Huddlers in the News

“Forrester included social media influencers as part of their buying network concept, but honestly, Drew, I don’t know where to start,” shared a B2B CMO at a $400mil tech company. I sipped my margarita, offered a Cheshire cat smile, and thought this must be what it’s like for Cooper Flagg when he spies an unguarded basket. Do you dazzle with a highlight-reel jam or simply take the layup?

I took the layup, offering a few insights with the promise of more when we spoke later. Had I taken the other approach, the highlight reel would have started with one concept:

Assess Your Currency

By currency, I don’t just mean cash money. Yes, you can cut B2B influencers a check, and if it’s big enough, many will do your bidding. Others won’t. Regardless, this transactional approach will limit your upside. Contracts will be executed to the letter. Brand love will not be engendered. Instead, tap into other currencies. Think of your influencer program as a multi-dimensional value exchange.

Access is Currency

Every company has other forms of influencer currency. Access is an incredibly valuable asset you can exchange. When I worked with Pega as an influencer, they provided access to their founder, Alan Treffler, typically reserved for analysts and journalists. Back in 2017, I was thrilled to have this brilliant exec on my podcast.

Recognition is Currency

About 10 years ago, IBM invited 15 of us to participate in their brilliantly labeled “Futurists” program. We all said “yes.” Who doesn’t want to be called a Futurist? We got front-row seats at their big conferences with signs saying, “Reserved for Futurists.” We also gained access to IBM executives and pre-launch product briefings. These briefings were similar to the ones they gave to "real" reporters, further boosting our egos.

Social Support is Currency

Before the Futurist program, IBM had a less formal influencer program in which I participated. Once again, they provided access to high-ranking execs. I turned one of these interviews into a story that ran on FastCompany.com with the audacious (+ now ridiculous) headline “Why IBM Could Be Bigger Than Facebook in Social Media.” IBM loved the story so much that they encouraged their entire employee base to share it on social media. They did. That story was among the top 10 stories on FastCompany.com for two months. My editor + IBM loved it.

Connecting Influencers is Currency

The best part of the IBM Futurist program was not the name. It was the fact that IBM brought us together to learn from each other. For a couple of years, Gartner did the same thing. Led by ever-insightful Brent Adamson, I met several marketing + sales luminaries with whom I still compare notes + amplify stories.

Eight months ago, LinkedIn started a B2B global marketing influencer group. I’m happy to be part of it and appreciate the inside info they share with the 30 of us. The real highlight? We set up a group chat on LinkedIn that is an insight-packed slam dunk.

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 453: The Discipline of Category Creation

Everyone wants to be in a category of one.

But until analysts acknowledge it, customers search for it, and competitors show up, it’s not quite a category—more a call you made before the market did. Creating one means walking a line between leading the story and waiting for the market to catch up.

In this episode, Drew Neisser is joined by Bernd Leger of Cornerstone OnDemand, Charles Groome of Biz2Credit, and Jakki Geiger to share their insights into building a category from scratch.

In this episode:

• Bernd shares how Cornerstone moved beyond LMS into “workforce agility,” backed by acquisitions, analyst engagement, and full-team alignment.
• Charles explains how Biz2Credit is carving out a new lane in FinTech by naming the problem and using familiar language to build demand.
• Jakki outlines what separates true category creation from disruption, and why team-wide clarity is the hidden work that drives both.

Plus:

• Why a real customer problem should shape your category narrative
• How to bring analysts in without losing control of the story
• What it takes to bring your team along when the category doesn’t exist yet

Tune in to learn how category creation starts, builds, and earns its place in the market!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“We had to change some language on our website,” explained a CMO at a $750 million tech company, “to address the lightning rod issues.” Righteous Drew wanted to push back and say, “If every company does this, aren’t we all being complicit?” Coach Drew held his tongue. There’s a lot at stake right now, and not just for businesses with government contracts.

The Weight of a Brand Promise

Enough with the code, what’s the real issue here?

One word: Trust.

Every established brand is a promise. That promise combines both its words and actions over time. A brand that promises to be a good corporate citizen and demonstrates its commitment via actions earns goodwill with multiple stakeholders, including employees, customers, prospects, partners, and influencers. A sudden shift in actions (like dropping DEI or ESG programs) can break that goodwill and or diminish trust.

Get real, Righteous Drew. Aren’t the risks of non-compliance with the new political correctness too great to stand on one’s high horse?

