Inside the secret society of the world’s elite marketers
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When Orlando Baeza, chief marketing officer for the logistics technology company Flock Freight, added chief revenue officer to his title in February, he knew things were going to get a lot more complex. “I’ve now got a much bigger organization that is inclusive of acquisition, operations, customer success, and marketing, and I need all four to work together,” he says.
That’s when he decided to call up his secret weapon.
When Melissa Hobley was named global CMO of Tinder last summer, she was immediately tasked with creating its first-ever global brand campaign that would work from Delhi to Berlin, Madrid to Jakarta, Sydney to Los Angeles.
Secret weapon time.
Both executives cite the CMO consultancy Black Glass, founded in 2020 by Katie Klumper, as that invaluable partner there to help them navigate the ever-expanding work of a modern CMO. They’re not alone. Black Glass has quickly amassed an enviable client roster, including P&G, GM, PepsiCo, AB InBev, Walmart, Major League Baseball, and Eos. Its three newest clients are CMOs at the fan-experience platform Fandom, The Knot Worldwide, and Weight Watchers.
Over the past two years, the company—a division of the marketing holding company IPG—has carved out a unique place between traditional consultancies and other executive-networking offerings. Not only is CMO the shortest-tenured job in the C-suite (just 18 to 24 months), the role has evolved far beyond creative and performance marketing to include everything from investor relations and marketing tech to product design and return-to-office plans.
“In a world where there are a million different job descriptions for CMO, the aperture of the role has opened up,” says Klumper. “Their remit has expanded, the pressure on growth has expanded, so where are they turning to help them with their challenges in the time frame they need it? That’s why we exist.”
So far, Black Glass has counseled more than 40 CMOs, resulting in 50% increased tenure and 15% of them being promoted into the CEO job.
For the better part of the last decade, the marketing and advertising industry has been navigating an ongoing tension with global consultancies such as Deloitte and Accenture muscling in on territory traditionally occupied by advertising agencies. The “traditional” consultants have been adding more and more creative services, while many of the “traditional” advertising or creative shops have bulked up their ability to offer clients insights on business strategy rather than just a marketing campaign.
Back in 2021, for example, Accenture Song’s U.S. revenue growth rate was double that for all major ad agencies, making the consulting giant’s advertising and marketing arm the world’s fourth-largest agency company overall behind WPP, Omnicom Group, and Publicis Groupe. CEO David Droga told me last year that the combination of consulting with marketing expertise is where client need is growing. “This is all one conversation we’re confident in having because we have the expertise,” he said. “It doesn’t take our eye off of making really creative and impactful and incredible things in content and design; that’s still baked into who we are. It just doesn’t start and stop there.”
Klumper has worked on both sides, including as president of agency KBS and a principal at Deloitte. She witnessed firsthand the distinct needs of the CMO and has purpose-built Black Glass to fit them. The company’s subscription model offers each CMO a dedicated team of advisors who are accessible at any time and through regularly scheduled meetings, and able to help on anything from finding the right creative agency to reorganizing management structure.
“It’s having a very versatile partner that, despite what the season might be bringing from me in my seat and what I’m working through,” says Flock Frieght’s Baeza, “I have a partner I can throw this at and get some fresh eyes and expertise from.”
Another special aspect of Black Glass is how it not only provides members with a network of other CMOs to talk to, but actively plays matchmaker to help clients solve specific problems. “It’s not networking, it’s problem-solving matchmaking,” says Klumper. “It’s saying, ‘This brand worked through a similar issue six months ago, you should talk to them.’”
The company also hosts virtual group sessions and in-person experiences, typically at times when there are changes in the economy and culture. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, many brands were forced to figure out how to react to the country’s change in abortion rights both internally and in public.
“That was one area they got a group of us to be thoughtful on how we showed up about reproductive rights,” says Tinder’s Hobley. “They were really helpful with that, on how to attack social impact as a global brand, how to think about that in different parts of the world. The community part of it has been really powerful.”
Klumper says that Black Glass allows these execs to show up as themselves and have a real conversation about what’s going on in the world and culture, how it impacts their teams, how other people are approaching it, to get real-life examples, and talk through issues in a way they wouldn’t be able to on a conference panel or in public. “We’re not a community for networking and building companionship, but instead for getting into the real mechanics of what is going on with their role,” she says. “Who else is struggling with this challenge? How do we build a real conversation about the things people are tackling?”
Keurig Dr Pepper CMO Andrew Springate says that the combination of expertise from Black Glass and the speed with which it is delivered, whether through its own advisors or CMO peer matching, has been a critical strategic resource. “Black Glass brings deep marketing expertise and an action orientation,” says Springate. “They help the organization increase ROI. We are now faster to market on communications because of their work.”
For WeightWatchers global CMO Amanda Tolleson, Black Glass is notable and novel in its personalized and adaptable approach. “The focus of the work is fully driven by my executive priorities—with unique inputs from my team—and is designed to be flexible to match the continuous change of those priorities over the course of a year,” says Tolleson.
One thing each CMO I spoke to about how they use Black Glass also focused on how quickly they’re able to utilize it, and the pace with which its advisors can react and provide insight into issues as they’re happening. “As the market shifts, we build to whatever the client demands are,” Klumper says. “How do you diagnose a modern marketing organization? How do you benchmark them against others in a similar maturity state? How do you build capabilities? How do you break down silos? What are the ways of working? Then the big aha is the change management of it, and driving it through the organization.”
The secret is out.
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