Mark Penn was Bill Clinton’s White House pollster and later chief strategy officer at Microsoft. He founded Stagwell in 2015 and took it public through a reverse merger in 2021. In this conversation he tells Brian Sozzi how Starbucks came to move its US creative account after the review had already been decided, why his firm’s analysis told American Eagle to keep the Sydney Sweeney campaign running, and why he thinks Americans treat marketing as something slightly disreputable. Tressie Lieberman is Starbucks’ global chief brand officer. Financial figures in this interview are Penn’s own.
Timestamps
0:00 “New technology is about doing things we always wished we could do”
0:36 Who Stagwell is, and the 2021 reverse merger
1:50 Why nobody had challenged the holding companies in 40 years
2:39 The business today
3:50 How marketing changed: A $2 billion budget and Office 365
4:11 Are you Coke, or are you a diaper?
5:11 The American Eagle campaign, and the analysis behind it
6:28 What the research said about the backlash
7:11 Why he tells clients to attack the competition
8:58 Inside the holding companies, and the Noah’s Ark rule
10:03 Good, better, best, and Wagyu
10:47 Whether marketing can save the alcohol industry
11:56 How Stagwell took the Starbucks account
13:03 Why the CMO job is not respected
14:59 Eighteen months, and four or five CMOs per CEO
16:37 Why CMOs do not become CEOs
17:22 Why AI helped his business instead of hurting it
18:53 What AI actually changes about advertising
20:09 Why big brands hide during an election year
21:37 A $12 billion cycle, and the hamburger comparison
22:35 The worst working environment imaginable
22:51 Leadership by influence, from Clinton to Gates
#Marketing #Starbucks #PowerPlayers #YahooFinance
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