A CMO Confidential Interview with Richard Sanderson, the Marketing, Sales, and Communications Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart. Richard starts with the basics of salary, bonus and equity and branches out to compensation mix, the various types of equity, negotiating best practices, and the "other" elements of an offer. Key topics include: why the devil is in the details; when and how to discuss compensation; the difference between dumb luck and bad luck; and why everyone should do a "multi-year cash flow analysis." Tune in to hear why you should always read the proxy statement and the importance of being prepared to explain how you are using AI.

What should CMOs (and aspiring CMOs) know about salary, bonus, and equity—and how do you actually negotiate it? Mike Linton sits down with Richard Sanderson, Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart, to demystify executive compensation for marketing leaders. They cover base pay vs. bonus, RSUs vs. options vs. PSUs, vesting mechanics, event-based triggers, how and when to negotiate, and what new pay-equity laws mean for candidates. Real talk on forfeitures, bonus history, and why your “one big ask” matters when the offer finally comes.

What we cover

• Why CMO pay data is scarce (and what that means for “market rate”)

• Compensation mix: public vs. private/PE, U.S. vs. Europe, and “CMO+” roles

• Equity 101: RSUs, options (strike prices/underwater risk), and PSUs (accelerators/decelerators)

• Vesting models: time-, performance-, and event-based—and what you can/can’t negotiate

• Bonuses: how targets are set, why they’re harder to move, and the 3-year payout history test

• Negotiation timing: expectation-setting, handling the “what are your expectations?” question, and using information asymmetry to your advantage

• Pay-equity & transparency laws: what recruiters can ask (expectations) vs. can’t (history), and how to discuss forfeitures

• Offer strategy: why you typically get one high-leverage counter—and how to use it

Sponsor

@quadgraphics — Better marketing is built on Quad. When everything in your marketing machine works together, efficiency, speed, and ROI go up. See how better gets done: www.quad.com/buildbetter

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🎧 New episodes every Tuesday.

📰 Companion newsletter every Friday with the top insights.

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Dwight Hutchins, Senior Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and a Northwestern Adjunct Professor, previously Managing Director at Accenture focused on Consumer Products, Health Care and Public Service. Dwight shares his thinking on why marketers should be prepared to reduce expenses and shift resources into a re-imagined future versus incrementally evolving spend and structure. Key topics include: his belief that the complexity of marketing has resulted in many instances of wasted spending; the importance of "unaided first brand response;" why it's important to be "ahead of the expense reduction game;" and how to focus on working versus non-working dollars. Tune in to hear how about reducing $1B in spend to fund new initiatives and a "wild west" story about a battery on-pack promotion.

The Fine Art of Reducing Marketing Expense in an AI World

This week on CMO Confidential, Mike Linton sits down with Dwight Hutchins—Senior Partner & Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group and adjunct professor at Northwestern—to tackle the question every CMO hears from the CFO: “Keep the top line growing… and cut your budget.”

Dwight explains how to find waste without hurting performance, where AI actually improves efficiency (and where it doesn’t), how to test into cuts with confidence, and why many brands still miss “sufficiency” by spreading spend like peanut butter. We dig into frequency capping, working vs. non-working ratios, zero-based budgeting (used sanely), org design, insource vs. outsource, and a real-world case where a company freed up billions and redeployed it to growth channels. Stay for his “Wild West” in-store marketing story—complete with batteries taped to milk.

Sponsored by Typeface — the AI-native, agentic marketing platform that turns one idea into thousands of on-brand assets across channels, safely integrated with your MarTech stack. See how leaders like ASICS and Microsoft scale personalized content with Typeface.

