CMO Spotlight | Michelle Crecca

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 Michelle Crecca, the former Chief Marketing Officer of the United States business unit of Prudential Financial, to talk about her career path, networking advice, values as a leader, and more. 

WATCH AND READ THE RECAP BELOW.

Q1 | Tell us about your career path.

Crecca worked at Prudential Financial for seven years - a business that provides investments, insurance, annuities, and a variety of products to help people with their finances. Prior to being CMO at Prudential, she was heavily involved in the Retail Banking and Consumer Finance Industry at companies like Chase and Citigroup, as well as a mid-cap financial institution in Connecticut. “Half of my experience is in Product Management, Product Development, Channel Management, and what I would call ‘marketing adjacent’ types of roles,” she shared. These roles led her to Webster to run their Consumer Finance business as a full-on P and L. She then took over all of Marketing for about five years and then in 2014 came to Prudential to start in the Group Insurance unit as the SVP of Strategy and the Chief Marketing Officer for group networking and relationship building.  

Q2 | What is your superpower? 

“I think my job is to hire smart people, help them to blossom, help them to manage their careers, coach them - that right mix of providing engagement and coaching but feedback too.”

“I'm told that my superpower is EQ,” stated Crecca. She expressed how she provides a human element to her work and how that’s especially been important in the last year. “As a Manager, it's really important to be very in tune with all of that and appeal to both the quantitative and qualitative - both the head and the heart - and show them how they fit in, how they contribute to purpose, and how they can develop themselves.” 

Q3 | Is there a piece of advice that you would like to pass onto other marketers?

“The way to think about networking is thinking about what you have to offer - in terms of skills, advice, contacts, perspectives...”

She advised that people invest in networking. “The way to think about networking is thinking about what you have to offer - in terms of skills, advice, contacts, perspectives - and being able to offer that to your group of professional contacts, and in turn, hoping that they'll share that same thing with you.” 

Q4 | What values are important to you as a leader?

Resilience. Grit. Empathy.

“Resilience is such an important quality in a leader. I think that folks who have overcome - whether that's in their personal lives or professionally - exhibit that extra spark that if they get knocked down one day, they're gonna get back up.” Crecca recognizes that business is challenging and, to overcome those challenges as a leader and persist, is notable. The grit and persistence is important in a business environment, and empathy is important to show to the team and customers. 

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Crecca ended the conversation with a famous Martin Luther King Jr. quote that inspires her to be resilient and persevere, “If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But by all means just keep moving forward.” Watch the full interview to the right.

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 Michelle Crecca, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.