In short, the report states, it’s time for CMOs to lead culture. This is something that CMOs recognize: Brandpie talked to CMOs at 50 top companies for the report, and 100% said that it’s important to maintain consistency between external brand promises and internal company culture. 

It makes perfect sense: Employees facilitate customer experience, which is vital to all businesses regardless of a marketing campaign. Satisfied employees who feel like their organization truly reflects the values displayed to customers via marketing campaigns play a large part in selling brand value. Even for large brands that don’t have much direct customer interaction, a company’s reputation as an employer speaks loudly. Negative employee experiences that conflict with brand values can spread quickly on social media.

While CMOs play a much different role in companies than CHROs, their specific expertise can go far in improving employee experience. CMOs are experts at telling engaging stories, creating value propositions, and using technology to connect people and messages—all areas in which the HR department does not traditionally excel. CMOs can work with HR on messaging and experience—from recruitment to onboarding to ongoing development—in order to instill this culture. And through their insights into customers and the environment in which brands compete, CMOs can keep this culture strong.

The current economic uncertainty is impacting many departments at many businesses. I talked to Jonathan Slavin, a digital advertising veteran who is the chief business officer at Infolinks Media, about how it’s likely to affect advertising. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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Google disagreed with the ruling, and VP for Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said on X that the company will appeal. “Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”

What happens next is yet to be determined. The tech giant could be forced to sell off some of its ad tech companies, which will be decided in separate court proceedings. This is the second time in a year that a federal judge has found that Google violated antitrust laws. In August, Judge Amit Mehta ruled the company illegally maintained a monopoly with its search engine. A three-week hearing to determine the proper penalties for that case started this week, CBS News reported. The Justice Department is arguing that Google should be forced to divest its Chrome browser.

This year’s honorees include Tubi CMO Nicole Parlapiano, who essentially created the brand for the Fox-owned, ad-supported streaming network. Forbes’ Laura Ratliff writes that during the Super Bowl in 2023, Tubi burst onto the scene with a commercial that made it look like TVs were switching into the Tubi app in the middle of the game—and it made many viewers think they had mistakenly changed the channel. The disruptive ad worked, generating a conversation about Tubi during the Big Game. In the two years since, Tubi’s monthly active users have nearly doubled, from 50 million to 97 million. 

Hospitality company Ennismore’s CMO Martina Luger was also recognized. Ratliff cites Luger’s introduction of the Dis-loyalty program for the company’s 17 hotel brands and restaurants. Instead of rewarding people who have remained loyal to a brand, the Dis-loyalty program gives discounts from the beginning, including 50% off of new openings, 20% off first-time stays and 10% off return visits. 

With wide use of AI technology throughout the business world, building trust is becoming more important. Here are three ways to maintain the trust of your employees and potential customers as you transition to using more AI.