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Marketers have the potential to be one of the most connected people in their company, and that’s often the key to rising to the top.
“It’s absolutely the reason I have the job I have now,” said Diane Nelson, president, DC Entertainment; and president, Warner Bros. consumer products. “All of it came from the ability to collaborate and know how all the areas of business work.”
She, along with Guy Slattery, Viceland co-president and general manager, and Adam Stotsky, E! Entertainment and Esquire president, spoke about how their background in marketing helped propel them to leadership positions in the session “From CMO to CEO” at PromaxBDA: The Conference 2017.
“It gives a really good 360-degree view on how entertainment companies work,” said Slattery, who prior to joining VICE Media, served as executive vice president of marketing at A+E Networks.
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With a deep understand of audiences, marketers, Stotsky said, are uniquely suited to rise to broader general management positions.
“The ability to lead creative teams against problems are what marketers are built for; it’s how they’re wired,” Stotsky said. “Creative ideas, and the people that populate those enterprises need to be inspired and led in a certain way.”
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Indeed, understanding both the consumer and the product in a uniquely deep way is an essential part of running a successful company. While data plays an important role in that regard, “we don’t use data to dictate creative storytelling,” Nelson said. “It’s an art.”
Nelson, who is charged with leading DCE’s rich portfolio of stories and characters across all media and platforms, points to the recently released film Wonder Woman as an example.
It combined research showing the desire to see more female superheroes, the serendipity of on-boarding director Patty Jenkins, and the cultural buzz as people embraced the DC world.
“It was the right time for this movie,” she said.
Stotsky said he values the insight extrapolated from data more than the data itself, using it to validate, sharpen and refine the creative process and business decision making.
But sometimes, it comes down to a feeling.
“Your gut kind of trumps almost everything,” he said. “You know a stinker when you see it. No dataset is going to tell you that.”
By the same token, recognizing you don’t know everything is also a good skill, Stotsky said.
Nelson, for instance, had never read a comic book before joining DC.
Stotsky stressed the importance of hiring, trusting and empowering employees who are masters in their roles, and then getting out of their way.
“Just stepping back and letting the magic happen is challenging on a daily basis, but that’s how you get to brilliancy,” he said.
As Slattery put it, “you have to realize you’re not the marketing guy anymore.”
But when you are the marketing guy, and as you rise to the top, be sure to maintain that connection to the entire organization.
“Wherever you work, make the whole business your business,” Slattery said. “Have an opinion on everything, whether they like it or not.”
Stotsky agrees.
“Stay curious,” he said. “Never stop learning, never stop asking questions, never stop immersing yourself into different worlds and experiencing different people.”
It’s good advice for any industry, but especially entertainment, where everything is changing “on an hourly basis.”
“The minute you stop learning,” he said, “is definitely the minute you stop growing.”
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