We regularly ask our Rockstar CMO community what they insist on being in their marketing dressing room and this is the result.
Print it. Put it up in your cubicle. Send it to your next boss. Then check back every month as we add members to our marketing super group and update the list.
In Backstage at Rockstar CMO, we ask senior marketers what makes them tick, who influences them, what they love and hate about the craft, and what tune gets their Monday morning marketing mojo going. Inspired by the infamous Van Halen brown M&Ms rider request, we also ask them:
What would be top of your rider for your next marketing gig?
In response they have channeled their inner David Lee Roth and given us their insight.
You can read more about our fabulous contributing rock stars here, but thank you to John Andrews, Christine Bailey, Wendy Bryant-Beswick, Darren Guarnaccia, Jeanniey Mullen, Amber Osborne, Robert Rose, Ted Rubin, Tom Wentworth and Jenni Young .
So far, we have this magnificent seven:
#1 Inspired leadership
It’s hard to choose which should be number one, but as Darren Guarnaccia, Christine Bailey and Jeanniey Mullen all put this on our list, it makes it to the top of the charts.
Looking at the other interviews with these guys, it’s also clear that if you have a great leader, many of the other items from our rider would fall into place – like product, people, and even gummy bears.
“A leader that gets that marketing is about creating value in the marketplace.”
Darren Guarnaccia
Me? I’m a sucker for someone who wants to take everyone to chocolate island, to the top of Everest, the moon, or just to build a company of which its employees will be proud. Choose your boss, not just your job.
“If I could wave my magic rockstar guitar and get any rider I wanted, I’d force some CEOs to have that patience for a long-term marketing investment. ”
Robert Rose
#2 Great people
A no-brainer, perhaps, no one is going to join a company when they have been interviewed by a bunch of bastards, but great people and a passionate and engaged team got on the list for John Andrews, Tom Wentworth and Jenni Young.
“A passionate and engaged team – both in the marketing department and across the business […] the whole organization needs to be engaged and support what the marketing team is delivering. Silo working is just not an option.”
Jenni Young
#3 Marketing is considered a long term, core part of the business
We’ve all seen these marketing departments that are basically the typing pool for the business, running on a hamster wheel of creating press releases, data sheets and web pages as dictated by “the business” – a marketing team that is as strategic as the folks that empty the trash.
Amber Osborne suggests that “Marketing should always be done while products are being developed, not just after”, and John Andrews agrees, as a CEO now but a marketer at heart, he lists “Marketing integrated into the business,” on his rider and it makes it to #1 for Robert Rose too as “long term marketing investment vision”.
“The #1 Rider item for me is a ‘long term marketing investment vision.’ Marketing strategies are evolving from the legacy, campaign-centric view of faster, iterative projects to a more 24X7X365 ‘always-on’ mentality.”
Robert Rose
#4 A product people love
Tom Wentworth and I both included this in our riders, probably because we are both B2B software guys. Specifically, a product that people believe in and a large market for it – not necessarily the best product in a segment, but the one people that love the most.
“My rider has three things on it: a large market, great people, and a product that users love – in that order. You can build a good company with one or two of those, but if you want to build a great company, you need all three. ”
Tom Wentworth
#5 The right tools
Wendy Bryant-Beswick, Christine Bailey, Amber Osborne and Jeanniey Mullen all chimed in on this one, so maybe it should be higher up the list, but we have a mixed opinion on marketing tools on Rockstar CMO and there is some cynicism around tech solving people and process problems.
But, as Bryant-Beswick says, “It’s so important to have the technology in place to support a contemporary, innovative marketing effort”, and who wouldn’t agree with Mullen, who refers to an agile and open tech stack. Obsorne nails this difficult relationship marketers have with their software when she says:
“We don’t use any marketing tools that you need a degree in said tool to use”
Amber Osborne
#6 Some fun
Amber Osborne led the line here for sure with her rider featuring mandatory karaoke and no meetings before 9am. While none of our rockstars insisted taking all the brown M&Ms out of the bowl, Cadbury’s Cream Eggs (and not the little ones) are a deal breaker for Jenni Young, while and an endless supply of chocolate and gummy bears to keep up with these crazy, ever-changing times was suggested by Jeanniey Mullen.
“life is way too short to waste on a job you don’t love”
Christine Bailey
#7 No bullshit!
Pretty much the catchphrase for Rockstar CMO, I leave the final word to Ted Rubin on this one:
“…leaving the political bullshit to those who care ”
Ted Rubin
But we are just scratching the surface with these seven points.
All of these guys share so much more in their backstage interviews (ever considered a cobot?); they are insightful and entertaining in equal measure, and I would encourage you to take a look. It’s my favorite section in our publication.
What advice would you give to people choosing a new marketing role and what would you put on your rider? Follow us on Twitter and share with it with the crowd.
