WE’s Kass Sells on the Role of PR, Reputation Building, and Agencies in a Modern Marketing Mix
Written by Stephen Boehler with special guest Kass Sells Kass Sells is Global Chief Operating Officer and President of International at WE, one of the largest integrated communications agencies in the world. WE is independent, all about people — both their clients and their employees — and they believe in the power of communications to […]
Martin Agency’s Elizabeth Paul on Selling Your Competitive Strategy with the “Sameness Collage”
Written by Stephen Boehler with special guest Elizabeth Paul CMOs, senior marketers, and agency executives are often tasked with the critical challenge of differentiating their brand or business. Most companies in the same industry look and sound the same. Yet – there is a comfort to management in this similarity! Because of this comfort – […]
CMO Guide to High-Quality Creative Feedback
Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered how to evaluate creative and how to structure creative review sessions that are productive and inspiring. But how do you actually deliver creative feedback that leads to better work and better relationships? In this post, we’ll share the Mercer Island Group approach to delivering high-quality feedback, and several […]
Creative Reviews: The CMO Guide to Getting These Right
Last week we covered a simple 5 question process that CMOs can use with their teams to evaluate creative. Now it’s time for the agency to present their work – how should you structure the meeting to be as productive and inspiring as possible? Effective creative review sessions are critical to the brand and the […]
CMO Guide to Evaluating Creative
Dear CMOs: Please teach your people how to evaluate creative! Marketers are constantly evaluating creative presentations. Much of it ends up fabulous – great creative that grabs the target’s attention, is memorable and accomplishes its objectives – advertising that changes feelings, minds, and behaviors. Behind the scenes, it is often very difficult for the client […]
5 Questions About CMOs & Agencies with FIG’s Mark Figliulo
Mark Figliulo is not only one of the world’s most decorated and accomplished creatives, but he is also as thoughtful and strategic as any creative leader I’ve ever known. With the pace of CMO changes having accelerated this past year, Mark graciously answered several questions from the Mercer Island Group team. What is going on […]
Strategist Caroline Krediet & the Dos Equis Story
Written by Steve Boehler with guest star Caroline Krediet Caroline Krediet was the account planner working on Dos Equis leading up to the famous and incredibly successful Most Interesting Man in the World campaign. Caroline is a strategist with few peers, with an uncanny ability to meld tried and true strategic processes with intuition, delivering […]
10 Questions with Intel’s Tim McDonough
Tim McDonough, VP and General Manager of Intel’s Client Computing Business, is a seasoned marketer with deep strategic marketing experience. He has a blue-chip background including senior roles at Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Unity Technologies. Tim has seen it all and stopped for a few minutes to share his knowledge with us. We had a great […]
What Makes A Great CMO
We have been lucky enough to have worked with many exceptional CMOs and other senior marketing and agency leaders. What have we learned? Senior marketing and agency roles have never been more demanding and challenging. The keys to being successful in these roles have changed in the past twenty years. The most successful senior marketing […]
The Power of Positive Partnerships
I recently came across some notes I had scribbled following a discussion many years ago with a senior, wise and incredibly successful C-suite leader and this quote caught my eye: “It’s impossible to get great advertising without treating the Agency as a valued partner. It’s impossible to get great products without creating a partnership with […]
