Business Insider’s most innovative CMOs of 2024

“Customers for life” is part of Albertsons Companies’ corporate mission. With that in mind, Bram last year harnessed health and wellness to try to transform customer relationships across its 22 supermarket brands, including Acme, Safeway, and Pavilions. 

Sincerely Health, the app he launched in collaboration with healthcare providers and insurance companies, positions Albertsons as a wellness partner ­― and could fuel loyalty by rewarding healthful choices. The app integrates with Albertsons’ e-commerce sites, serving up personalized health and nutrition tips based on purchases and buying history.

At a time when some customers are cutting back on discretionary spending ― and online grocery outlets grab larger market shares ― the app has helped generate a 46% jump in brand awareness for Albertsons Companies stores, the company said.

Bram also broadened Albertsons’ potential revenue streams by launching the company’s first B2B marketing organization. Albertsons now offers customized pharmacy and grocery services to corporate clients, including vaccine clinics, pharmacy services, and grocery delivery.

Bram’s approach is ringing up results. In April, Albertsons reported same-store sales increased 1% year over year, digital sales increased 22%, and loyalty members increased 16% to 39.8 million; the numbers stand out in a year when online grocery sales dipped 1.2% year over year, according to one industry report.

Brimmer has been instrumental in getting brand growth for Ally Financial, while pioneering new approaches to marketing and sponsorship that move the industry forward.

Since around 2022, Brimmer has been driving positive change across the investment of brands in women’s sports. This year marks the two-year anniversary of Ally’s 50/50 pledge, with the aim of spending equally on women’s and men’s sports by 2027. She continued these efforts in 2023 with a first-of-its-kind media deal with Disney and ESPN, which included spending more than 90% on women’s sports. In 2024, Ally became the official banking partner of the USGA, and both US Open golf tournaments, sponsored several women-funded and women-owned media sports properties, and worked with the Sports Innovation Lab to create the largest women’s sports networking group.

The Ally logo is recognized by around three-quarters of sports fans, and women’s sports fans, in particular, have a 71% higher likeability rate and 82% higher preference for the Ally brand, the company said.

Elsewhere, Brimmer has led Ally’s streaming strategy. This included the March launch of the “Side Hustlers” reality series, which spotlights women entrepreneurs and successful investors. The Roku Channel series exceeded viewership projections and boosted visits to Ally.com by up to 17%. Ally also ran a streaming-only Super Bowl ad this year — when a 30-second linear TV spot cost upwards of $7 million — to emphasize the brand’s marketing messages around saving money.

Brimmer’s marketing team is also testing generative AI to make marketing productivity gains and cost savings. Using the Ally.AI platform’s large language model chat and prompt functionality, a group of its marketers was able to reduce the time required to create content by up to two to three weeks and reported average time savings of up to 34%.

Ally says that overall, its brand value, as measured by Brand Finance, jumped by 30% this year, while its trust score grew by 10%, a testament to Brimmer’s efforts.

Caputo uses data and new platforms to keep the insurance company ahead of the curve.

She helped launch the brand’s first TikTok account that posts clips and player videos about the annual Travelers Championship PGA event. The account is currently promoting this year’s upcoming event. Travelers also works with social and gaming creators to market the event to a younger audience than golf traditionally focuses on. For example, a six-hour Twitch livestream event raised about $50,000 for The Hole in the Wall Gang Champ. The livestream had 41,000 concurrent viewers, according to Travelers.

Last summer, Caputo launched a campaign aimed at tackling polarization and divisiveness called “Who cares?” The campaign showed how many people care about issues like forest fires, hunger, and natural disasters. And it targeted people like public officials, CEOs, influencers, and independent insurance agents.

Caputo’s team is also using AI and machine learning to create content, including drafting articles, identifying audience groups, and conducting research. The team has developed tools that sales teams use to track marketing materials and monitor brand reputation on digital platforms and social media.

Caputo has been in the role since 2011 and previously worked in marketing at Citi. She was also previously a Deputy Assistant to former President Clinton and Press Secretary to former First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton during Clinton’s first term in office.

Chalwin joined Workday last year after working in marketing roles at Salesforce and Adobe.

She’s tasked with explaining the cloud company to its enterprise clients, who use the technology to manage human resources and finances. She’s used big branding campaigns on TV to reach B2B marketers.

