- yesterday
At Fortune’s exclusive Fuel Up With Fortune panel in Cannes, a cohort of powerhouse women CMOs discuss how they're reinventing brand storytelling and what it means to build a brand in the digital era. Fortune's Ruth Umoh was joined by Global Chief Client Officer at Monks, Deborah Heslip, Chief Digital Officer at Diageo, Susan Jones, Chief Marketing Officer at Autodesk Dara Treseder, and Chief Digital Officer at E.L.F Beauty Ekta Chopra.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, everyone. Delighted to be here. Delighted to see so many new faces, a number of old ones.
00:06I know, Dara, you've been a part of an NPW community, so I'm sure you're just as excited as we are to hear about our Europe expansion.
00:12I'm Ruth Umo, Executive Editor at Fortune, and as Irena said, co-curator of today's programming.
00:19Fuel Up with Fortune is about more than headlines. It's about the ambition and ideas that truly drive change.
00:27Today, we're bringing together CMOs, we're bringing together creatives, technologists, and founders to explore what's next for business, brand, and culture.
00:35This is really a forward-looking moment. You'll hear from bold voices rethinking leadership, creativity, innovation, impact, from legacy brands to emerging disruptors.
00:47And the goal here is to challenge perspectives, to exchange ideas, and certainly to spark new collaborations.
00:54So, it's an exciting lineup. Please do stay for all of it. During the lunch era, during the lunch segment, I heard there will be some cocktails and some wine.
01:03So, it'll be a fun one for all of us, and we're really so glad to have you.
01:06Let's get started now with the first panel.
01:10In a world where static campaigns no longer cut it, today's boldest leaders are transforming brand storytelling into a live-in, tech-powered engine for growth.
01:19Joining me to kick things off is a cohort of powerhouse women redefining what it means to build a brand in the digital era.
01:27Please welcome to the stage, Deborah Heslip, Global Chief Client Officer at Monks,
01:33Sue Jones, Chief Digital Officer at Diageo,
01:37Dara Tresseter, Chief Marketing Officer at Autodesk,
01:40and Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer at Elf Beauty.
01:45Not much lumbar support here, but that's all right.
01:51Well, let's kick off by level setting.
01:53Again, thank you to all of our panelists and certainly to our attendees for joining us this afternoon.
01:57Each of you are lead-in brands where storytelling has to move not only at the speed of culture,
02:03but also at the speed of technological evolution.
02:06I'm curious how you all are approaching brand building in a way that's agile,
02:10that's personalized, that's data-driven, and certainly dynamic.
02:13And perhaps, Sue, you can kick things off.
02:16Yeah.
02:18Is this on?
02:19Okay.
02:20I think, look, it's sort of what's old is new, and what's new is old,
02:26in that Diageo, we have many famous brands loved across time by people,
02:31and all the classic creative campaigns we've ever done are rooted in real understanding of the consumer.
02:38So I think a lot of the focus that we have is sort of still leaning into that heritage of true understanding
02:46of what consumers are looking for now, but certainly a lot more data sources to do it
02:51and a lot more sophisticated ways to understand and track day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year,
02:58what is on their mind and respond to it.
03:01Great to hear from you, Dara.
03:02Yeah, absolutely.
03:04I think, you know, we are a 43-year-old brand in transformation,
03:08and so we're focused really on three things.
03:11I think first is authenticity, connecting with our audience in a very authentic way.
03:16I think there is a little bit of an attention recession,
03:19and that doesn't mean that there's not enough attention.
03:21It means there's too much attention, that no one's paying any more attention to it, pun intended.
03:26Right?
03:26So we have to move from attention to intention to actually drive action and results.
03:31And so really, authenticity is key and prime to that.
03:36The second thing I'm focused on is bravery.
03:38We have to take risks.
03:40Creativity has become our currency.
03:43In a world where AI is raising the floor,
03:46you don't want to be the lowest common denominator.
03:48I mean, how many of you got those emails?
03:50I've even had them at Cannes.
