An initial public offering (IPO) moves fast, and much of it is handled by bankers, lawyers and others who do it for a living. For Erika White, chief marketing officer at Navan, the risk for a CMO is getting so caught up in the checklist that marketing misses its chance to make the moment count. Having been through IPOs at Affirm and Navan, she uses the moment to set the company apart, treating it as a signal of staying power to enterprise customers, who buy on reputation.

White explains why she expects every marketer to know the business metrics in the company's S-1 filing and earnings reports, and why any marketing activity that can't be tied to one of them needs a conversation. She also discusses why a public company's marketing team needs both early employees who believed in the mission and people who have operated at scale, and why close partnership with the founder matters when positioning is effectively "on file forever."

Plus, how she defends experimentation once budgets face more scrutiny and her advice for CMOs heading toward an IPO: learn the company's story and love it, because they'll be telling it a lot.

Dig deeper:

~The strategic branding lesson hidden inside SpaceX's IPO

~Performance marketing vs. brand-building—how the best brands weave them together

~The Ad Age CMO Survival Guide

Companies facing a major technology shift don't need to be scared into it or buried in product specs, says Ada Agrait, SAP's global chief marketing officer. They need a partner that will see them through the transformation. And even when a sale runs through a buying committee, marketers are still selling to people. Agrait says SAP's own customers have moved past fear about AI and are asking which partners can help them transform, and she explains how that insight shaped SAP's recent campaigns with BBDO New York.

She also breaks down how SAP is adapting to AI-driven search. That includes answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and a pilot of advertising in ChatGPT. For CMOs who feel out of their depth on AI, her advice starts with the data layer. Of roughly 100 AI pilots SAP's marketing team has run, about 40 have worked.

Agrait also explains why mid-size companies want enterprise-grade solutions and why SAP's 50-plus years of running finance, HR and supply chain processes is an asset rather than baggage. Drawing on 17 years at Microsoft, she shares how she brought a consumer marketing mindset to business-to-business marketing, including humor, clear value propositions and treating customers like humans.

Dig deeper:

~How CMOs are building AI-ready teams without burning out Gen Z

~How CMOs should navigate AI opportunities and risks

~Raja Rajamannar on why CMOs must become enterprise growth leaders

~Meet 13 B2B creators brands are betting on in 2026

~7 standout B2B campaigns from 2025 that prove the space doesn't have to be stodgy

Firehouse Subs is the fourth-largest sub chain in North America, competing against rivals with bigger media budgets and a larger share of voice. Its guests visit for occasions rather than out of habit, anywhere from once a month to three times a year. For Carolina Berti, chief marketing officer for the U.S. and Canada, growth means more visits, not bigger checks.

Berti explains how the 1,500-unit chain pairs linear TV for awareness in newer markets with a heavier bet on social media. Its core guests are families and sports fans 35 and older, but Gen Z already makes up about 9% of customers, a share she wants to grow. As Firehouse plans to add more than 100 stores a year, local marketing teams work with franchisees to build demand before each opening. She also describes drawing on the media, technology and purchasing scale of parent company Restaurant Brands International while resisting a one-size-fits-all corporate playbook.

Berti discusses why Firehouse picked Camp+King as its new creative agency and how its first national partnership, with Major League Baseball, combines national awareness with a youth program that brings the brand into local communities. She also shares how revamping the steak and cheese melt brought guests back more often and why a firefighter heritage, backed by more than $112 million in foundation donations to first responders, gives Firehouse something bigger rivals can't copy.

Ally Financial underwent a major reorganization in the last year to support its strategic pivot toward positioning the consumer bank as an everyday banking brand, while also speeding up decision-making and reducing unnecessary processes. Chief Marketing and PR Officer Andrea Brimmer breaks down the overhaul, which was designed to embed AI use across the organization. The Detroit-based company aims to use the tool not just for efficiency, but as a fundamental consideration in how consumers discover and interact with the brand.

The resulting structure brings together teams spanning brand, data and analytics, go-to-market and media, design and digital ecosystems and communications and CMO operations, giving marketing oversight of the customer journey and making Brimmer solely responsible for any issues.

She discusses the dynamics of the new structure and what it means for Ally customers, and also talks about the evolving nature of the CMO role and where it is expected to go in the future.