Following Workday’s Super Bowl campaign last year that starred rock stars like Ozzy Osbourne and Joan Jett, Chalwin helped launch two commercials in April with a similar theme that featured Gwen Stefani, Billy Idol, and Travis Barker. The ads premiered during The Masters, a key time for reaching business executives. Within one month of launching, the ads drove 50% more visits year-over-year to Workday’s website, according to the company.

And this summer, Workday is going on a bus tour in 15 cities to promote its products and clients.

Internally, Chalwin created a program called “CMO School” that includes a learning curriculum and training for skills like upskilling to help marketers grow their careers.

Chalwin is also focused on AI. Chalwin uses AI to cut out time-consuming tasks like creating templates for campaigns and data analysis.

Grant’s job is to give soon-to-be and new parents all the information that they need.

Babylist’s main offering is a registry program for managing shopping for baby products, but the site has also expanded into content such as guides for the best products and health content.

Since Grant joined in 2020, Babylist’s website traffic has increased 25% and reaches about 10 million unique users per month. 

Grant’s role combines the CMO job with head of sales for Babylist’s media business. She helped develop a content studio called The Push, where the company’s editors, designers, and social-media team work with brands like Nike and Wayfair to run campaigns targeting Babylist’s audience.

One of the challenges for parents is sifting through endless amounts of advice and information. Grant has developed new ways to reach this audience through platforms like TikTok and a physical showroom in Los Angeles. The showroom features more than 35 brands, including Gap and Etsy.

Last year, Grant helped expand Babylist into health content with the acquisition and relaunch of Expectful. She also spearheaded a program that offers free breast pumps through insurance plans, and more than 80,000 breast pumps have been shipped.

Under Grant’s leadership, Babylist had more than $400 million in revenue during 2023 — a 40% year-over-year increase, according to the company. 

Grant previously worked in brand and business development roles at The Assembly, Brandless, and PopSugar.

Sustainable outdoor apparel brand Cotopaxi has described 2023 as “the year of collaboration for good” at the company, in which it partnered with like-minded organizations that share its commitment to social and environmental responsibility.

It teamed up with HOKA on a sneaker and hip-pack collab. Later in the year, purchasers of the limited edition Headspace x Cotopaxi hip pack or T-shirt received a two-month Headspace membership and other exclusive mindfulness content. It also joined other brands as part of the Outdoor Industry Association to work with suppliers to reduce their emissions and advance research in this area.

Such efforts helped boost brand awareness from 28% in 2022 to 39.2% last year, the company said. The company grew 35% and surpassed $150 million in sales in 2023. What’s more, the company said it kept 2.75 million fabric yards out of landfills, “which, if laid out, would stretch from Miami to Boston.”

Continuing the partnership theme, Cotopaxi launched the Más Vida trade-in program earlier this year, working with Trove and Tersus Solutions, to encourage people to swap and buy used outdoor gear and apparel. It also became a sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival, providing coats to jurors and filmmakers.

Lee is the marketing force behind Netflix’s shows and experiences.

She’s responsible for taking individual Netflix shows and plugging them into culture to get consumers’ attention. She’s also tasked with building Netflix’s brand amid big changes to the streamer, like the clampdown on password sharing, an ad-supported tier, and growing competition from other streamers.

Within the past year, Lee has spearheaded some of Netflix’s biggest campaigns — many of which are offline with activations and billboards. Most recently, Lee has been touting the third season of the hit “Bridgerton” show with fan events, products from brands like International Delight and Williams-Sonoma, and sneak peeks of the show leading up to its premiere.

For “Squid Game,” she launched an experience in Los Angeles where fans can compete in games inspired by the show. And for Jerry Seinfeld’s “Unfrosted,” billboards in high-traffic areas like New York and Los Angeles oozed Pop-Tart filling with crumbs falling on cars. “Unfrosted’s” ad campaign also included scratch-and-sniff magazine ads. 

The hit “Wednesday” show, a spinoff of the “Addams Family” franchise, went viral with moments including actress Jenna Ortega’s TikTok dance. Season two of the series is currently filming and is sure to get a marketing push from Lee behind it.

Lee joined Netflix in 2021 and was promoted to CMO in 2022, having previously worked at Spotify and Condé Nast.

Marchisotto has used standout marketing and nascent media platforms to put E.l.f. Beauty on the map in an incredibly competitive makeup field. 

