The CMO Podcast

Many of you listeners here in the US are right now planning your Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and the centerpiece for most of you is a beautiful turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Thursday. Well today–to get you in the spirit–Jim welcomes two special guests on The CMO Podcast: Kyle Lock, the VP of Marketing for the Butterball Company, and Christa Leupen, the Director of Purpose and Consumer Communication for Butterball. Butterball is of course the best known and most loved turkey brand in the US. Their purpose is pure and simple–to help people pass love on. Four years ago Jim welcomed Butterball's Head of Marketing and Sales, Al Jansen, on this show. It was that conversation that helped spark a fire in Al and his fellow team at Butterball to find a path to purpose. A path that Kyle and Christa share with Jim. Kyle Lock is the Vice President of Retail Marketing for Butterball, and has has served in marketing leadership roles since joining the company in 2006. In his current role, Kyle oversees the Retail Marketing function, responsible for strategic planning, product management, innovation, insights, consumer communications, consumer affairs and the historic Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. Prior to Butterball, Kyle served in marketing roles for Tyson’s retail division and before then at Hillshire Farm and Kahn’s, a division of what was the Sara Lee Corporation.  Christa Leupen is the Director of Purpose and Consumer Communications for Butterball. She came to Butterball with 15 years of public relations and communications expertise, spanning agency and in-house roles, with specialty in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. At Butterball, Christa plays a pivotal role in shaping the company's purpose-driven strategy, developing initiatives that create positive change inside and outside the organization, and delivering impactful results that align with the company’s purpose and values. As we all look to moments of gratitude and kindness this holiday season, tune in for a conversation around a company that looks to share that ideal inside and beyond.Listen to Jim's previous episode with Butterball's EVP of Sales & Marketing, Al Jansen: https://tinyurl.com/bde22wtpSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The growth and popularity of Formula 1 racing is one of the great marketing stories of the past five years, and on this week's episode Jim is going behind the scenes to understand why. His guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Louise McEwen, the Chief Marketing Officer of McLaren Racing, the global leader in high-performance supercar production, and elite motorsports. Founded in 1963 by racer, engineer and entrepreneur Bruce McLaren, the company is formed of McLaren Automotive, which hand-builds lightweight supercars; and a majority stake in McLaren Racing which competes in the Formula 1 World Championship and INDYCAR in the US. McLaren is based in the UK, and is one of the top independent companies in the world. The McLaren team is currently in first place in the 2024 Formula 1 series. Louise has known for a long time that she wanted a career in sports & entertainment; Louise studied Sports Science and Social Science at Loughborough University in the UK, before joining sports marketing firm Octagon in 1999. Following Octagon, Louise spent nine years at Vodafone, where she worked with McLaren, before eventually joining the racing company in 2017. Louise was appointed CMO in March 2024. As the racing world eagerly anticipates the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 23rd, Louise welcomes Jim on the track to talk about how storytelling can reshape a brand.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Jim is joined on The CMO Podcast by Greg Lyons, the Chief Marketing Officer for Pepsico Beverages North America. Greg looks over about $28 billion in revenue, with 10 Billion dollar brands, including Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and Bubly. PepsiCo Beverages North America is part of PepsiCo, a $91 billion food and beverage global powerhouse.Greg has been with PepsiCo for over 25 years, and CMO since 2017. He was a guest on the show in May 2020–in the early days of the pandemic. Still, to this day, almost five years later, that episode is one of Jim's absolute favorites. In this episode, they return to many of the themes from that recording, and hear Greg’s perspective on empathy, kindness and having fun.Listen to Greg previous episode from May 2020: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/greg-lyons-pepsico-serving-empathy-at-pepsico/id1460604334?i=1000475927049See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With the holidays nearly upon us, this episode of The CMO Podcast offers some insight and perspective on this year’s holiday season. Joining Jim this week is Claudine Cheever, the VP and Global Head of Brand and Marketing at Amazon. Since its founding in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon has profoundly changed life and business. Thirty years later–Amazon’s revenue is nearly $600 billion, with a market cap of about $2 trillion. It's among the few brands that people just cannot imagine living without. Claudine forged an unlikely path to becoming the Head of Global Brand and Marketing at Amazon. She earned a Bachelors Degree at Colorado State University in Liberal Arts, and later acquired a Masters Degree from the University of North Carolina in American Studies. Claudine started her career as an editor at a publishing company, and eventually had a 20-year run at some of the most famous ad agencies in the world–including McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Ogilvy. About eight years ago, Claudine went from agency to client and joined Amazon. Tune in for a conversation with a leader who joined a brand for the opportunity, but stayed for the creativity and culture.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.