Interview with Judd Marcello, EVP, Global Marketing, Cheetah Digital

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here. (what inspired you to be a part of a technology innovation company).
I have always been a marketer at heart. My career has been filled with various marketing roles in both B2C and B2B marketing, spanning 23+ years and in four international markets. In 2007 I was living in Sydney, Australia working in B2C marketing for a global consumer electronics company as a brand manager. This was right about the time that the iPhone came out and digital channels were becoming shiny new objects for marketers to play with. I jumped right in.

In 2009, I moved to London where I was inspired to make the switch to B2B marketing, specifically in the marketing technology industry. I ran marketing in the EMEA region for ExactTarget, the leading marketing SaaS Company in the industry at that time. The opportunity to market to marketers was something that excited me then and still does.

I am still marketing to marketers to this day. Earlier this year I was brought in to lead a complete re-brand, repositioning and relaunch of my current company, Cheetah Digital. As the marketing leader I oversee a global team that is responsible for Cheetah Digital’s brand, GTM strategy, demand generation, marketing operations, digital, marketing communications, public and analyst relations, sales development and events.

My role as the marketing leader is to set the vision and remove barriers so that my team is successful in bringing that vision to life. As much as I love marketing, I truly enjoy positioning my team members for success and seeing them grow in their roles and careers.

MTS: Given the changing dynamic of customer engagement, how do you see the marketing technology landscape evolving in the coming years?
Technology is important, but customer engagement starts and ends with marketing data. Those marketers that have complete command of their marketing data can make winning decisions on how to create and deliver highly-personalized messages that drive customer engagement. Truly, it is all about the messages that marketers send. “Messaging over channels,” is what we like to say. In order to deliver hyper-personalized, unified messaging across all channels you have to know how to activate marketing data to create compelling messaging that shapes the customer experience for your personas.

MTS: What’s the biggest challenge that CMOs need to tackle to make their marketing decisions work?
There are three that stand out for me:

1. Adapting to the changing expectations of the CMO role and the marketing organization to evolve from a lead generation focused organization to a revenue driven organization.
2. How to build an integrated tech stack and calibrate it to create a more efficient, competitive and performance focused process.
3. How to design the modern marketing organization to meet the changing expectations of the CMO. Ultimately, CMOs need to hire a team of marketers with a passion for using data and analytics in decision making, as well as the ability to incorporate creativity and innovation in all stages of the marketing process.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?
I was part of the NYC start-up scene for a few years and there are a few startups I keep my eye on: Smartling (SaaS based global content translation platform), CB Insights (tech market intelligence platform) and Yext (location based knowledge management).

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?

• Content experience
• ABM Targeting & Advertising
• Lead Capture
• Data Management
• Account Sourcing & List Building
• Account Scoring & Predictive
• Lead Routing
• Lead Nurture / Marketing Automation
• Sales Cadence
• Budget & Planning
• Customer advocacy
• Translation management software

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?
With open eyes and ears. AI is evolving fast. What I would love to see is AI helps marketers spend less time on campaign design and more time on strategy and using real-time engagement data to improve the customer experience.

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Passionate.

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
At work it’s Trello, Evernote, Slack and assorted Google products; I am big user of productivity apps- maybe an obsessive user of productivity apps.

For personal use its Spotify (huge music fan), Instapaper, Feedly, iOS News App, Kindle, Audible. I’ll flip through Twitter and Instagram while waiting for the subway.

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
I block out time on my calendar so that I can prioritize work that has to get done. It’s hard to stay true to those time blocks, but I do everything possible to do so.

I use a standing desk all day long. It’s a productivity hack because it keeps me active physically and mentally and focused on the task at hand.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)
I’m deep into two books right now: Petty , a Tom Petty biography and, Sweet Soul Music,by Peter Guralnick. I am listening to the Petty bio on audible and reading Guralinick’s book on the Kindle app. If you call yourself a music fan, Sweet Soul Music is a must read.

I am always reading the WSJ, HBR, Techmeme, Forbes CMO Network and a long list of other marketing related sites. And, I use Twitter and LinkedIn as news sources.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“The truth is easier.” That is actually a quote from Hunter S. Thompson, not advice that I was given. That said, it is sage advice and I refer to it all the time.

MTS: Something you do better than others – the secret of your success?
I don’t know or care if I am better at any one thing than anyone else. I just try to be better at what I do everyday. What I aspire to do, to the best of my abilities, is to have a positive lasting impact on others that inspires them to be better.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Kyle Lacy, VP Marketing at Lessonly.

MTS: Thank you Judd! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.