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⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Intro & guest: Dwight Hutchins (BCG)

02:05 – The market reality: uncertainty, shifting buyer values

06:10 – CFO pressure: “grow and cut” in the same breath

09:20 – AI spend vs. payoff: recalibrating expectations

12:25 – Media fragmentation & the “peanut butter” budget problem

15:55 – Where AI helps most: measurement, targeting, creative ops

19:10 – Forensic cuts case study: freeing up massive dollars

23:10 – Finding waste: frequency caps, ad length, quality controls

27:05 – “First Fast Response”: demand spaces & brand power

30:20 – Sufficiency & focus: stop starving campaigns

33:05 – Working vs. non-working: ratios that actually move results

35:20 – Zero-based budgeting (in moderation, with data)

37:10 – Org & ops: redesigning execution, in/outsourcing lines

38:55 – Fun story: the “batteries-on-milk” promo & promo ROI

40:00 – Final takeaways & sponsor

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Kate Bullis and David Wiser, Managing Partners and Global Marketing Practice Leaders for ZRG Partners. Kate and David translate their extensive search experience into a pre-game, game time, and post game look at the errors candidates make during the recruiting process. Key topics include: why thorough preparation includes self awareness, a "shopping list" and pattern recognition; how "playbooking," talking too much, and disengagement can doom your interview; and best practices for turning down an offer, handling a disappointment, negotiating an offer, and accepting the opportunity. Tune in to hear why you should never turn down a written offer and other things to avoid if you want to stay off of the search firm's "Do Not Call List."

What are the biggest mistakes CMOs make during the interview process?

This week on CMO Confidential, host Mike Linton sits down with Kate Bullis and David Wiser, Managing Partners at ZRG and two of the most experienced executive search leaders in marketing. Together, they break down the interview process into Pre-Game, Game Time, and Post-Game—sharing where CMOs most often stumble and how candidates can set themselves up for success.

If you’re a C-Suite executive, board member, or aspiring marketing leader, this episode delivers unfiltered insights into how top recruiters evaluate CMOs and what separates successful candidates from the rest.

Sponsored by @typefaceai — the generative AI platform helping the world’s biggest brands scale personalized marketing in hours, not months.

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⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Welcome and introduction

03:15 – Why interviewing for a CMO role is uniquely challenging

07:40 – Pre-Game: Preparing beyond the résumé

13:05 – What search firms and boards are really looking for

17:50 – Game Time: How to manage the actual interview

23:30 – Mistakes CMOs make when telling their career story

29:10 – Post-Game: Following up and maintaining momentum

34:20 – The role of references and backchannel checks

37:50 – Final advice for candidates and boards

40:00 – Wrap-up and sponsor message

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📌 Tags

CMO Confidential, Mike Linton, Kate Bullis, David Wiser, ZRG Partners, CMO interview tips, marketing executive search, chief marketing officer, CMO mistakes, CMO hiring process, how to become a CMO, executive interview prep, board expectations for CMOs, marketing leadership, CMO role design, interview strategy, executive recruiters, marketing careers, marketing C-Suite, executive search firms, leadership hiring

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. Dan McCarthy, Professor of Marketing at Maryland and leading practitioner of Customer Lifetime Value. Dan shares insights from his privacy research based on Apple's "App Tracking Transparency" (ATT) initiative commonly known as "Ask App Not to Track" which include a significant impact on business results, a degradation of CAC, and a disproportionate hit to small companies. Key topics include: how the elimination of a Facebook customer ID negatively impacted revenue, why averaging marketing results can be a profit killer, and why analytical time frames matter. Tune in to hear updates on Dan's other research including Peloton, loyalty programs and "How everyone is cheating their way through college."

CMO Confidential: The Disparate Impact of Privacy Policy — with Dr. Dan McCarthy (UMD) on ATT, CLV & CAC

What happens to your revenue when attribution breaks? In this episode, 5x CMO Mike Linton sits down with Dr. Dan McCarthy (Professor of Marketing, University of Maryland; leading practitioner of Customer Lifetime Value) to unpack Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and its ripple effects on marketing performance. Dan shares new research showing how the loss of a Facebook customer ID degraded click-through, CAC, and revenue—with disproportionate pain for smaller, Facebook-heavy brands.

We dig into why averages kill profit (stop using blended CAC/CLV!), how channel-specific, time-varying metrics drive smarter allocation, and the practical playbook for marketers in a post-IDFA world. Dan also updates us on his other research—Peloton, loyalty & subscription programs (DoorDash/Postmates), and the “everyone is cheating their way through college” debate and what it means for teaching and real-world readiness.

