Welcome to another special episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast. Today, Jenny Rooney speaks with Jennifer Halloran, CMO and head of marketing and brand at MassMutual. Join us as we discuss the evolving role of CMOs as visionary business leaders who drive innovation and growth at their companies.
Halloran shares insights on the challenges of building awareness in a highly segmented market and emphasizes the importance of connecting with consumers and understanding their needs. She highlights the shift toward digital marketing and the performance metrics that impact growth.
“People tend to buy from brands they love. Everything else they buy on Amazon,” Halloran says on the podcast.
Halloran is an award-winning brand-builder and an avid believer that a deft combination of performance-driven marketing and inspired creativity unlocks business value and drives growth. As CMO at MassMutual, she designed a strategy to reinvent this iconic 170+ year-old brand, delivering a 40% increase in key brand metrics across B2C and B2B audiences.
She enjoys the daily challenge of iterating a brand strategy that aligns with the current customer base, while acting as a change agent to reach new audiences.
Halloran manages the brand with an eye to the end-to-end customer experience across multiple distribution channels and touch points through the funnel. Having started out as an agency account executive, she enjoys building valuable relationships with internal executive teams as well as external agencies, media, and industry partners. She actively seeks big, unique opportunities to connect the brand purpose in authentic ways.
SurveyMonkey Curiosity Awards
The most innovative marketers are the ones who dare to ask the questions that matter and encourage a culture of curiosity in their organizations.
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Click here to learn more about the 2024 SurveyMonkey Curiosity Award winners.
Key takeaways:
06:06 CMOs as Business Leaders — Halloran believes in building wide circles of relationships and fostering trust. As a leader, she prioritizes confidence and trusts her team to make their own decisions. When leading a new team, it’s crucial to build trust and empower them while having the confidence to make tough decisions when needed. Trust, relationships, and confidence have been essential to her leadership approach in bridging connections across the company.
