CMO Spotlight | Kelly Cook - David's Bridal

The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders. 

Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Kelly Cook, the EVP, Chief Marketing & IT Officer of David’s Bridal, to discuss the importance of being fearless in the Marketing industry, leading with a service mentality, and the inspiring words of leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

WATCH + READ THE RECAP BELOW (SCROLL TO THE END FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW)

Q1 | What advice would you like to share?

“As a leader, you motivate, inspire, and set visions for teams. You have to create an environment where it is okay to make mistakes and it’s okay to try something new.”

“Be brave enough to suck at something new.” Cook encourages marketers to have confidence in themselves and their abilities. She understands that it’s easy to get lost in the fast-paced, ever-changing world of Marketing, but she encourages marketers to stay on top of the trends and be tenacious. “​​You have to have the tenacity, the bravery, the confidence, and the conviction to fall flat on your face to try something new. I would rather fall on my face than on my butt. If I'm falling on my face, at least I'm moving forward. If I fall on my butt, I'm going backwards.”

Q2 | What is your superpower?

Cook explained that the feedback she gets the most from her team is that she’s “Fun, focused, and fearless.” Over the course of her career, she learned to manage those aspects of her personality to make them assets. 

Q3 | What values are important to you?

Cook lives by three personal values. 

1. Be honest and direct. “Don't pee on my boots and tell me it's raining.” She explained that it’s important that people communicate directly with her and not beat around the bush. She continued, “To me, communication and our ability to communicate effectively together…whether it's risk, reward, or strategy is [important]. Be a straight shooter.”

2. Live by self-awareness and self evaluation. She stated that when it comes to challenges on her team, she would “rather get the board out of our own eye before we get the splinter out of somebody else's.” She further explained, “I would rather approach a problem thinking what could we have done better? What could our team do better? What process could we have improved? Rather than pointing the finger at another department.”

3. Value servant-led mentality. “It’s a very giving approach and, to me, it is a very fruitful and rewarding way to lead.”

Q4 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

Cook worked on a campaign that was based on direct research of consumers. The insights showed that over half of her consumers have multi-generations living in their home, two-thirds of which were multicultural, and an overwhelming 90% of the parents they interviewed said the one thing they value is that their children live better than they did.

With this information, they launched a coupon app that sold name brand items and duplicates at a lower price, and it ended up being wildly successful. “We had 620,000 downloads in 60 days without any paid media.” She continued, “It was a phenomenal campaign and company strategy because it united and reignited the workforce around serving the customer and providing an experience that made them feel like they were giving their kids something different.”

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

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW TO THE RIGHT.