E.l.f. returned to the Super Bowl this year with a star-studded cast — including “Judge Judy” Sheindlin, “Suits” star Gina Torres, and Meghan Trainor, among others — to showcase its bestselling $14 Halo Glow Liquid Filter. The ad came together in just seven weeks. Marchisotto said in an interview with Glossy earlier this year that this kind of speedy approach means E.l.f. consistently stays culturally relevant in its marketing.

E.l.f. has grown a reputation for creating buzzy products that go viral on social media. Its unlikely collaboration with the canned water brand Liquid Death this March was no exception. The pair’s limited edition $34 metal-inspired “Corpse Paint” coffin-shaped makeup set sold out in 45 minutes and delivered 12 billion media impressions within two weeks of its launch.

E.l.f. has leaned into newer platforms like Roblox and TikTok to capture the attention of younger consumers. Its Roblox game E.l.f. UP! has surpassed 10 million visits and is one of the top-rated branded experiences on the platform. E.l.f. was also the first brand partner for a TikTok Shop Super Brand Day, which turbocharged its followers and sales.

Under Marchisotto’s leadership, E.l.f.’s marketing budget has grown to 22% of net sales, which rose 77% last year. E.l.f. was the No. 2 brand in the color cosmetics category in the US in March, according to Nielsen, and it’s the top cosmetic brand among teens, according to the Piper Sandler Spring 2024 survey.

Through influencer marketing, partnerships, and social-impact efforts, McCarty has helped make the home-building brand Taylor Morrison top of mind among millennial and Gen-Z homebuyers.

Last year, Taylor Morrison formed a partnership with The Home Edit cofounders Clea Shearer and Joanna Tepin from the Netflix Series “Get Organized with the Home Edit.” The “New Homes, New Zones” content series saw Tepin and Shearer share tips for homeowners looking to organize their new homes. Taylor Morrison homeowners also receive a book with tips specific to their property’s floorplans as part of their closing gift. Taylor Morrison and The Home Edit are also set to feature in ABC’s reboot of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which is currently in development.

Elsewhere, Taylor Morrison has updated its website to become an all-in-one transaction tool for customers to shop for, reserve, and design their dream homes. And it’s begun embracing TikTok with its “Real Talk” series to help answer questions about home ownership.

On the social-impact front, Taylor Morrison partnered with Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center’s “Home Away from Home” program. It’s helping build 16 new homes in Gilbert, Arizona, that will provide free lodging for patients receiving long-term treatment or recovering from surgery.

Last year, sales conversions hit an all-time high with a rate of more than 50%, while brand awareness has increased by more than 15% since 2022.

Mehra is working to make the financial tech company a more mainstream name. The firm offers banking services with no monthly fees.

Under his leadership, Mehra requires that 80% of Chime’s ads feature members to make the ads feel authentic to consumers. The brand’s ads also don’t use stock images or jargon about the banking industry and instead feature quick stories from users about how they use Chime’s products. One ad highlights how direct deposits arrive early and a feature that lets people find nearby fee-free ATMs. The casting calls for these ads have generated more than 56,000 written and 6,000 video testimonials since Mehra joined, according to the company.

Another campaign, “Paying Progress Forward,” featured entertainer Wayne Brady and explored Brady’s financial journey. It generated 368 million impressions and 115 million video views. Chime has also worked with former NFL player Marshawn Lynch.

Mehra’s team also helped develop a card game called Dollars & Sense, which asks questions about money. The game was sold at Walgreens, Amazon, and TikTok.

Mehra has worked at Chime since 2022 and previously worked in marketing roles at companies like Good Eggs, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Johnson & Johnson, and Ancestry.com. Some of his previous campaigns addressed issues like genetic testing at Ancestry and reassuring people it was safe to shop during the pandemic at Walgreens Boots Alliance.

In the staid language-instruction category, Orssaud has elevated Duolingo with a cheeky brand identity that feeds off social-media notoriety and pop-culture hacking. 

Duolingo’s rotund brand mascot, Duo the Owl, has soared from TikTok fame to IRL stardom under Orssaud’s creative direction, inserting itself into events like the Barbie movie premiere and Taylor Swift concert tailgates ― and gaining enormous visibility across platforms. 