03:51I saw you five minutes ago.
03:52You sent me an email.
03:53I hope you are well.
03:55Like, edit that email.
03:56Edit it.
03:57You know, AI is raising the floor on all of us,
04:00but we need to be cracking the ceiling.
04:02So we have to be brave to take those risks.
04:04We cannot follow the well-trodden path.
04:07We have to take the different paths to get that differentiated result.
04:10And then the third thing for me is consistency.
04:12Right?
04:13When you're building, this isn't a two-year brand or a three-year brand.
04:16Yes, there's a lot that needs to change,
04:18but there's also a lot that needs to stay the same.
04:20So for us at Autodesk, our purpose is to design and make a better world for all.
04:23We are a design and make software company.
04:26And sustainability has been a core part of who we are.
04:29And because if you're going to design and make things,
04:31we want you to make it better.
04:33And so before sustainability was cool, we were doing it.
04:36When everybody decided it was cool and joined the party for a hot minute,
04:39we were happy to welcome them in.
04:41Now that sustainability, I know in Europe it's still cool,
04:44but in other parts of the world, maybe it's not the topic du jour.
04:47We're still doing it.
04:48So figure out those things where you want to be consistent.
04:51And my team, they're so tired of me saying it.
04:53They're looking at me like, is she going to say it?
04:55I'm going to say it.
04:56Opine with the spine.
04:57You know, don't opine on anything, but what you're going to opine on,
05:00have the spine and the courage to stay with it.
05:03Wow, Dara.
05:04You bring the energy, man.
05:07What I would say is very similar themes.
05:10For Elf, it's about real time, being responsive, and radically inclusive.
05:17It's really important to us.
05:19Elf is for every eye, lip, and face.
05:22So when I think about building our brand, it's listening to our community,
05:26centering everything that we do is centered around the community.
05:30And it's really important that we take that insight and drive it to action
05:34and give the community what they want.
05:37A great example was our recent TikTok trend where one of the creators
05:43started a trend of jumbo lip gloss hack.
05:47And it was one of our really popular Halo Glow filter product.
05:54And they emptied the product, washed it out, and put their own lip gloss in it
06:00because they love the giant doe foot on their lip.
06:04And all of a sudden, it was a viral product.
06:06We turned it into a do-it-yourself kit and sold 800 kits on TikTok shop in one day.
06:14And our community was so happy.
06:16And they said, Elf, you're the only one who listens to us.
06:18So I would say real time, turning into action,
06:21and giving the community what they want.
06:24This is a very tough audience to follow.
06:26A lot of energy.
06:27I appreciate it.
06:27So I'm coming in from the other side of the business.
06:29I've been in the agency side for 33 years now.
06:33And this is a huge moment of change for what an agency means to partner with incredible brands.
06:39So we are trying to break through what new commercial models look like,
06:43how do we engage in deeper relationships with our clients,
06:45and how do we set our clients up for success.
06:47The model of the future is not agencies.
06:50It's agents.
06:51So we're building solutions to make sure that our clients are empowered to create this content,
06:55to meet the audience demands that they just walked through.
06:58And it is a game changer.
07:00And we have to be brave.
07:01So we're talking about being bold, being brave.
07:04To be an agency, to come to a table and tell a client,
07:06the future is not how you're going to engage with us.
07:09The future is how you're going to engage with agents,
07:11and how are we going to take you there.
07:12So this seems to be a very pivotal moment for our industry.
07:15And we're excited to be part of that and embracing it.
07:18Absolutely.
07:19Dara, let me turn to you, because you said quite astutely that in this era,
07:24marketing chiefs, anyone who's working in brand storytelling,
07:27has to be really bold and creative.
07:30It seems far more easy for a direct-to-consumer brand,
07:33but you were brought in to modernize a 43-year-old, so it's middle-aged, B2B brand.
07:38What's top of mind right now for you as you drive that transformation,
07:41especially, again, for a B2B brand that has highly technical clients and consumers?
07:46Yeah, it's a hot middle-aged company.
