Renegade Marketers Unite

As a long-time financial services marketer, you would expect Dan Marks to have the science of marketing down pat. And indeed he does, having built a predictive marketing spend model at First Tennessee Bank (see my book The CMO's Periodic Table: A Renegade's Guide to Marketing!) and the marketing tech infrastructure in his current role. But Marks sees the trend towards data-driven marketing going too far, explaining that, "Just doing the science without starting with the purpose is a recipe for failure." Embracing the art-side of his job, he encourages his team to "remember that we are ultimately serving people" and to look at what's happening with people in other categories." Dan Marks is the CMO for Hancock And Whitney Bank, a regional bank in the Gulf South spanning from Houston, Texas, to Tampa, Fla. At the bank, Marks is responsible for overall strategy and execution of marketing and leading a digitally enabled client-focused transformation. Recognitions have included the Presidents Circle CMO Award, "Top CMO on Twitter," and "Top 40 under 40."

With over 70% share of the premium tequila market, it would be easy for Patrón's CMO to rationalize a conservative marketing approach. Instead, Lee Applbaum believes that success can only be found by "challenging long-standing norms in luxury and in spirits marketing," and by "always staying ahead of the curve." To these ends, Applbaum is focused on showcasing Patron's authenticity as a handcrafted tequila via advertising, influencer programs, social media and an innovative Oculus VR experience. During is over 3+ years as CMO at Patrón, Lee Applbaum has launched successful line extensions (La Roca) and won numerous awards including two from The CMO Club. But what's more impressive is that he has helped keep the growth streak alive as Patron continues to find new fans while maintaining a highly loyal following. Applbaum started his career at Coca-Cola in sales after earning his MBA at UMass Amherst. After Coca-Cola, he held increasingly senior marketing jobs at Schlotzsky's, Footstar Athletic, David's Bridal, Radio Shack and even spent 8 months in Melbourne, Australia working with Target. Most importantly, in addition to his strong marketing background, Applbaum knows how to mix the perfect margarita, a skill that comes in handy remarkably often in his current role.

Packaged goods companies are well known for their marketing discipline and not the place you'd expect to hear a CMO express the need for "tolerating a lot more chaos and ambiguity in the culture and the way we work in order to get to the good stuff." But that's just the starting point with Eric Reynolds, CMO of The Clorox Company, who among other things advises against using influencers on a broad scale and believes that unless your brand gets talked about via the "holy trinity of the brand story, the message, and the content" then the idea isn't big enough to cut through. Eric Reynolds was named CMO in January 2015 and according to Clorox, "As CMO, he has global responsibility for all marketing functions, including brand strategy and management, personnel staffing and development, consumer insights, advanced analytics, agency management, consumer promotion, digital capabilities, media planning and buying, commercial production, and graphic design." In short, he's the real deal. Reynolds overseas marketing for a wide range of brands including Brita, Burt's Bees, Formula 409, Glad, Hidden Valley, Kitchen Bouquet, KC Masterpiece, Soy Vay, Kingsford, Liquid-Plumr, Mistolin, Pine-Sol, Tilex, S.O.S., and Fresh Step, Scoop Away and Ever Clean cat litters.

Described by Inc as one of the "sharpest minds" in marketing, Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast host Drew Neisser is a recognized authority on cutting-edge techniques and has won innumerable awards for creativity and campaign effectiveness. In Episode 0, Drew tells you what he's learned from interviewing over 200 Chief Marketing Officer in the last five years and how these lessons can be applied to just about any marketing challenge. Ranked among "50 Thought Leaders over 50" by Brand Quarterly for 3 years in a row, Drew has been a featured marketing expert on ABC News, CNBC, CBS Radio, iHeart Radio and the Tony Robbins podcast series among many others. Drew is the author of the highly regarded book, The CMO's Periodic Table: A Renegade's Guide to Marketing. He is a frequent keynote speaker and emcee at top marketing conferences including the 2017 Marketo Marketing Nation Summit and is counted among a small group of IBM Futurists. Last but very definitely not least, Neisser is the founder and CEO of Renegade, the NYC-based marketing agency that has been helping CMOs find innovative ways to cut through since 1996.