This year, the avian influencer also starred in Duolingo’s first Super Bowl ad, overseen by Orssaud. Themed around the owl’s posterior, it racked up more than 84 million impressions. Likewise, an April Fool’s campaign featuring an ersatz “Duolingo on Ice” musical scored more than 80 million impressions. Across the board, Duolingo’s social-media impressions grew to 3 billion in 2023, up 170% year-over-year ― and correlating with business growth, the company said.

Orssaud has also tapped unconventional partners to give Duolingo an edge. For its Japanese-language course, Duolingo aligned with Japanese streamer Crunchyroll to incorporate phrases from popular anime shows. Along with global press coverage, the partnership generated more than 40 million impressions across social platforms, Duolingo said.

While marketers grapple with AI’s practical applications, Orssaud has applied the technology strategically. His team uses an AI-powered data scraper, built in-house, to identify trends from social comments. Orssaud has also encouraged Duolingo’s brand group to apply ChatGPT to help predict cultural moments for the brand to leverage.

Padula wants to make the coffee brand relevant to audiences beyond coffee lovers.

In October, she spearheaded a live sports partnership with Netflix around the “Netflix Cup,” a golf tournament that featured players from Netflix’s golf show “Full Swing” and the racing show “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” Nespresso’s branding and products were integrated into the tournament, which increased awareness by 35% and increased messaging association by 10%, according to Nespresso.

She also helped develop a campaign aimed at gamers with Twitch streamers. Nespresso worked with influencers to show how a small coffee machine fits into Twitch’s growing lifestyle content. One video from the campaign generated more than 3.3 million impressions and was watched until the end by 88% of viewers.

Targeting Gen Z is particularly important to Padula. To promote iced coffee, her team designed a series of mini café events in places like an elevator at One World Trade Center in New York and Santa Monica’s Pacific Wheel that equipped a small coffee machine to give out coffee and create content.

She also runs Nespresso’s sustainability efforts, reflecting how younger audiences like Gen Z value social issues. Padula oversaw the expansion of Nespresso’s recycling program from New York City to Jersey City, New Jersey. In recent months, participation in the program has increased by 2%, according to Nespresso.

Padula has worked at Nespresso for eight years and was elevated to the role of VP of marketing and head of sustainability last year. She was previously director of brand and communications and social media marketing manager, and has also worked in marketing roles at Swarovski and Famous Brands.

Rebhun is turning Instagram and TikTok posts into content that elevates the fast-casual chain.

He is the former CMO of El Pollo Loco, who joined Cava in 2023 — shortly before the restaurant chain went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the past year, he has spearheaded Cava’s social-media presence to capitalize on memes, humor, and ingredient-focused videos. He’s specifically focused on highlighting user-generated content, including a contest in April that awarded three customers $5,000 in credit for sharing the ingredients of their bowls on TikTok. The winners also had their bowl featured on Cava’s digital and app menu as a limited-time product.

Rebhun has also improved Cava’s digital-ordering platform with features like “click to claim” emails for customers to receive loyalty points and a feature that allows people to visualize building their food when placing an order.

Cava plans to relaunch its loyalty program this year. The program allows customers to collect points that can be redeemed for products. As third-party cookies disappear, the loyalty program will also give Cava more first-party data used for marketing. 

Rebhun is also in charge of Cava’s innovation and works with the company’s culinary team to create new ingredients for its Mediterranean products. In one example, Cava tested grilled steak in the Dallas and Boston markets before rolling it out nationally this summer. Cava generated $717 million in revenue in 2023, up 60% year-over-year, and opened 72 net-new restaurants last year.

Since joining Autodesk in 2022, Treseder has been instrumental in driving brand awareness for the design industry software company, boosting new business, and increasing customer satisfaction scores. Her efforts have helped Autodesk exceed its marketing-contributed pipeline targets by 41% and increase campaign conversion rates by 30%, the company said.

In 2023, Treseder led five attention-grabbing brand activations that reached 178 million people, improved brand reach by 4%, and boosted web traffic referrals from social media by 44%. Those included a campaign during the Oscars, a takeover of the Sphere in Las Vegas in partnership with Marvel, and turning every ad on The New York Times homepage into error messages that led to its State of Design and Make report. 

Treseder has also been shepherding the launch of Autodesk’s generative AI 3D-modeling technology. That’s included Autodesk’s marketing department launching its own internal generative AI tool that has reduced video content development time to minutes from weeks and from thousands of dollars to just a few. 

