The CMO Podcast

ˆf culture moves at the speed of TikTok, then today’s CMO has to move just as fast.
This week, Jim is joined by Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing and Commercial Partnerships at TikTok. Since launching in the U.S. in 2018, TikTok has reshaped culture, content, and marketing. And its mission, to inspire creativity and bring joy, has fueled extraordinary growth, even as the company has navigated controversy and major shifts, including the recent acquisition of TikTok U.S. by a consortium of investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. The platform now reaches more than one billion users globally and has grown into a multi-billion-dollar advertising business, generating an estimated $33 billion in ad revenue in 2025.
Sofia has spent the past six years helping build TikTok’s business during one of the most dynamic growth periods in tech. In her role, she helps brands around the world show up effectively on one of the most culturally influential platforms in the world. Before TikTok, Sofia served as Chief Client Officer at the consumer insights platform Suzy and began her career in advertising at Publicis, later spending five years at BBDO. An activist at her core, Sofia also speaks openly about representation in tech, where Latinas hold roughly 1% of executive roles, and she is deeply committed to fostering inclusion across the industry.
Tune in for a conversation with a leader who believes today's CMOs must evolve into enterprise leaders who connect culture, creativity, and business results.
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To kick off Women’s History Month, Jim welcomes Lara Balazs, the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Global Marketing at Adobe. A company at the center of creativity, transformation and technology. Founded in 1982, Adobe is a software company that is famous for its creativity, innovation, and strong employee and customer-centric culture. Their purpose is to change the world through personalized digital experiences, and their offerings include the Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Adobe Express.
Lara is an experienced CMO. Before Adobe, Lara was the CMO at Intuit for six years, and oversaw a strong run, tripling revenue during her tenure. Over the course of her career, Lara has worked at Visa, Nike, Amazon, and Gap. At Adobe, Lara is leading the charge to help shape the iconic company into its next era of growth. Just one year into the role, she’s already refreshed the company’s mission to “empower everyone to create” and is leading one of the most ambitious AI-enabled marketing transformations in the industry.
Tune in for a conversation with a leader who believes we are entering the golden age of creativity…
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Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/ccs
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This week's episode is brought to you by IAB.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it take to revitalize a 150-year-old company? Jim’s guest this week, Conny Kalcher, has done it twice. First at LEGO during its historic turnaround, and now at Zurich Insurance as their Group Chief Customer Officer, where she’s proving that empathy is not a soft skill but a strategic advantage.
Conny spent 33 years at LEGO, where she helped navigate one of the most dramatic brand turnarounds in modern business history. Then in 2019, she joined Zurich Insurance, a company with over 200-country reach and a $100 billion market capitalization, to lead global customer loyalty and advocacy at a time when trust and humanity matter more than ever. And since joining, Conny has helped drive millions of new customers, a 35% increase in brand value, and measurable improvements in satisfaction and retention.
This is a conversation about renewing legacy brands, leading cultural transformation, and proving that empathy is not just good for people, it’s good for business.
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Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/newfronts
Promo Code for free access: CMOPODNEW26
*Note: promo code is exclusive for brand and agency, brand marketers and media buyers. IAB reserves the right to cancel any registrations that don’t meet this criterion.
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This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and IAB.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With the Olympics bringing the world together once again through sport, we’re sharing an episode worth revisiting that feels especially timely.
This week, join us as we reach into the vault to share an episode captured live at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas in March 2025. Jim was joined on stage by Emily Silver, SVP, Chief Marketing, eCommerce & Athlete Experience Officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods, the $13 billion revenue retailer.
Dick’s was founded by Dick Stack in 1948 with his first product line, bait and tackle. Today, Pittsburgh based Dick’s Sporting Goods has more than 850 stores and a variety of other experience centers and platforms, all focused on sports, and is a major partner of Team USA and the official sporting goods retail provider for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Emily has worked at Dick’s for about 18 months after spending over 16 years at PepsiCo in about nine different roles. Her CEO, Lauren Hobart, was appointed Dick’s CMO in 2011 and previously held that role for several years.
Tune in for a personal conversation that speaks to the positive influence of sports, something we as a community have been reminded of through watching the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year.
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This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we return with one of our most anticipated episodes of the year…the 8th annual Super Bowl Advertiser Roundtable. As is tradition, Jim is joined by Gary Vaynerchuk to welcome a collection of marketing leaders behind this year’s most talked-about Super Bowl campaigns.
Our Featured Guests are…
Ahmed “Meddy” Iqbal, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Cadillac F1 Team
Gail Horwood, the Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Experience Officer of Novartis
Luis Garcia, the Chief Marketing Officer of Naterra International (Tree Hut)
Steven Saenen, the President of Savory Brands & Crackers Portfolio for Mondelez (Ritz Crackers)
Soyoung Kang, President of eos

Recorded live on the Monday after the game, in partnership with VaynerMedia’s Marketing for the Now, this conversation goes beyond the ads to explore how today’s CMOs think about boldness, experiential strategy, culture, and what it really takes to turn Super Bowl attention into long-term brand impact.
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This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and the IAB.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.