Indeed, much of the S&P 500 thinks so. The New York Times reported last week that the language “diversity, equity and inclusion” has been scrubbed from 200 of the 350 S&P 500 companies that had mentioned it. According to the NYTimes, many felt obligated to do so based on “an executive order that instructed federal agencies to investigate ‘illegal D.E.I.’ in the private sector.”

It’s even more serious for companies or institutions dependent upon government or red-state contracts. If they want to keep these contracts or get new ones, they must scrub their websites of the 30 or so trigger words, such as diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change. We’re talking about millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

A Word Swap or a Walk-Back?

Aren’t most of these big companies just using different words?

Yes, some are. These companies are softening or replacing words like “equity” with “belonging” or “inclusiveness” with “fairness.” In these cases, the policies, programs, and staffing behind the words aren’t changing. Coach Drew approves.

Other companies, big and small, have not just abandoned the words; they’ve eliminated the programs. Now we’re in reputational damage territory. Certain stakeholders will wonder if they can ever trust the company again. Righteous Drew is fretting.

Costco decided not to change its DEI policies, while Walmart did. Both brands have a lot at stake. Thus far in 2025, CostCo’s stock is down 2%, while Walmart’s is down 6%. It's too early to measure the impact (if any) these changes will have on revenue, employee retention, etc., but it will be fascinating to watch them play out. Righteous Drew thanks Costco for its bravery.

This Isn’t Just Marketing’s Problem

Bottom line: This decision to change your corporate policies is way bigger than marketing. C-Suites and investors need to be part of the conversation. For a guide on how marketers can help guide these conversations, check out the link to my post on RenegadeMarketing.com.

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 452: The New Rules of Marketing Team Design

Marketing org charts may look innocent, but they’re loaded with meaning. Split your team into “revenue” and “corporate” and you’re sending a message, whether you mean to or not. Structure reveals philosophy. And in B2B, that philosophy had better be built for trust, speed, and results.

In this episode, Drew Neisser is joined by Kelly Hopping (Demandbase), Lesley Davis (Waggoner Engineering), and Gary Sevounts (Simpplr) to discuss how they’re shaping marketing teams that reflect clearer priorities, move in sync with the business, and operate at the pace growth demands.

In this episode:

• Kelly built her team around one goal: earning sales love. It reshaped her team’s structure, mindset, and KPIs. 
• Lesley explains how cultural clarity and cross-functional trust helped her team scale fast inside a complex org. 
• Gary shares how “Treasure Ops” became a full-funnel GTM engine, reviving stalled deals and tying ops directly to pipeline.

Plus:

• Why your org structure should follow how your buyers engage 
• How AI is already shifting roles 
• How shared metrics and a single definition of success align marketing and sales

Tune in for a look at how marketing teams are being built to meet the moment!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“I told my Creative Director he had to work faster,” said a CEO from a tech startup after hearing a presentation on “creating a brand in 5 minutes!” at HumanX. Hiding my horror, I asked the CEO what she meant. I hated her answer. So will creatives everywhere.

Downsides of Speed-Obsessed Branding

What the CEO said…

“Creative design just takes too long. I needed some support materials for this conference. Our CD gave me way too many options for things like stickers. There were multiple rounds of revisions, and each one took time. I wasn’t even happy with the final creative. But maybe I’m not the target. They are the creatives, and it’s their call. But after seeing the presentation on brand creation via GenAI, I just know they could create everything 5-10x faster.”

What I was thinking…

The notion that you can create a differentiated and enduring brand in 5 minutes is sheer lunacy and an unfortunate takeaway from an otherwise brilliant conference.

The focus on speed, above all else, has horrendous implications. First, it has the potential to burn out employees, especially creative people. While some stress (like deadlines) is helpful to the creative process, every single project can’t be a fire drill. That leads to burnout. Second, emphasizing speed will impact quality. “Good enough” will become the rule. Which is fine or disastrous, depending on the deliverable. [“Don’t worry, I’m sure our AI-generated design plans for the spaceship are good enough” won’t go over well with the astronaut about to board!]

What Can CMOs Do About Rising CEO Expectations Around Speed of Delivery?

Pick your battles.

