CMO Spotlight | Randi Stipes - The Weather Company

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, Randi Stipes, the Vice President for IBM Brand Marketing and the Chief Marketing Officer for The Weather Company to discuss how her values connect her to people, how important it is to always be learning from your competition, and how she learned the importance of taking a stand.

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Q1 | Is there any advice you’d like to share?

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Take advantage of everything that comes to you no matter how daunting it might be at the time, and just learn.”

Stipes shared that learning should be a continuous process, especially in this ever changing industry. She encourages people to surround themselves with others who are smarter and different from them because “diversity of thought and experience is how we learn.” Marketers should not only learn from people in their field, but also learn from people in other business functions because it's important to have general knowledge. “I say to marketers in particular to make friends with your CRO and definitely make friends with your CFO.”

Q2 | What is your superpower?

“My superpower is my ability to unleash creativity in others. I’d like to think that my superpower is giving the team permission and confidence to think creatively, to think differently, and to think big. There’s really nothing more gratifying than igniting that spark in someone.”

Stipes believes that this ability is extremely important because it allows space for people she’s around to be open with their creativity and maintain enthusiasm. Marketers should not only gain inspiration from their team and leaders, but also from other brands. She shared an example of how British Airlines has recently inspired her with the simplicity and brilliance of their latest copy-only campaign. From the campaign, she realized that “language and vocabulary” is just as important as focusing on data and performance.

Q3 | What values are important to you?

“Meeting your quarterly revenue numbers is vitally important, but that’s not vision.”

Stipes is drawn to people who have the following four qualities:

1. Vision: “For leaders, it's our responsibility to think bigger than ourselves and establish a vision that is widely understood because, although the details matter, we can't lose sight of the big picture.” 

2. Agility: “We all know it is essential to be able to adapt in today's incredibly fast changing market with ever-changing customer needs and technological advancements that are really challenging to keep up with. I look for people who have a high tolerance for ambiguity because that's our norm. There's always going to be disruptive business challenges and market challenges, and I look for people who kind of run towards those challenges versus retreating.”

3. Influence: “There's a measurable value in being able to influence others to get work done, and that requires being skilled at reading people. You've got to be able to read the room and be attuned to people's needs and motivations. To treat people how you want to be treated is wrong in business. I think we need to learn how to treat and motivate people how they want to be treated and understand personal motivations. That's situational leadership.”

4. Integrity: Which, to Stipes, doesn't require any explanation.

Q4 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

A few years ago, Stipes worked on a brand campaign for The Weather Channel app, where they showcased the role that weather plays in life moments and the importance of having an accurate forecast. One part of the campaign featured a same-sex couple getting married. The team’s goal was to show two people on one of the happiest days of their lives who didn't want the weather to get in the way of their plans. Some viewers responded poorly to the campaign. Her team knew this, and despite some negative reactions, continued with the campaign, making it wildly successful. “What I learned from that experience is that marketers should always take risks. Not in an irresponsible way…informed and calculated risks, but risks nonetheless. It also reminded me that doing the right thing is always the right thing. We didn't set out to make a statement, but I'm so glad that the team had the courage. It shouldn't take courage to do that anymore, but I'm so glad at the time the team had the courage to do the right thing.”

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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 Randi Stipes, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

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