The third and final day of Brandweek began with an agenda-highlight fireside keynote with Bozoma Saint John, CMO of Endeavor, and Tiffany Warren, svp, chief diversity officer at Omnicom Group and founder of ADCOLOR.

The animated, and often hilarious, discussion focused on the growing importance of proactively preparing for the brand crisis that will inevitably hit.

“We are creating the narrative that is happening in our world,” Saint John said. “It’s important to know when culture shifts or moves and when the heat goes up.”

Warren and Saint John agreed that a crucial part of being prepared hinges on the people deployed to accomplish that and that diverse voices from chief diversity officers and human resources need to be heard in order to find broad and effective solutions and strategies.

“This is a crisis of talent rather than a crisis of creativity,” Warren said. “You need the right people with diverse experiences.”

The conversation shifted to brand responsibility, and both Saint John and Warren held up the recent creative from Nike featuring Colin Kaepernick as an example of where brands need to play in terms of being responsible to their consumers.

“Our culture has changed, and the way we talk to our audience has changed. We have the responsibility to reflect that and take a stand,” said Saint John, who added, referring to the Kaepernick creative, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen advertising go viral in that way.”

The morning then moved to the CMO track, which featured six leading marketing executives speaking on personal passion points that are also key macro themes all marketers looking to the future should consider.

Target CMO Rick Gomez underscored the importance of bringing real human empathy into marketing and retail in all its forms. Heidi Browning, evp and CMO of the NHL, discussed the importance of understanding the next generation of fans and pivoting to deliver experiences that sync up with their on-demand, mobile-first consumption patterns. Examining the responsibility luxury brands have not only to consumers, but shareholders and employees, Patron Spirits CMO Lee Applbaum, shared company founder John Paul’s “success unshared is failure” ethos as a focusing agent for high-end brands.

Lee Nadler, metro marketing manager for MINI USA, narrowed in on the key role brands can play in connecting communities, and Jen Sey, CMO, Levi Strauss & Co. Global Brands, underscored the impact value and purpose-driven brands can have on societal issues like voter registration and inclusion.

Finally, Frank Cooper III, senior marketing director and global CMO at Blackrock, who discussed staying human in the machine age, put forth that technologies like machine learning can actually drive empathy at scale, something that’s hard for humans to do on their own. The human to the power of machines, Cooper said, can unlock new value exchanges for things like personal savings. But, he concluded, “we have to lead with human intentions.”

The inaugural Brandweek ended on a powerful note with a rare, intimate special session with Tony Robbins. The rousing, nearly three-hour session capped the three-day Summit with inspirational notes, guidance and marketing thought leadership from Robbins and his singular call-to-action style and format.

James Cooper
Editorial director, Adweek