CMO Leadership: Relevancy, Agility, and Fearlessness

Relevant, agile, and fearless. These qualities not only describe good marketing strategies, but they also touch on what it means to create interesting, worthwhile, and long-lasting interactions with your  customer. Brian Rowley, CMO of BrightSign, is a firm believer in the impact these qualities can have on a customer. “Every touch point that an individual has with a brand needs to be consistent and relevant to meet their expectations,” Rowley says. Consistency is key for Rowley, not only in terms of message and storytelling, but also when making sure a holistic marketing strategy is relevant, agile, and fearless.

A huge aspect of marketing that drives Rowley is storytelling. From his early days in sales and product management-based roles, to his manifold experiences working for technology companies such as Panasonic Connect and Verizon Wireless, Rowley has come to realize that the ability to tell stories and be creative is a key tool in helping to figure out a customer’s needs. “I love the creative aspect of marketing. I enjoy  translating messages to   visual experiences and further, to immersive experiences. It’s interesting finding different ways that you can do that effectively,” Rowley says. However, Rowley also acknowledges the fact that marketable storytelling has changed a lot in recent years. The domain of consumer goods has become so clustered that it takes a special kind of storytelling to make an impact. “I think one of the biggest challenges is personalizing the message and the content that you’re delivering. The  days of generic and broad storytelling are  gone. People don’t have time for that. They want to know: how does it benefit me?” Rowley says. Rowley goes on to highlight how this thinking around storytelling has shaped much of his approach as CMO of BrightSign. To first note, BrightSign is the global leader in digital signage and experiences. Due to the nature of BrightSign’s outreach, Rowley understands that there’s a huge potential to tap into multiple industries and sectors. The intention of having relevant storytelling that hits certain customers and their pain points is one of Rowley’s main objectives as CMO. “We’re targeting everyone from IT professionals to creative personalities to end users, so there’s multiple audiences and profiles that we’re trying to speak to. However, you can’t speak to all of them in the same way. You must have some level of customization,” Rowley says. This is where agility comes into play. Being able to understand what a certain customer’s use case is for implementing digital signage is important. “Marketing BrightSign means thinking about how we help tell a brand’s story through the use of digital signage.”

As CMO, Rowley prides himself on weaving all moving parts, such as sales and product teams, in an effort to understand, interpret, and share BrightSign’s message consistently and simultaneously. These moving parts represent what Rowley calls “diversity of thought” which is an important practice to implement into marketing tactics. This way of leadership is also what drives Rowley to take on new experiences and roles. “The transition from Panasonic Connect to BrightSign was actually an interesting one, and it was focused on finding a place where I could get my hands dirty and be involved in the creation of a marketing organization and strategy as well the brand storytelling. That’s why BrightSign made sense to me. I have that opportunity here,” Rowley adds.

This freedom afforded to Rowley as CMO also means that he can lead by example, encouraging other employees to be fearless and innovative. Take ownership of your strategy and prioritize authenticity. It’s common to observe brands attempting to outdo each other, but this approach seldom succeeds. Instead, concentrate on understanding your identity, identify your unique value, and effectively convey it to your target audience. A well-defined and skillfully executed marketing strategy is essential. Rowley says.

All in all, Rowley is interested in channeling different areas of thought and innovation to share BrightSign’s goal of helping other companies tell their own stories through digital signage. For Rowley, marketing is about the type of consistent connection you can have with a customer base. “If you really listen and you’re a good listener, I think you can be much more effective personally as well as professionally. So whether it’s at a brand level or  an individual level, having the ability to be a good listener and pull moments out of a conversation that are unexpected will help you make an impact.”