CMO Spotlight | Francesco Federico - S&P Global

The CMO Spotlight offers an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders.

Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Francesco Federico, the Chief Marketing Officer at S&P Global, to talk about leadership, integrity, curiosity, brand admiration, and the lessons he has learned from marketing across both consumer and B2B environments.

Watch + Read the Recap Below

Q1 | What advice would you share with marketers?

“Make an authentic effort to reach out. That would be the one thing I wish someone had sort of forced me to do early on in my career.”

Federico emphasized the importance of building real relationships with empathy, especially as responsibilities grow and leadership demands increase.

Federico shared, “Never underestimate the power of networking with empathy, especially as you start climbing into roles of increasing responsibility and you're managing larger teams. Spending quality time with your team, with your peers, is incredibly important to really make it intentional to go out there and reach out to people.”

His advice is a strong reminder that marketing leadership goes beyond strategic thinking and into leaning on the quality relationships you build along the way.

Q2 | What is your superpower?

“Stay away from hypes and really be very, very commercially minded.”

Federico described his superpower as a blend of curiosity, broad learning, and a deep understanding of how technology can drive better business outcomes.

He explained, “I'm a very curious person, and I tend to try to get to know as many things as humanly possible — even in disciplines and areas that are not necessarily connected with my daily work — and that really helps with connecting the dots.” His experience and knowledge of marketing technology and digital marketing really gave him an ability to leverage technology to its fullest potential.

That perspective highlights an important balance in marketing: being open to innovation while staying grounded in what is practical, strategic, and commercially valuable.

 Q3 | What values are important to you?

Integrity sits at the center of how Federico leads, makes decisions, and approaches the increasingly changing industry.

He shared, “Integrity is number one — being a trustworthy, accountable person that lives through work day to day with integrity. I think it's the moral thing to do, but also I think it's the convenient thing to do, especially at the time of hyper-transparency [with social media and AI]. If you're not grounded into values of trust, consumers will see through it.” 

He mentioned how he asks his team to balance their speed with integrity. He reminds his team of the brand they are in and the responsibility they have to their shareholders, stakeholders, and clients. “We need to protect our data, we need to protect our estate, we need to protect the value that we have built over so many years. There's always that balance between pushing the envelope because it's a competitive field, but at the same time, it’s about always being grounded in integrity and being compliant with our own rules.”

His answer reflects the complexity of leading in a time when speed, experimentation, and innovation are expected, but trust remains one of the most valuable assets a brand can have.

Q4 | What brand do you admire?

Federico appreciates brands that have demonstrated courage and originality in how they show up in the market. He specifically shouted out Patagonia for sticking to their moral principles, which have also benefited them in the market. 

Brands that take a more niche, design-led approach also stand out to him. 

“I'm drawn towards brands that really have this courage for innovation.” He shared about the Nothing Company. “The whole concept behind the Nothing company is about simplicity and the joy of beautiful objects and design. So it's design-heavy. They create these products that are incredibly beautiful to look at. I'm very much drawn to that idea of really trying to be very different. They go for beauty and craftsmanship.”

Q5 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

One of the most interesting lessons Federico shared resulted from his transition from consumer marketing into B2B marketing. He described how a strategy that had been highly effective in a consumer environment did not translate the same way in a smaller, more specialized B2B context.

“When I transitioned from consumer marketing to business-to-business marketing, it was a time where I was sort of just off the back of a very successful implementation of predictive real-time pricing, which we did back on an e-commerce website that enjoyed tens of millions of unique visitors every month. And then, as you can imagine, using a lot of regression models and statistics, we were able to in real time adjust the price to maximize conversion and minimize acquisition cost. It was a great success. And so then I joined B2B JLL. I wanted to run fast with account-based marketing. I underestimated the luxury that in consumer marketing we do have as marketers, and that is the huge denominator. So you have these huge pools of clients and you can run all sorts of analysis because there are so many to get to good models that are statistically significant and relevant, and they can actually turn results.”

He went on to explain why that same model was far less effective in a much smaller B2B audience environment. Instead, the team shifted toward a more personalized, experience-driven approach.

He explained, “We pivoted through a content hub experience based on personas or based on accounts. When you really work with high-value cohorts, there might be ROI in not automating everything and actually creating experiences.” This experience helped him in his role today. His story is a compelling reminder that not every strategy scales across every environment, but everything you do in your past can help shape you in your future role. Sometimes the most effective approach is not more automation, but more intentionality.

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For more marketing leadership advice and insights into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Francesco Federico, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

If you know an impactful marketing leader who would be a good candidate for the #CMOSpotlight series, nominate them here.

Watch the Full Interview to the right.