07:48You know, in good shape.
07:49It's been working out, eating its vegetables.
07:51Doing Pilates.
07:51Doing great, exactly.
07:53So, you know, I think what's top of mind for me is really how we are utilizing AI,
08:01which is, you know, I mean, you can't walk three feet on the corset
08:06without having someone talk to you about AI.
08:07How we're utilizing AI to drive transformation in a way that is scalable.
08:12So, we recently just released our Autodesk AI jobs report,
08:16and that report showed that since 2022, there has been a 640% increase in job listings that have AI as a prerequisite.
08:28So, we look, this report looked at 3 million job listings.
08:32And what was interesting is that AI is not only required for kind of technical roles that you might expect it for,
08:38but it's required for non-technical roles as well.
08:40So, now people are looking for AI content creators.
08:43They're looking for AI strategists.
08:44This one was a fun one.
08:45People are looking for AI coaches, human coaches who understand how to use AI
08:50and have AI, you know, as a core part of how they operate.
08:54And so, that is becoming a bigger part of the job to be done.
08:59So, for us within, you know, my organization and the work that I'm doing to drive transformation,
09:04I'm on a mission to make sure that everybody in my organization,
09:08and I'm on a, it's a 12-month sprint to make sure that 100% of the people on my team
09:13are proficient and skilled in using AI.
09:16To be able to do the job, and not just do the job more efficiently.
09:20Of course, my CFO loves that, you know,
09:21but it's also about doing it more effectively as well.
09:24Because I don't want my team, I'm like,
09:26AI is going to raise the floor for everyone.
09:29But we want to be at the ceiling.
09:31We want to be breaking through the ceiling.
09:32So, we want to have that competitive edge.
09:34So, starting to learn how to use AI and become a master at it,
09:38so that we are the ones driving.
09:40So, AI, we're not being driven by AI.
09:42We are in control.
09:43But AI is giving us additional horsepower to do it better,
09:47and do it better at scale.
09:48You know, for a global company, this is really important.
09:50And how open is your team to learning AI-adjacent skills?
09:54I mean, how do you really push for them to pursue these skills?
09:57You know, it was interesting.
09:58I found out there was two things happening.
10:00One was fear.
10:01At first, you know, when we talk about AI,
10:03people are just thinking, oh, is this going to replace my jobs?
10:06So, when I kind of came out and said,
10:07I want 100% of the people on my team to be AI proficient,
10:12it kind of took the air out of the room a little bit.
10:14Because people were like, oh, this isn't about job replacement.
10:17Like, it's about actually learning and embracing AI to be better at my job.
10:22The second thing is a little bit of a mindset.
10:24And this is a women's panel, so I'm going to go on a limb
10:27and speaking of being brave and put it out there.
10:28That's right.
10:29And say, exactly, let's do it.
10:31Let's do it.
10:31I got my sisters with me.
10:32Let's go.
10:34And, you know, it's about, you know,
10:36there's a little bit of a mindset where some people feel like using AI might be cheating.
10:41And it's not cheating.
10:42Using AI is additional horsepower.
10:44It's like saying using the internet is cheating.
10:46Or using Google is cheating.
10:47Before you ask someone a question, yeah, Google it first.
10:50That's not cheating, right?
10:51And so, I think it's really important to make sure that that's happening as well,
10:55that we are changing the mindset and telling people to embrace AI
10:59and creating the psychological safety where they can do that.
11:02Because it's enough for you can say it's not cheating.
11:04But unless you actually programize it, you talk about it,
11:07your leadership team models it, people won't really believe it.
11:10People don't believe what you say.
11:11They watch what you do.
11:13Absolutely.
11:14And we're going to circle back to that topic du jour of AI momentarily.
11:17Susan, I want to turn to you because you said at the top of this conversation
11:20that you're very much focused on customer-centricity, consumer-centricity,
11:23and allowing that to lead.
11:25Diageo's portfolio spans iconic global spirit brands.
11:29We're seeing increasingly that Gen Z, even younger millennials,
11:32are drinking less than past generations.
