How to Align Leadership with Marketing: A Fireside Chat with Wistia’s CEO

A few weeks ago, our CEO, Chris Savage, sat down with our Head of Brand Marketing, Taylor Corrado, for a fireside chat about aligning marketing and leadership.

They shared advice on winning (and keeping) executive support for your marketing strategy, taking brand risks, adapting to shifting industry expectations, and thinking differently about measuring success.

Let’s dive into some of the biggest insights from their conversation.

Convincing leadership to take creative risks in marketing

Getting execs on board with bold marketing ideas isn’t always easy. But take it from a CEO: A reflective approach can work wonders.

Chris suggests asking leaders what ads, events, or campaigns have stood out to them. Many executives underestimate the subconscious impact of marketing, but getting them to recall their own experiences can shift their perspective.

You can also show them successful marketing campaigns from your industry and highlight what your competitors are doing to create FOMO and urgency.

A new way to measure marketing success

With privacy regulations tightening and consumer behaviors changing, marketers can’t rely on precise data tracking like they used to. Now, success comes down to things like qualitative customer feedback and brand perception, not just perfect attribution models.

Chris put it best: This shift in today’s marketing landscape is like going back to the Mad Men era, where success was determined by overall impact rather than granular tracking. The key is to experiment, listen to your audience, and trust that impactful marketing will lead to long-term growth.

“I think we’re entering a period where we marketers need to get more direct human qualitative feedback to understand how our stuff is performing. That requires more comfort with a lack of data, a level of risk-taking, and, in many cases, being an early adopter.”

Chris Savage
CEO, Wistia

Finding the right balance between brand and product marketing

At Wistia, we’ve found that brand storytelling and product-focused messaging work best when they go hand in hand. Instead of treating brand marketing as just an awareness play, we weave it throughout the entire customer journey.

“When we launch a product or try to tell a story, I think about how that folds into a brand message or a brand campaign.”

Taylor Corrado
Head of Brand Marketing, Wistia

Our recent Webinar Wizard campaign is a great example. It’s about a wizard character who can make your webinars better just by using Wistia. It promotes Wistia’s webinar capabilities in a fun and engaging way while subtly showcasing the product.

Struggling with budget allocation? Consider blending your brand and product marketing efforts. That can help you get more bang for your buck while keeping your messaging consistent.

The marketing landscape is changing fast, and the brands that win are the ones willing to take risks and shift their strategies to stay ahead. If there’s one piece of marketing advice to take from this fireside chat, it should be this: The key to success is to experiment, stay authentic, and keep adapting.