There are multiple opportunities to increase the speed of creative development without sacrificing quality (too much). A marketing leader at a $400 million SaaS brand shared, “We’re using GenAI to crank out 120 localized iterations of 20 different digital ads.” “The time savings is enormous, and our creatives cheered since that stuff is tedious,” she added. [LMK your speedy wins w/GenAI]

Swami Sivasubramanian, VP, Agentic AI at Amazon Web Services, emphasized three big categories for applying AI during his presentation at HumanX:

1. Workplace productivity (they used AI to reduce new hire training time by 67%)
2. Business workflows (they saved 4000 in development hours automating multi-step tasks like compliance workflows)
3. Innovation and research (they radically accelerated R&D cycles saving “nearly 5 years of work”)

Efficiency ≠ Effectiveness

CMOs need to keep their eyes on the prize. That means focusing on impact, not output. For example, helping Sales improve and accelerate their close rates by a few %points will dramatically impact the entire org. Do that, and you’ll buy some time to think through how your brand and GTM may need to evolve over the next 18-36 months in order to increase your pricing power.

Even with the help of AI, that will take more than 5 minutes!

[Note: This editorial "rant" with all its flaws was 100% human-generated.]

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 451: Events with Intent: How CMOs Turn Brand Moments into Growth

You can spend six figures on an event and still walk away with nothing but badge scans and a fuzzy sense of brand presence. But when you treat it as a full-funnel campaign, that’s when the impact starts early and lasts well beyond the event itself.

In this episode, Drew Neisser is joined by Ellina Shinnick (HUB International), Kevin Ruane (Precisely), and Isabelle Papoulias (EliteOps) to explore how teams show up with intention and turn B2B events into focused, cross-functional efforts that build brand, strengthen buyer confidence, and avoid the all-too-common post-event fade.

In this episode:

• Ellina breaks down HUB’s three-part event framework: Sales alignment, rigorous ROI auditing, and one bold theme that ties it all together.
• Kevin shares how a shift from demand gen to brand-first events, paired with sideline plays and airport branding, led to unexpected revenue wins.
• Isabelle gives the play-by-play on how startups can show up strong with limited budgets and purposeful sequencing.

Plus:

• Why pre-event planning is where ROI starts
• How to audit your event calendar for strategic fit (not just attendance numbers)
• What actually works for post-event follow-up, and what to skip
• Why one big creative idea can carry you through a whole year of events

Tune in to steal what works and rethink how events drive brand and pipeline!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

"Drew, everyone's talking about emerging trends, but I'm still trying to figure out how we get organic attention on LinkedIn. Meanwhile, my CFO wants us to be 'more predictable,' my first-party data is a mess, and don't get me started on our AI strategy. How do we separate the signal from the noise?" chorused several CMOs during a recent Peer Huddle.

If this sounds familiar, take comfort. You're not alone in this swirl of shiny objects. Here's a fascinating fact: Penguins can actually see underwater better than they can on land, and they're able to spot both nearby threats and distant opportunities. That's exactly the kind of vision CMOs need right now.

So, my fellow marketing penguins here's one last post on how CMOs can cut through in 2025. Today, we're diving into emerging trends.

21. Vertical Marketing: The New Horizontal Growth

One CMO recently shared how they stopped trying to be everything to everyone and instead went deep into two verticals. The result? Their pipeline doubled while their CAC dropped faster than Nvidia's stock after DeepSeek launched. The key? They didn't just change their messaging – they rebuilt their entire GTM around vertical-specific pain points, channels, and buying cycles.

22. First-Party Data: Your New Best Friend

With privacy regulations tighter than a penguin huddle in winter, your first-party data strategy is essential for survival. But here's the twist: One CMO actually reduced their data collection by 30% and saw engagement spike. Why? Because they started collecting what mattered, not what they could.

23. Influence the Influencers

B2B influencer marketing isn't about finding someone with a zillion followers to hawk your goods. It's about building relationships with the voices your customers actually trust. One CMO scrapped their influencer budget and instead created a "wisdom network" of industry veterans. The result? More credibility than a Warren Buffett investment tip.

24. Change Management: Your Secret Weapon

How many transformation initiatives died a quiet death in your organization last year? One CMO I know now treats every new marketing initiative like a change management project. Their secret? They stopped selling the what and started with the why.

25. AI Bots: The Superhuman Touch

Before you roll your eyes at another AI mention, check out what Amanda at 1Mind.ai is doing. This isn't your standard chatbot – it's what happens when AI actually makes customer success more human, not less. It’s still early days, but the initial customer results from 1Mind’s bot are mind-blowing.

That's it. 25 ways to cut through in 2025. The common thread? They're all part of a bigger strategy to make B2B marketing more human, more effective, and maybe even a little more fun.

To all the CMOs out there swimming against the current: Keep diving deep, stay focused on what matters, and remember – even penguins look awkward on land sometimes, but they're absolutely magnificent when they're in their element.