11:35You'll be pleased to know I'm not part of that.
11:36I'm single-handedly keeping you all in business.
11:40But I am curious how you are.
11:43Responsibly.
11:43Responsibly, exactly.
11:44Emphasis on that.
11:45How are you evolving your customer strategy to really engage across generational lines?
11:50And what do you learn about that target younger audience?
11:54It's interesting because that perception is in the news that younger legal drinking age consumers
12:00are drinking less.
12:01Is it incorrect?
12:02The data doesn't actually show that.
12:04The penetration is as high as other age groups,
12:07and the spend is a little bit higher, actually, compared to other age groups.
12:13What we do find, and this is the important thing, is they're drinking differently.
12:16Their attitude toward alcohol is quite different.
12:19And especially something like, there are fewer drinking occasions for younger legal drinking
12:25age consumers, but those occasions last longer, and they're generally more high energy.
12:30So about a third of LPA Gen Z consumers' occasions last three hours or more, which sounds exhausting
12:42to me, I am not Gen Z.
12:46I'm like, you know, a nice hour.
12:48That's fine.
12:49They last longer.
12:50And so actually the spend in those times is higher just because there's more occasions
12:57to have more drinks in those.
12:58So it's less about saying, oh, no, are they drinking less?
13:03And honestly, our strategy has always been one of drink better.
13:07That's what our iconic brands are about.
13:10And it's more about digging into that insight of they're just celebrating a little bit differently.
13:17Absolutely.
13:17Let me turn to you, Ekta, because, you know, you mentioned the fact that you kind of leaned
13:23into this movement of virality on TikTok with Elf, and that certainly seems like a sensical
13:28place for Elf to live.
13:30But you've built meaningful presence on platforms like Twitch, like Roblox.
13:35And so I'm curious, you know, why focus on these platforms and what does it take to really
13:39belong in these environments?
13:41How does it bleed into the overall Elf brand?
13:42It's just not a place you think you'd see Elf.
13:44Of course.
13:45And what I would say is we are where our community is.
13:48Once again, we serve our community.
13:50Our community told us early on that when TikTok was just starting, that they were starting to
13:55go there.
13:55So we were the first beauty brand to do that.
13:57And we did it really, really well.
14:00And the Twitch, it's the same thing.
14:03Roblox, it's the same thing.
14:04We have the number one beauty gaming experience on Roblox.
14:08And we think about it that we are very connected commerce is how you approach it.
14:16We want to go where our consumer is.
14:17We want to bring commerce to them and be there to serve them.
14:21The unique thing, though, is that each channel is very different.
14:25So sometimes if you are a legacy brand who wants to show up a certain way, well, it doesn't
14:31happen that way.
14:31You have to leverage creators.
14:33You have to leverage content that's very specific to those platforms.
14:38And if you don't do that, your strategy won't come to fruition.
14:41The value won't be there.
14:42So you do have to think about it as a connected ecosystem.
14:47Otherwise, it doesn't bring the value it should.
14:50And then how do you determine whether a platform will drive value?
14:54I mean, how do you determine the measurable ROI and the potential impact?
14:58To be honest, we are a test and learn mentality.
15:01And not every platform is equal.
15:04So of course, TikTok has been a powerhouse for us.
15:07But we are everywhere.
15:09And it is about testing and learning.
15:11Of course, the measurements come along.
15:14The views, the engagement, the number of assets that are created, or the shares, the likes.
15:21And if you have commerce, then how much commerce is being driven by those channels.
15:26But I think for us, testing and learning is in our DNA.
15:30So that's how we approach it.
15:32Yeah, quite comprehensive.
15:34Debra, let me turn to you over at Monks.
15:36And I want to dig in a bit more granularity around how you're thinking about AI.
15:41How are you really seeing yourself strategically using it and making real meaningful impact?
15:47Yeah, so I look at it from two perspectives.
15:50One, of the organization overall.
15:52And two, of how we're empowering our teams.
