The CMO Podcast

• Rachel Thornton (Adobe) | Exploring Curiosity Through Digital Experiences

  This week, The CMO Podcast is on a field trip, as Jim recently attended the Adobe Summit Digital Experience Conference in Las Vegas. The three-day event featured over 200 sessions, hands-on labs, sneak previews of new products, and plenty of opportunities for fun networking. So, it’s fitting that his guest is someone at the heart of the Adobe Summit: Rachel Thornton, Chief Marketing Officer of Adobe Enterprise.Adobe is, of course, a company renowned for its creativity, innovation, and strong employee- and customer-centric culture. Its purpose is to change the world through personalized digital experiences, with offerings that include Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Adobe Express. Founded in 1982, Adobe now generates about $22 billion in annual revenue, thanks to groundbreaking innovations such as Photoshop, Acrobat, PDF, Flash, and Firefly.Rachel was a speaker at this year’s Summit and is a newcomer to Adobe, having joined in December 2024. However, she’s no stranger to B2B tech marketing. She began her tech career at Microsoft and went on to hold key roles at Cisco, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, and startups before landing at Adobe.Tune in this week for a lively chat with a curious, history-loving Chief Marketing Officer! ---This week's episode is brought to you by Adobe, StrawberryFrog and Deloitte.Learn more: https://strawberryfrog.com/jimSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• Natalia Ball (Mars) | A Better World for Pets

  As we celebrate National Pet Day, Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Natalia Ball, the Global Chief Growth Officer of Pet Nutrition at Mars. This is a big business for Mars, Petcare is about 60% of its estimated $50 billion in sales. Mars was founded as a candy company by Frank C. Mars in 1911 in Tacoma Washington; it remains to this day a family-owned business. Mars Petcare brands include Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin and Iams.Natalia has been at Mars Petcare about seven years, and was promoted to Global Chief Growth Officer in April 2024. Before Mars, Natalia spent about 15 years at P&G, starting as a brand manager in Venezuela; her last role at P&G was senior portfolio director in global Laundry. Tune in for a conversation with a dog-loving, London-living mom of a seven year old, and a chief growth officer!---This week's episode is brought to you by StrawberryFrog and Deloitte.Learn more: https://strawberryfrog.com/jimSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• How CMOs Thrive in Times of Rapid Change with Emily Silver (Dick's Sporting Goods) | Live from Adobe Summit

  This week we’re bringing you a special episode, recorded live at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas in March 2025. As we here at the CMO podcast are happy customers of Adobe, we were excited to be part of the programming at the Summit. Our topic was How CMOs can thrive in these times of rapid change, with Jim being joined on stage by Emily Silver, SVP and Chief Marketing & Athlete Experience Officer of Dick’s Sporting Goods, to join me on stage. Emily is a returning guest to the show, joining Jim last fall to talk about stepping into her first CMO role. Emily spent over 16 years at PepsiCo, in about nine roles, before she joined the sports brand in 2023. Recorded live in front of an audience, including a collection of Emily’s associates from Dick’s, Emily and Jim discuss how sports brings us together, and how she and her company are thriving in these uncertain times. This episode is brought to you by Adobe.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• Emmanuel Orssaud (Duolingo) | April Fool's Day Measured in Smiles

  Happy April Fools! To celebrate the spirit of first day of April, Jim welcomes to the show one of Duo the Owl’s best friends, Emmanuel Orssaud, the Chief Marketing Officer of Duolingo, one of the hottest growth brands in the world with one of the hottest mascots in the world. Duolingo is the most downloaded education app in the history of the App Store and in 2019 became the top-grossing education app worldwide.Duolingo’s purpose is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available; its core service today is in language learning. Duolingo is only a 14-year old brand, founded in Pittsburgh by Luis van Ahn and Severine Hacker, who met at Carnegie Mellon. It is publicly traded, with a market cap of about $14 billion.Emmanuel, or Manu, has been at Duolingo nearly five years, CMO since August 2023. Prior to Duolingo, Manu worked about five years at Spotify and nine years at Playstation. Tune in for a conversation around growth marketing & more with a bi-lingual CMO (French and English) who is learning Japanese on Duolingo!---This week's episode is brought to you by StrawberryFrog and Deloitte.Learn more: https://strawberryfrog.com/jimSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• Scott Goodson (StrawberryFrog) & Sherry Graziano (Truist) | Teamwork Builds Great Partnerships

  Spring is time for rebirth and renewal…and today’s episode is about a relationship between a client and an agency that embodies continual rebirth and renewal. Jim's guests this week are Sherry Graziano, the EVP, Head of Digital, Client Experience & Marketing at Truist Bank, and Scott Goodson, the CEO and Founder of ad agency StrawberryFrog. Sherry and Scott are longtime partners at Truist, a top 10 US bank headquartered in Charlotte, NC. Truist has a purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities–and they mean that, as you will hear through Sherry and Scott’s stories.Sherry has been at Truist since 2011; she was part of SunTrust, which became Truist after SunTrust’s merger with BB&T. Scott and his agency have been working with Truist for many years. Many brands switch agencies frequently–this is a story of a client and agency who have learned to work together over the years, and thus discovered the magic of teamwork with a common purpose, common objectives, and a shared ambition. Tune in for a conversation on the playbook for a successful partnership!---This week's episode is brought to you by StrawberryFrog and Deloitte.Learn more: https://strawberryfrog.com/jimSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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