don’t be afraid to share ideas.
For almost every challenge, you will have a peer that has experienced success and failure in trying to solve it. The value of that peer helping you avoid mistakes and quickly achieve success far outweighs the risk
of competitors stealing ideas.
request feedback on new ROI metrics they are rolling out for their team, or ask if anyone has
tried a new advertising program from Amazon
and how to optimize it. The club also has a vendor recommendation program for members only—like Yelp for CMOs—where members benefit from the recommendations of peers to help build their short lists for tasks such as agency reviews. “The key is to make it easy and efficient to give and get help from peers,” Krainik says.
As you might expect, the topics that the members of The CMO Club are discussing are the same ones Stief is searching for peer information on. He says one of the topics he most often looks for outside guidance on has to do with what he calls “the marketing technology stack.” Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, project management platforms, email campaign platforms, intranets/portals, social media scheduling tools, content management systems (CMSs), and