Becoming chief marketing officer
John Harris, Jenn ten Seldam, Clementine Churchill and Deirdre Boyle have over 70 years of combined experience in the marketing industry, seeing trends, the highs and lows, and facing the challenges marketing brings first-hand.
From imposter syndrome, to budget cuts, to improving creativity in advertising, these experienced marketers have seen it all. As CMOs, Harris, ten Seldam, Churchill and Boyle have had to face these challenges head on, adapting and learning as they continue to grow in their roles.
Becoming a chief marketing officer is not an easy task. For ten Seldam and Boyle, over 20 years of experience each led them to their current roles, as director at CMO coaching consultancy Tenacity Consulting, and chief customer officer at Flybuys, respectively. Both experienced tough challenges, especially imposter syndrome.
ten Seldam tells Mumbrella: “I learned pretty quickly that you need to think about who your friends need to be in the C-suite. Often we think first about sales and service, but being in lockstep with finance and strategy is critical in order to link marketing to long-term business success.”
Boyle stresses you must be careful as a CMO: “You have to be so considered and so intentional with the way that you bring marketing to the table.”
“You have to be prepared to adapt your style and your expertise,” she says.
Harris, CEO of Worldwide Partners, Inc., one of the largest global networks of independent agencies, has over three decades of marketing experience on both the brand and agency side, with numerous senior roles under his belt. Harris works closely with CMOs, having been a client at one point, and brings a comprehensive view to the role. Despite not being a CMO himself, Harris has encountered similar problems and understands the difficulties CMOs face.
Harris says: “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several CMOs over three decades, that I learned a great deal from.”
“I had learned the language of commerce, being on the shopper side. And when I was given an opportunity to take my first senior marketing role,…I brought industry knowledge and category knowledge.”
“I brought a bit of a 360 view to the marketing role…That’s the CMO of the future,” he tells Mumbrella.
Churchill established herself as a strong marketer nearly a decade ago, but credits working in established businesses and the FMCG industry as a vital component in getting to where she is today, as chief marketing officer at me&u.
“It taught me the fundamentals of brand marketing as well as the importance of understanding the commercial aspects of a business, it definitely equipped me with the skills to then tackle the rollercoaster ride of startups,” she says.
Dealing with imposter syndrome
One of the biggest challenges marketers face is imposter syndrome, as it stems from a feeling of needing to know everything, which has been perpetuated by the industry.
ten Seldam says: “I was so prone to it myself…If you have an ounce of humility in your body, and you’re human, you will have imposter syndrome at some point in your life.”
“It will probably come back again and again. But you’ll just develop tools if you’re lucky to help manage it and get through it. So that’s kind of why I ended up leaning into it as a core part of my coaching business,” she tells Mumbrella.
Boyle says dealing with imposter syndrome can be tricky: “As marketers, we hang onto all of our specialisations because marketing has become so deep, but, as a chief, it is impossible to actually know all of that detail.”
“I think you need to be okay with that, and you need to be okay with the fact that you actually do not need to be the expert in everything, that is what your team is for. [As CMO], it’s about helping to elevate and empower your team to be more impactful,” she says.
Boyle adds that it’s important to learn to let go of the feelings associated with imposter syndrome, especially as a CMO: “Once you let go of that, suddenly you’re like, ‘oh gosh okay, I feel like I don’t need to know all the detail because there are people that are much more experienced…And I can just really focus on being an amazing leader’.”
Budget cut repercussions
Much like any other industry, marketers have faced tough budget cuts, revenue loss and as we’ve seen in recent weeks, a number of redundancies.
As CMOs, dealing with budget cut repercussions can be difficult, ten Seldam says: “Everybody wants to be in your business about how you’re spending your money, why you’re spending it that way, all those sorts of things. Suddenly, everyone’s a marketer!”
The marketing industry has been one of the first to see large budget cuts, so producing strong outcomes can be difficult. Accumulating with the rising cost of living and consumers also tightening their budgets, chief marketing officers are finding it increasingly hard to provide results.
Boyle says: “I’m still trying to work that out, but I think it comes back to being relevant and understanding your impact. Sometimes the leanest times provide you with the most opportunities.”
Churchill says: “The current environment means we definitely have to be more focused and do more with less, but that isn’t always necessarily a bad thing, scrutinising where you put every dollar in a business is good practice. Plus, within your competitive set, it puts everyone on more of an even playing field.”
“Like most marketers, my budget was cut but in these times functions can’t exist in a silo. By positioning marketing as an integral support function, you can add value by assisting other departments achieve their goals.”
Harris reflects on how COVID impacted marketing budget cuts, and what he has learnt since then: “If we’ve learnt anything from that, pulling back spending is not the answer. Redirecting the spending might be the answer.”
“You may be putting more emphasis into your customer service, you may shift your strategy from recruitment to retention of customers,” he adds.
At every stage of the marketing funnel, there have been dynamic tensions between brand and performance marketing. Thanks to budget cuts, marketers are having to learn to find the right balance between brand and performance, based on the business requirements both short and long term.
“Budgets get shorter, budgets get smaller. Revenue is harder to come by, and everybody becomes very short termist,” ten Seldam says.
Creative thinking in advertising
As original advertising becomes increasingly difficult to achieve, marketers are having to think more creatively in the industry.
Churchill says: “It’s about thinking differently, looking at the tools and resources you have available within your business which previously you might have ignored, and encouraging brainstorming within your teams.”
Harris stresses the importance of improving creative thinking in advertising: “I think creative thinking is the single greatest advantage any business has; put creative people [in these roles] and challenge them, give them the licence and celebrate that creativity.”
“Times like this, or forthcoming times as we’re anticipating, we’re going to have to think differently about it,” he says.
ten Seldam adds: “You need to think more about how you generate free media and shared media, rather than going out and paying for a share of voice. And the only way to do that is to have really freaking strong creative [teams].”
With budget cuts and lacking resources, creative strengths need to improve in the advertising world in order to succeed.
“There’s definitely a relationship between the two, where as budgets get tighter, creative strength needs to go up,” ten Seldam says. “It’s heaps more important when things like media budgets get cut because [creative output] has to work harder.”
Not only is individual creativity needed, ten Seldam says it is equally as important in a team context: “Think about how you get creative about the type of [challenger] mindset that is required within your team…and how you kind of set them up in terms of how they’re thinking to deliver value.”
CMOs need to face challenges the marketing industry brings head on, to create further opportunities for themselves and their businesses.
“You have to be prepared to get in and get your hands dirty, and really find how you are delivering value to people,” Boyle concludes.
Worldwide Partners is a global network of owner-led, marketing services agencies operating in over 40 countries. In Australia, the independent agencies include: Five by Five Global, PMA and We The People.