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Ally Financial looks to add an agency to its roster

Coterie has surpassed $200 million in annual sales while taking a deliberately selective approach to growth. The baby care brand has expanded beyond its direct-to-consumer roots into retailers including Whole Foods Market and Wegmans, while treating store shelves as marketing opportunities—what Lindsey Kling calls a "giant billboard." Kling says 43% of Coterie's new customers now come through word of mouth.

Kling, Coterie's senior VP of brand marketing, partnerships and business development and one of Ad Age's 2026 Mid Size Brand Leaders, joins the Marketer's Brief podcast to share lessons from Coterie's growth. She discusses why "more is not more" when expanding into new categories, how the brand balances measurable returns with longer-term brand building, and how Coterie is trying to preserve its agility after being acquired by Mammoth Brands.

Dig deeper:

Lindsey Kling leads DTC babycare brand Coterie's charge into retail

Introducing the 2026 Ad Age Mid Size Brand Leaders

Why CMOs need a system for continuous self-improvement—and how to build one

Brands struggle with purchase consideration amid economic pressures

Most marketing leaders get involved after a product is built. SharkNinja Chief Brand and Experience Officer Michelle Crossan-Matos says her role exists because that's too late—she now oversees creative, marketing and customer experience under one roof, with her team co-creating alongside engineers and product teams from the earliest stages of development.

The reasoning is growth, not just structure: Crossan-Matos says double-digit quarterly growth only comes from focusing on the full consumer experience, which is why one person now owns every touch point rather than splitting it across departments.

Crossan-Matos also details the AI Jailbreak Hack Week that produced an internally built tool for predicting which product features will drive sales and five-star ratings—part of how her team stays involved upstream in product development, not just downstream in marketing it.

Dig deeper

~How SharkNinja became a viral marketing machine—and what new hires from Ikea and Ulta Beauty signify

~How Claire's reorganized to meet Gen Alpha demand—starting with squishy hunting for viral NeeDohs

~Raja Rajamannar on why CMOs must become enterprise growth leaders

~The Ad Age CMO Survival Guide

~What CMOs should do in their first 100 days on the job

Saint James Tea Co-Founder and CEO Brad Neumann says a single packaging switch—from cardboard cartons to resealable aluminum bottles—nearly tripled the three-year-old, better-for-you iced tea brand's sales velocity overnight. The bigger signal: Saint James sits in less than 17% of possible retail doors, yet has ranked as the country's fastest-growing iced tea brand in every four-week SPINS reporting period for almost two years.

Why the switch worked: it solved a consumer complaint (the old packaging didn't keep tea cold), and opened channels, including convenience stores, that the old packaging couldn't reach.

The bigger philosophy: build the brand first and let distribution follow. "Our strategy from day one has always been: focus on the brand. Distribution and sales will come," Neumann says. He also details how Saint James uses Costco to drive volume in-store while boosting sales in other retail channels, discusses high-profile brand collaborations including "The White Lotus" and Juicy Couture, and explains how the brand's growing in-house marketing team is helping it compete against much larger companies.

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~5 food and beverage marketing trends to watch in 2026

~ Why the drinks people carry matter more to marketers now

~How this protein soda is marketing to everyday consumers in the GLP-1 era

~How Coca-Cola interns started Sprite + Tea, a new TikTok-friendly variety

~Honest Tea founder on what its shutdown means for purpose-based brands

Most marketing budgets are built to capture demand—people already searching—but Indeed CMO James Whitemore says that's leaving future demand on the table. He explains why Indeed is shifting spend beyond traditional demand capture toward passive and future job seekers, using culture, fandom and brand-building campaigns like "Jobs Need People" to do it.

Whitemore also breaks down how Indeed balances that brand investment with performance marketing, including the blackout and holdout tests it runs to prove top-of-funnel spending actually improves lower-funnel results rather than just adding cost.

He also discusses why he believes the current anxiety around AI and the labor market calls for a more empathetic approach to advertising—and what other marketers can learn from matching their tone to consumers' emotional state.

Dig deeper

~Indeed turns workplace nightmares into punchlines in Tombras campaign

~How America's Hottest Brands are winning with feedback, fandom and smart collaborations

~Performance marketing vs. brand-building—how the best brands weave them together

~5 CMOs share their biggest AI fears—and how they fixed them

~Belonging is the new brand loyalty for financially squeezed consumers