Frontier

Perhaps it’s time to recognise the killer ingredient in any experience is often human; one person tasked with being helpful to another. (Think going off-grid on a farm for a few days has been playing on my mind 🐔)

I’m now a few months into new professional surroundings, leading Frontier at The Beyond Collective. And, as anyone who’s changed jobs after a long journey elsewhere might recognise, there’s plenty of mental furniture to rearrange along the way in these first weeks. I owe a big thanks to all the people I’ve spoken to in that time, new colleagues and old, clients and friends, who’ve all helped shape things along the way. But the biggest thanks goes to Anna of course. In addition to my job change, we’ve also had the small matter of the arrival of our third child back in November and having someone who’s started and built hugely successful teams in your corner away from work really is a bit of a coup. In marketing, the frontiers of change are all around us and two decades of the upheavals driven by technology and the quest for shareholder value are only set to continue and be joined by more; quickly changing socio-demographics, emerging forms of AI, the reality of climate change and beyond. For me, marketing has a critical role to play in all of these as businesses evolve and seek to thrive with audiences and customers. At Frontier, we want to partner with marketers looking to spark and sustain change in their own organisation. Marketers seeking to build the emergent future of their business, rather than allowing the future be something that simply happens to them. We help their teams better understand those frontiers, define the north stars that can steer through the complexity, and help leaders figure out how to change and grow. Whether it’s defining a strategic north star with the powers to unite teams internally and mobilise the audience, or leaders looking to galvanise their entire organisation around a change story, the fact we’re powered by the Beyond Collective makes a difference. It means our thinking is both grounded and inspired by a creative maker mentality, and that we can make an impact no matter the audience, be they consumers or internal stakeholders. Frontier is a strategy and change consultancy building brands that flourish on the frontiers of change. If any of this resonates with you, please do drop me a note to find out more, whether you're interested in Frontier working with you or if you’re interested in joining our network of partners. I also wrote a little more about this in Raconteur: https://lnkd.in/e47TdVt9

Is the presence of CFOs at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity a good or bad thing? In my view, it can only be good. In fact, I believe the festival has an opportunity to create a more focused space for the CMO-CFO relationship. Last year, Mastercard's CFO Sachin Mehra captured attention with their talk (alongside CMO Raja Rajamannar), and this year it was the turn of McDonald's CFO Ian Borden (alongside CMO Morgan Flatley) to make industry headlines, sharing the success of gaining more alignment with their marketing counterparts. But there's plenty of research out there that shows that CMO C-suite relationships - and particularly that with the CFO - aren't what they could be. Yet the upside from getting on the same page is writ large, based on the reception to the above talks. Having briefly been on the inside of the festival in my previous role before joining Frontier, I know how much progress has been made in recent years to get marketers, measurement, and results in clearer focus (such as The CMO Growth Coucil, the Creative Effectiveness Lions, the WARC Creative Impact track). There's now a significant and meaningful opportunity - that some may not like - to elevate and expand this, for the good of the industry. More priests in Las Vegas please. I've written about this in something I've penned for The Drum (with thanks to John McCarthy for publishing).

The remit of the CMO is wider than ever. So how should those in the role balance driving the marketing function forward with leading the charge at the frontiers of change? Dan Southern, Frontier MD, writes for WARC about the 3 foundational pillars CMOs should adopt for success. Read it below ⤵ https://lnkd.in/dKUdPfdN?