15:54We are talking a little bit about the right type of talent.
15:57Right now, for me, I don't think I'm going to go out and say I'm going to find the AI expert.
16:02It's how do we train, educate, and bring people into the space.
16:05Because it's all relatively new to all of us.
16:07I mean, if Mark Zuckerberg wants to go pay people millions and billions of dollars to bring those experts in,
16:12they're a little bit of a unicorn.
16:14But we need to empower our people.
16:16We need to empower the organization.
16:18And as an agency, I don't even want to use the word agency anymore,
16:21we need to be doing the same thing for how we operate our business.
16:23Well, what word would you use instead of agency?
16:25Well, I'm going to use it right now because I don't have a better word.
16:27But we are saying a lot.
16:30We'll come up with something here for the next time.
16:31We are saying a lot.
16:31It's like we need marketing.
16:32I know.
16:33We've got to do a little brand.
16:33In our client conversations, we are saying we are going from agency to agents
16:38because agents are going to be driving the future of our business.
16:42But, again, it's really about bringing innovation to our people.
16:46So we are reinventing ourselves as we're also trying to help our clients reinvent how they operate.
16:51So strategically empowering our people, making sure that we're building the tools and systems
16:55that our clients need to go to market and be effective in their business.
16:58But also, I don't want to use the word training.
17:00We never train clients.
17:01We partner and we learn together, but we want to make sure we're empowering.
17:06So empowering is a very big word that we're using right now, empowering our clients' organizations
17:10to operate more effectively and efficiently in this age.
17:13Automation, innovation, AI, agentic, you're going to hear those words a thousand times.
17:17I wish I got a nickel every time I said it in the past 48 hours.
17:20But that's how we're thinking about it.
17:22Where have you seen, as you think about how you leverage in AI automation and so on,
17:27where have you seen yourself really being able to cut costs?
17:30So we are very heavily pushing forward in agentic creativity.
17:36And that means using the tools that are available to us to go all the way from insights and strategy
17:41to creative optimization.
17:43So that is a very key part of where we're driving efficiencies in our clients' business.
17:48Internally, right now, it's not about having less people.
17:51It's about empowering those people with the technology.
17:54So we're not going through and saying, okay, we can cut out an entire department here.
17:58It's empowering them so they can do more.
18:00So it's the same number of people doing more, creating greater output.
18:04So we're looking at those efficiencies internally.
18:06And more important, we're looking at how we're helping our clients solve for that as well.
18:10I think we're going to talk a little bit about some agentic content that we're creating within the organization.
18:15But we are going from multimillion-dollar productions down to under $500,000 to get real assets into market.
18:22Fantastic.
18:23Same question, really, for the rest of the group.
18:25Again, AI is everywhere.
18:26I'm curious how the rest of you are using it strategically and creatively.
18:30And then, you know, perfect segue, where does the human touch come in?
18:34Yeah, I'm happy to kind of kick it off and just actually build on where she left.
18:40But one of the things that we're seeing very much, you know, with our customers, especially those in marketing and advertising, is that the creatives want to still be in control.
18:50So they don't want to relinquish control in the sense of they don't want AI telling them what to do, but they want to harness and utilize the power of AI.
18:58Once you break through the fear and you get through the fear, how can you be in creative control?
19:01So there are Gen AI tools that force you into predetermined outcomes.
19:05You know, so my seven-year-old, lovely boy that he is, he can use Gen AI to create a video.
19:11Now, you as an agency or a marketer, if your video is exactly what my baby boy made, you're not that happy.
19:18And it's probably not, you know, and you're not driving the same result.
19:22So they want Gen AI tools that, yes, give you that extra help and horsepower, help make things more efficient.
19:29For example, it could help with character animation, scene integration.
19:32But at the same time, you're the one, think of it like a tandem bike, right?
19:37You're in front of the tandem bike.
19:38The other person is pedaling and adding power, but you're determining where we're going to go.
19:42You're determining how fast we're going to go.
19:44You're determining the direction.