Treseder has been particularly successful in driving growth for Autodesk’s education business, with users increasing by 20 million since she joined the company. Autodesk provides students and educators with its software for free as part of an effort to expand careers and the diversity of the talent pool in professions like architecture, engineering, and video-game design. The company also recently donated $5 million to Howard University as part of an effort to increase diversity in industries like mechanical engineering, where just 3% of engineers in the US are Black. 

Treseder continues to champion public health, women’s issues, and diversity outside her work at Autodesk as the chair of the Public Health Institute and her position on the board of financial services firm Robinhood. She also serves on the board of the Autodesk Foundation and, since joining, has helped it invest in eight organizations and startups that tackle problems ranging from labor shortages in South Africa to the decarbonization of building materials.

Under Watson’s leadership, Celsius, an energy drink brand, has grown from its fitness roots to become a broader lifestyle brand.

Music has become a cornerstone of this strategy. This year, the company expanded its Celsius Essential Vibes Tour to become the presenting sponsor of the Breakway multi-stop music festival. The activation includes on-site workouts, sampling, meet-and-greets, and branded giveaways. The beverage brand also held a “Cosmic Desert party” at Coachella to launch its new Space Vibe drink flavors, welcoming celebrities like Megan Fox, Barry Keoghan, and Halle Berry.

Celsius is still very much embedded in the fitness and sports category. Last year, under Watson’s marketing leadership, Celsius became the official sponsor of Major League Soccer in the US and the Inter Miami CF team. She also expanded the brand’s multi-year partnership with the Scuderia-Ferrari Formula 1 team to help support Celsius’s international launches in new markets like Canada, the UK, and France.

Celsius achieved record sales last year, doubling revenue and surpassing $1 billion for the first time. Watson’s marketing and key moves in new product development — such as introducing new flavors in the fizz-free range, and launching the larger-volume Celsius Essentials line for performance athletes — helped it grow to become the No. 3 energy drink in the US, with an 11.5% market share, according to Circana.

Weiss is responsible for all the media organization’s marketing that spans The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Barron’s.

She’s tasked with promoting the media group to advertisers and clients, as well as consumers. Last year, she hired three new agencies — Mother, Mediahub, and TBWA Worldwide — to shake up its advertising. In one example, a campaign called “Missing Articles” featured a blank front page of The Wall Street Journal to remind the public about reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained by Russia since 2023.

Her marketing efforts have also helped increase news subscribers from 2.43 million in 2019 to 5.7 million as of the fiscal third quarter.

She also oversees marketing for the professional services arm, which includes Dow Jones Risk Compliance, Dow Jones Energy, and Factiva.

She most recently rolled out a multimillion-dollar brand campaign promoting The Wall Street Journal’s new newsroom structure under editor-in-chief Emma Tucker. The campaign aims to broaden the publisher’s business readership.

Weiss joined in 2022 and previously worked in marketing at Citi.

Banks have adopted AI for tasks including compliance and credit decisions. Zaretsky embraced it further, forging the first financial services partnership with OpenAI “to deliver relevant content and insights into the hands of financial advisors in seconds,” according to Morgan Stanley. Zaretsky has also encouraged experimentation with OpenAI in marcomms, fueling content creation, curation, and amplification, the firm said.

Internally, Zaretsky has harnessed metaverse and hologram technology. At Morgan Stanley’s annual sales meeting, she launched a metaverse art gallery themed around helping sales associates work with clients to visualize retirement dreams. And at the firm’s annual BtoB conference, Zaretsky oversaw a program allowing attendees to meet financial advisors via hologram.

Along with social platforms like TikTok, Zaretsky has used traditional media and live activations to elevate E*Trade’s brand at a challenging time for investors. She extended the lifespan of E*Trade’s “Babies” Super Bowl commercial with a post-game campaign dubbed “Money Monday,” which rewarded consumers for investing with Morgan Stanley. Events, including financial-education sessions, saw “record attendance,” Morgan Stanley said; new accounts saw double-digit growth. 

Zaretsky’s results have gone beyond the bottom line, though. When Morgan Stanley acquired E*Trade in 2020, negative feelings about the relationship “were in double digits,” a Morgan Stanley rep told Business Insider. “They now sit at a de minimus amount.”