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 449: The CAB Playbook: Structure and Follow-Through

Most companies launch a customer advisory board with good intentions. A few emails go out, a meeting gets booked, and then… not much happens. But when CABs are built with the right structure and support, they can drive some serious value for the business and the customer.

In this episode, Drew Neisser talks with Melanie Marcus (Surescripts), Marca Armstrong (Sensera Systems), and Marina Ilishaev (Boardstream AI) about what separates a one-off event from a CAB that earns ongoing attention, input, and trust. From executive alignment to post-meeting follow-through, this conversation is packed with real examples of CABs done right and lessons from the ones that nearly fell flat.

In this episode:

• How Surescripts turned a CAB into a strategic driver over six years
• How Sensera uses CAB insights to steer product and sales direction
• Why structure, ownership, and trust matter more than slick agendas

Plus:

• How to get buy-in from execs, internal teams, and customers
• Ways to keep CABs active between meetings
• Metrics that help track engagement and impact

Tune in to learn what it takes to build a CAB your customers want to be part of, and your team can actually learn from!

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 448: The CMO’s Path to the Boardroom

Think CMOs don’t belong in the boardroom? Think again. Today’s top marketers are stepping beyond the C-suite, bringing strategic insight, customer obsession, and data-driven decision-making to board-level conversations. But how do you actually make that leap?

In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, Drew Neisser sits down with three marketing leaders who’ve done just that: Denise Vu Broady (Collibra), Peter Finter (KX), and Katrina Klier (Sage Strategy Group). They share how they earned board seats—and how you can too.

In this episode:

• How Denise mapped her board journey five years in advance
• Why Peter leads with risk and strategy to earn trust at the top
• What Katrina looks for in a board-ready résumé (hint: it’s not brand metrics)

Plus:

• Why nonprofit and advisory roles are the best launchpads
• When to invest in certifications like NACD and PDA
• How to talk board ambitions with your CEO (without raising red flags)
• Why CMOs are more board-ready than they realize

Whether you’re just curious or actively pursuing a seat, this episode is your inside track to the boardroom.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

"Drew, my calendar looks like a game of Tetris gone wrong, I haven't had time to think strategically since 2023, and my team keeps scheduling 'quick syncs' that are longer than The Brutalist. I'm drowning in the tactical while the strategic gasps for air!" declared a CMO whose calendar I glimpsed during a recent coaching session.

Here, we have a classic case of calendar chaos. Did you know that Emperor penguins are masters of energy conservation? They can slow their heart rate to just a few beats per minute when diving, saving their strength for what truly matters. Now, that's what I call operational excellence!

Welcome, marketing penguins, to part 4 of my series on how CMOs can cut through in 2025. Today's focus? Mastering your time before it masters you.

16. Delegate or Drown

Here's a radical thought: What if you weren't the bottleneck for every decision? I recently watched a CMO transform her effectiveness by delegating 20% more – starting with all those "optional" meetings she was automatically invited to. Her secret? She asked herself one question before every commitment: "Do I really have to be in this meeting?"

17. No Agenda, No Attendah

Let's make this our new mantra, folks. Would you board a flight without knowing the destination? Then why join a meeting without knowing its purpose? One CMO I know reduced her meeting time by 40% with one simple rule: No agenda in the calendar invite = automatic decline. It sounds harsher than it is. Your team will thank you.

18. Time Tracking Isn't Just for Billable Hours

"But Drew, I know how I spend my time!" That's what they all say until they actually track it. One CMO discovered she was spending 60% of her time on "urgent" tasks that could have been handled by her team. The wake-up call? Realizing she'd spent more time in status updates than on strategy.

19. Think Time: Your New Non-Negotiable

Blocking 5 hours weekly for strategic thinking isn't just nice to have – it's survival. One CMO schedules his think time at 7 AM, calling it his "strategic sunrise." Corny? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely. He's now driving organizational change well beyond marketing.

20. The Great Meeting Purge

Warning: This might hurt a bit. One CMO audited every recurring meeting on her calendar and found that 35% were zombie meetings – they died of irrelevance months ago but kept shuffling along, eating brains and productivity. Her solution? A quarterly calendar reset where every recurring meeting must reapply for its spot.

Here's the truth about operational excellence: It's not about doing more things – it's about doing more of the right things. Your calendar isn't just a collection of meetings; it reflects your strategy. Or lack thereof.

And to all those meeting-happy executives out there: Just because you can schedule a meeting doesn't mean you should. Try an email. Or better yet, trust your team to figure it out.

What's your favorite time management tip?

Read Part 5

Written by Drew Neisser