Marketing Vanguard

Consumer electronics marketing has a bad habit: it talks too much about the product and not enough about the person buying it. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, Sarah Larsen, CMO at Hisense USA, joins Jenny Rooney to unpack why she’s throwing tech-speak out the window and rebuilding marketing around sell-out, consumer behavior, and real-life relevance. As Hisense’s first overarching CMO, Sarah shares how she’s reinforcing one sharp mandate: marketing needs to move product.

Sarah Larsen is the Chief Marketing Officer at Hisense USA, where she is the first leader to hold the company’s newly created overarching CMO role. With 30 years of experience across PR, earned media, social, digital, paid media, sponsorships, and consumer electronics, Sarah brings a nontraditional path to modern marketing leadership. Before joining Hisense, Sarah built deep category expertise through roles connected to brands like LG, Samsung, and Motorola. At Hisense, she now leads a broad remit spanning product marketing, product management, retail, insights, communications, and go-to-market strategy, with one clear goal: marketing that drives sellout.

What You'll Learn:
Why consumer electronics brands need to stop leading with tech specs
How Sarah defines marketing success through sellout, not vanity metrics
Why CMOs should act as the great unifiers across product, retail, sales and consumer insight
How to turn global sponsorships like FIFA World Cup into real consumer connection
Why research needs to be continuous, not a one-time path-to-purchase study
How future-proofing your brand means investing in the buyers who are not yet your core demographic

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This episode of Marketing Vanguard comes straight from Cannes 2026. Join us as host Jenny Rooney catches up with Dara Treseder, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer at Autodesk. Together, they explore why this AI era is also the “golden era” for creatives, why human ingenuity still runs the game while AI raises the floor and why trust is the one thing that isn’t up for debate. She raises a valid point: knowing what not to do with AI is just as important as knowing what to do with it.

Dara Treseder is Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer at Autodesk, renowned for her expertise in B2B brand storytelling and AI-integrated marketing strategy. With a background in transforming major enterprise organizations including GE and Carbon, she has pioneered approaches that balance human creativity with technological innovation. Her leadership in establishing Autodesk as the official design and make platform for the LA 2028 Olympics and her commitment to a $350 million initiative for AI workforce credentialing demonstrate her ability to align business growth with meaningful societal impact - a model of particular relevance for enterprise marketing leaders seeking to drive both profitability and purpose.

What You'll Learn:
How to balance AI integration with authentic brand storytelling
The "Facts and Feelings" framework for B2B marketing that moves beyond boring product specs
Why hands-on AI fluency as a CMO is non-negotiable for strategic vision and system design
How to operationalize workforce development as a competitive advantage by investing in AI knowledge transfer
The time-optimization secret weapon: using AI-powered calendar analytics and briefing tools to reclaim hours daily
How to execute big strategic swings like Autodesk's sports marketing partnerships with LA28 Olympics and NFL teams

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman

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While everyone’s chasing data and AI-driven targeted marketing, Natasha Madan’s keeping humanity at the centre of it all. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, the Head of Marketing at Intuit Credit Karma shares why blending art and science is essential to modern marketing. She dives into the how of building human connections that trump personalization algorithms and repositioning legacy brands for new generations while taking us behind the scenes of her groundbreaking work launching Prime Day at Amazon.

Natasha Madan is Head of Marketing at Intuit Credit Karma, known for her expertise in brand strategy, customer-centric marketing and combining art with data science. With a background spanning CPG at Nestlé, where she honed customer insights across iconic candy brands, to Amazon, where she helped build Prime into a cultural phenomenon driving 30% of member growth, Natasha brings a rare blend of brand-building and performance marketing excellence. Her work bridging mission-driven fintech with sophisticated marketing strategy offers actionable frameworks for CMOs navigating the balance between personalization and human-centered brand building.

What You'll Learn:

How to uncover customer needs before they articulate them
Why sticking to vision while staying flexible on tactics drives long-term success
The Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) framework beats MVP in building customer loyalty
How to reposition a transactional brand into an emotional platform
The case for full-funnel marketing over direct response in reshaping perception
Why AI democratizes authenticity as your competitive moat

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Marketing leaders are often told to be more strategic, but how does that really play out in the day-to-day? In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, Michael Lacorazza, Executive Vice President and CMO of U.S. Bank, unpacks the biggest leadership lessons behind his career across Lexus, Toyota, and Wells Fargo, to name a few. He shares why customer-centricity is still the foundation of great marketing, how CMOs can build stronger alignment with business partners, and why understanding the P&L is no longer optional for marketing leaders who want a bigger seat at the table.

Michael Lacorazza is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at U.S. Bank, one of the nation’s largest banks. With more than two decades of experience across automotive, hospitality, financial services, agency leadership and private equity-backed business transformation, Michael brings a deeply commercial view of brand, customer experience and enterprise growth. At U.S. Bank, Michael leads marketing, customer experience, and enterprise analytics, helping the organization strengthen its brand, serve a wide range of customer segments and build more integrated financial experiences.

What You'll Learn:
Why commercial fluency is essential for CMOs who want to influence business strategy
How to translate marketing metrics into growth, customer accounts, margin expansion, and business outcomes
How U.S. Bank is using AI across key business imperatives
Why financial app fragmentation creates an opportunity for banks to deliver more integrated customer value
How Michael’s experience across automotive, hospitality, agency, financial services and private equity shaped his leadership style
Why authentic cultural integration beats transactional brand sponsorships

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CMOs are being dubbed the new "unicorns," but is the journey as magical as it sounds? In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Tim Rosa, CEO of Somnee, to explore the rare and valuable career trajectory from Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Executive Officer, and why brand-driven leaders are uniquely positioned to scale transformative companies in the health and wellness space. He shares valuable insights from Somnee’s journey of disrupting a $585B industry.

Tim Rosa is the CEO of Somnee, a clinical-grade sleep technology and neuroscience company, bringing expertise in brand building, go-to-market strategy, and scaling consumer health companies. With a distinguished background spanning agency work, sports marketing, and seven years as CMO at Fitbit, Tim has developed a unique playbook for translating complex science into compelling consumer narratives. His work at Fitbit and now at Somnee has demonstrated that CMOs with operational acumen and cross-functional experience are uniquely positioned to lead companies at the highest level, making this conversation essential for marketing leaders aspiring to executive roles.

What You'll Learn:
How to leverage CMO experience to accelerate CEO success
Why clinical-grade data is non-negotiable in AI-driven health tech
The challenger brand playbook for emerging health categories
How to build enterprise and B2B revenue streams alongside DTC
The counterintuitive marketing strategy of "zigging when others zag"
Why self-awareness and surrounding yourself with complementary talent is essential for CMO-to-CEO transitions

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