19:45And that's part of why we launched Autodesk Flow Studio, which is our AI visual effects software.
19:51It is by artists for artists.
19:53So it was created by a visual effects artist and a Hollywood actor, Ty Sheridan.
19:57And it was very important to us that we didn't just, you know, try to create a product that wasn't for and by the community because this is an AI tool that puts the power in the hands of creative.
20:08So that's one of the things I'm seeing.
20:09And I see it with my team.
20:11I see it with our customers.
20:12So I think the AI tools that allow, and that's where human ingenuity comes in.
20:16And coming back to that AI, the Autodesk AI jobs report that we released, even though AI, you know, for those AI roles that were identified, the number one top skill was design.
20:29So now if AI, if everyone's going to be using AI, we want your design to be that much better, right?
20:34Because if every, of all the designs kind of look alike, we're back to where we started and you no longer have the competitive edge or the competitive advantage.
20:42Same question for you.
20:44I mean, how are you leveraged in AI to gain that competitive advantage and where does the unique human touch come in?
20:49Yeah, I think to tag on to what you just said, there are artists who are very, very interested in the power of AI.
20:56And many of our brands do collaborations.
21:00Johnny Walker, for example, has partnered with artists who have allowed and given access to their look, their feel, their everything to create unique things.
21:09So we have a brand experience in Edinburgh for Johnny Walker.
21:14If you go there, artist collaboration, you can go in, feed the AI with information that you want, and it will print and create a completely unique label.
21:24And it feels like that's, rather than AI for sameness, people want AI to drive uniqueness, to drive that human touch that they can see themselves in that thing they've created.
21:34I know we're run up on time here, so I want to, you know, look to the future, look into your crystal balls, if you will.
21:42I'm curious, what's one shift you see on the horizon in creativity and tech and consumer behavior that will really redefine how brands connect with audiences, let's say, in the next 12 months?
21:54It's going to be quite transformative 12 months.
21:55Yeah, I can kick it off.
21:58I would say that it's three things.
22:00One really is that culture is moving at the speed of swipe, so you have to be in tune with culture, really understand what's happening with your community and so forth, because the community wants to co-create with you.
22:17So how do you bring in, be purposeful about it, and as well as be playful.
22:22Elf is a playful brand, so for us this bodes really, really well.
22:26But I would say those three things combined with the power of AI and technology and keeping the human in the loop is the key.
22:35I do think that, you know, everything that we do at Elf from an AI perspective is draft only.
22:41We think that the human element is so important.
22:43We want to upskill every single person in the company to be a prompt engineer and give them the tools that they need to be more creative and use, you know, do things that they've never done before, create new roles for them.
22:56So I do think that that's sort of where we see where things are headed.
23:01Yeah, and Debra, how about you?
23:03So I want to first and foremost say creativity is critical to our business.
23:07We will always ensure creativity is driving what we're doing.
23:11It is not about replacing people.
23:13AI, if people are like, AI is replacing me, I had a client say it the other day, the only way it will replace you is if you let it, right?
23:19We need to empower it, bring it into our workflows.
23:22I want to be a little bit bold and brave and say with the strength of creativity, we're talking art directors, writers, directors, we are going to move this industry forward fast.
23:32We need to be able to create more content at a more cost effective and a time effective scale than we're doing right now.
23:38And this is what it's going to empower us to do is not going to take creativity away from what we're doing is going to make it better.
23:44The future is not going out and spending multi-million dollars on big production and big shoots.
23:49We can take that savings and put it into hardworking dollars for our clients and our brands and really make sure that we're getting that incredible content.
23:56Again, it's not taking the creativity away.
23:58It's amplifying it.
23:59Yeah, certainly seeing it as something that's additive.
24:01Well, I'm getting the evil eye from my team.
24:04So thank you to our panelists for joining us.
24:06And here is to the woman who are redefining digital storytelling and building brands that lead with innovation, agility and impact.
24:14Thank you so very much.
Recommended
25:48
|
Up next
0:34
18:44
24:19