What you’ll learn

• How ATT broke cross-site attribution and raised CAC while lowering revenue yield

• Why small DTC brands took the biggest hit, and how (or if) they can recover

• The danger of blended CAC/CLV vs. channel-specific, time-varying metrics

• Subscription insights: novelty vs. maturity effects, and behavior after cancellation

• Action items to protect growth when signal quality declines

About our guest

Dr. Dan McCarthy is a professor at the University of Maryland (formerly Emory) and one of the foremost experts on CLV and customer-based corporate valuation. His work spans privacy’s impact on e-commerce, subscription economics, loyalty programs, and public-company customer metrics.

Sponsor: Typeface

Typeface helps the world’s biggest brands move from brief to fully personalized campaigns in hours, not months. With its agentic AI marketing platform, one campaign becomes thousands of on-brand experiences across ads, email, and video—with enterprise-grade security and seamless MarTech integrations. Learn more at typeface.ai/cmo.

Subscribe for more C-suite-level conversations every Tuesday, and catch our Friday newsletter with the top insights.

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00:00 – Intro & sponsor: Typeface AI

01:35 – Meet Dr. Dan McCarthy & ATT explained

05:00 – How ATT broke attribution and raised CAC

09:15 – Why small brands took the biggest revenue hit

13:30 – The danger of blended CAC & CLV averages

17:20 – Practical advice: channel-specific, time-varying metrics

21:00 – Updates on Peloton & subscription research

25:00 – The “everyone is cheating in college” debate

28:00 – Final advice: beware of irrational subscriptions

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

CMO Confidential — “What Your CFO Wants to Tell You (But Won’t)” with CNA CFO Scott Lindquist

What does a great CFO really think about marketing? Mike Linton sits down with Scott Lindquist—CFO of CNA Financial and former long-time CFO of Farmers—to decode the finance side of brand building, performance spend, and the politics of the boardroom. They cover how CMOs should onboard a new CFO, why “marketing math” wins over skeptics, mistakes to avoid in board presentations, and how insurers used bold brand bets to become category killers.

What you’ll learn

• The four archetypes of CFOs—and how to work with each

• Why CFOs who are “joined at the hip” with the CEO think differently about growth

• How to explain cost of capital and present value like a marketer (and win budget)

• The insurance playbook: brand investment, DTC distribution, and lifetime value

• Why every large marketing org needs a Marketing CFO (and how to set it up)

• Boardroom pitfalls: jargon, 100-slide decks for 20 minutes, and “draining the slide”

• Practical tips for building trust: bring the data, surface bad news early, and speak in outcomes

Guest

Scott Lindquist — Chief Financial Officer, CNA Financial. Former CFO, Farmers Insurance. Started at PwC and has led finance through growth, turnarounds, and public-company scrutiny.

Host

Mike Linton — Former CMO of Best Buy, eBay, and Farmers; former CRO of Ancestry. Host of CMO Confidential, the #1 CMO show on YouTube.

Who should watch

CMOs, CEOs, CFOs, board members, founders, and marketing leaders who need tighter finance alignment and clearer ROI storytelling.

Brought to you by Typeface

Legacy marketing tools weren’t built for AI. Typeface is the first multimodal, agentic AI marketing platform that turns one idea into thousands of on-brand assets—across ads, email, and video—while integrating with your MarTech stack and meeting enterprise-grade security needs. See how brands like ASICS and Microsoft accelerate content at scale: typeface.ai/cmo.

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Kim Whitler, professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, board member, and former GM and CMO. Kim shares insights from more than a decade of research with over 500 CMO's including how 50+% of roles are misaligned, the huge gap between CEO's and CMO's, the fact that misalignment results in weaker financials, and her belief that better position matching would "prevent" the "cure" of firing the CMO. Key discussion topics include: why the CMO position has the most variance in the C-suite; the importance of matching responsibility, experience and status; and why she thinks search firms can do a better job. Tune in to hear marketing analogies to the New England Patriots line-up and James Bond movie casting.

Colonel Mustard, in the Study…with the Job Spec? Why Poor Role Design Shortens CMO Lifespans | CMO Confidential

Welcome back to CMO Confidential, the podcast that takes you inside the drama, decisions, and politics that go with being the head of marketing. Hosted by 5x CMO Mike Linton (Best Buy, eBay, Farmers Insurance, Ancestry.com).

