The following is sponsored content from CMO Moves, a podcast that shares the human side of game-changing CMOs and leaders:How did they get to the top? What rules did they have to break along the way? What inspires them? What tips can they now pass along? Tune in to the podcast to hear inspiring career-advice and the personal success stories behind these incredible marketing leaders.
What business does a marketer who spent the previous seven years running marketing at retail darling J. Crew and fashion powerhouse Vogue magazine have taking over as CMO for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world? According to Diego Scotti, EVP and CMO at Verizon, absolutely none. But that's exactly what Scotti did at the urging of Verizon's then CEO, Lowell McAdam, who was excited to bring new perspective to the growing company.
Fast forward nearly four years and Scotti is still at the marketing helm of the telecommunications giant and on a mission to change the public's perception of the company — a company that does business with over 100 million U.S. customers every single day. He recently shared his story with me on CMO Moves. "For many years, our position has been as the most reliable network in America. And as the category continues to expand and more competitors come in, that's [continued to be] our heart and soul. Now we want to continue to create meaning in terms of [that brand promise]. Not just at the functional level but the emotional level as well."
For Scotti, a big part of delivering on Verizon's promise as "the most reliable network in America" has been to share stories that demonstrate Verizon's commitment to social responsibility. Their #humanability campaign is "the manifestation of the business strategy and philosophy that is demonstrating how our technology and our capabilities help people [in everyday life]." One example is Verizon Innovative Learning, which provides free technology, access, and innovative curriculum to over a million kids across the country.
Verizon's commitment to positively impacting people's everyday lives doesn't end with #Humanability. Scotti and his team have also been looking inward at the employees who power the brand and amplifying their stories via Verizon's YouTube Channel. He believes that the more authentic Verizon can be with the types of messages it communicates, the deeper the connections with their customers will become. "If your message is authentic, [meaning] you're not trying to co-opt a conversation that is not authentic to you, not trying to connect with something that it might be 'of the moment' that has nothing to do with your brand… If you stay true to who you are and your message remains authentic, it's probably going to have huge chances for success because it comes from the inside, from the inside out."
This type of authentic, emotional connection with customers is what attracted Scotti to the marketing field in the first place. "I have to go one step further in terms of creating a very strong connection with the consumer. I have always loved that about marketing. I always take it as a challenge to figure out how to make that connection even stronger, every step of the way."
Scotti also feels a strong personal commitment to using his powerful brand platform to do good — especially for the next generation of marketers. That's why he's become the evangelist and leader of the AdFellows program, a cooperative effort aimed at increasing the diversity of up and coming marketing professionals — not just in terms of race and gender but diversity of backgrounds, personal stories, and points of view. "We deeply believe that diversity is not just the right thing to do — it's also good business. It makes us better . . . . My role as a leader of marketing is to attract the most creative people in the world internally and externally. We want the best creative minds in the world working for Verizon. At the end of the day in marketing, it's all about the people. Everybody has the same computers. Everybody has the same cameras to shoot commercials and ad photography. What makes the difference [for your brand] is the people."
Three years ago, Scotti and the Verizon leadership team started AdFellows by asking six of their agency partners to invest both time and resources to help them develop this revolutionary program. Every single one of them agreed. The program is designed to give "classes" of young marketing professionals, regardless of economic status, the opportunity to come to New York City – all living expenses paid – and do a nine-month rotation working at each of the agencies and Verizon.
The first class of AdFellows recently graduated and Scotti wrote about the results in a recent LinkedIn article. "And now, eight months and four work rotations later, the fellows have exceeded even our wildest expectations. They've developed inspiring work, created lasting relationships with their peers and mentors, and gotten to work alongside some of the best in the business at Weber Shandwick, McCann, Momentum Worldwide, Rauxa, Zenith Optimedia and Verizon."
He goes on to say that 90 percent of the graduates landed full time jobs at Verizon or with one of their agency partners. "This is a milestone and it wasn't by chance or luck. It was the result of true commitment — not only on the part of the fellows, but on the part of Verizon and our agency partners. Instead of just talking, we put our money, and time and businesses on the line. We made diversity a priority and enacted real change. And this must continue."
His goal is to expand AdFellows into an industry-wide program with many different companies participating. "There's no trademark, no copyright on how we've done it. We want more companies to join and to keep making the program bigger and better."
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