This week, Mike welcomes back Dr. Kim Whitler, Professor of Marketing at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, former CMO, board director, and one of the foremost researchers on the CMO role. Kim has spent 14+ years analyzing 500+ interviews and hundreds of job specs to uncover why nearly 54% of CMO roles are misaligned—and what that means for tenure, effectiveness, and marketing’s reputation in the C-Suite.

From her groundbreaking research (published in HBR, Sloan Management Review, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science) to real-world board and executive experience, Kim breaks down:

* Why job specs often set CMOs up to fail

* The massive perception gap between CEOs (who think roles are well-designed) and CMOs (who don’t)

* How status, responsibility, and experience combine to drive—or derail—firm outcomes

* The practical questions every CMO candidate should ask before taking a job

* Why “throw away the job spec and write your own” might be the smartest advice you’ll hear

🎙️ Whether you’re a CMO, CEO, board member, or aspiring marketing leader, this is a masterclass in role design, negotiation, and how to set marketing up for real impact.

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📌 Episode Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to CMO Confidential

01:30 – Introducing Dr. Kim Whitler

04:00 – Why CMO job specs often fail

08:15 – Defining “misalignment” in CMO roles

13:00 – The role of status, responsibility & experience

18:30 – The CEO vs. CMO perception gap

24:00 – Practical questions every CMO candidate should ask

30:00 – Negotiating role design & avoiding pitfalls

33:30 – Kim’s closing advice & final story

- About Our Sponsor: Typeface AI

This episode is brought to you by Typeface AI www.typeface.ai/cmo — named Company of the Year by Adweek, a TIME Best Invention, and one of Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech.

Typeface helps the world’s biggest brands move from business brief to fully personalized campaigns in hours, not months. Their agentic AI marketing platform scales a single campaign into thousands of on-brand experiences across ads, email, and video—all while integrating seamlessly with your MarTech stack and maintaining enterprise-grade security.

See how brands like Asics and Microsoft are transforming marketing with Typeface at typeface.ai/cmo.

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CMO Confidential Interview with Tom Goodwin, author, speaker, and former innovation head at Publicis, Zenith, and Havas. Tom discusses his belief that today's CMO's are overly focused on efficiency versus marketing principles and that the contemporary playbook has been created by tech companies focused on performance metrics. Key topics include: an unhealthy focus on the speed of measurement and short-term results; marketers having a "feeling of vulnerability" if they haven't heard of new tech; and the fact that many of the hyped direct-to-consumer brands like Casper and Ridge Wallets aren't actually doing that well. Tune in to hear the underestimated impact of "beauty" and a story about being locked out of a self-driving car.

🚨 New Episode of CMO Confidential 🚨

This week, host Mike Linton (5x CMO: eBay, Best Buy, Farmers Insurance, Ancestry.com) sits down with Tom Goodwin — author, speaker, and former global head of innovation at Publicis, Zenith and Havas.

Tom argues that today’s marketing playbook has been hijacked by tech platforms obsessed with performance metrics and short-term efficiency. In this wide-ranging conversation, we cover:

✅ Why CMOs are over-indexing on efficiency at the expense of brand-building principles

✅ The fear of irrelevance driving marketers to chase every new technology trend

✅ How speed of measurement is warping long-term thinking

✅ Why many direct-to-consumer darlings like Casper and Ridge Wallets aren’t as successful as headlines suggest

✅ The underestimated role of beauty and creativity in building lasting value

✅ A wild story about being locked out of a self-driving car

Whether you’re a CMO, founder, board member, or just obsessed with the future of marketing, this episode is a must-listen.

👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more insider conversations on what it really takes to be a modern CMO.

#CMO #MarketingLeadership #TomGoodwin #CMOConfidential #BrandBuilding #MarketingStrategy #CMOInsights #DigitalMarketing #Innovation

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0:00 – Welcome & Intro: Meet Tom Goodwin

2:15 – Why CMOs Overvalue Efficiency

6:40 – The Tech-Driven Marketing Playbook

11:05 – Vulnerability & Fear of Missing Out on New Tech

15:20 – The Problem with Short-Term Metrics

19:00 – DTC Myths: Casper, Ridge Wallet & Beyond

23:45 – The Undervalued Power of Beauty & Creativity

28:10 – Locked Out of a Self-Driving Car (Story)

30:15 – Final Takeaways & Wrap-Up

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