What if the most powerful career advice is to stop listening to everyone else?

In this episode of Adspeak by Adweek, recorded live at Brandweek, host Ryan Joe sits down with marketing powerhouse Bozoma Saint John to unpack how intuition and not approval has guided her career across Apple, Uber, Netflix, and beyond. 

Bozoma shares why traditional mentorship is overrated, how fear often disguises itself as “good advice,” and what it really takes to assert authority in rigid corporate environments. 

From building intuition through everyday decisions to planning intentional pivots, this conversation is a masterclass in leading authentically and confidently on your own terms.

What you’ll learn:

• How to assert authority in established organizations
• Why traditional mentorship and champions are overrated
• The practice framework for building unshakeable intuition
• How to distinguish fear-based advice from intuition
• The strategic planning method for pivoting
• How mentoring reveals leadership blind spots

Bozoma Saint John is the founder and CEO of Eve by Boz, a culturally rooted hair and hair care brand celebrating Black women and women of color, and a Hall of Fame–inducted marketing executive, author, and unapologetic badass. She built an iconic career at SpikeDDB, PepsiCo, Apple, Uber, Endeavor, and Netflix, where she served as Global CMO. 

She’s also the author of The Urgent Life, a Harvard Business School case study subject, and creator of leadership programs including The Anatomy of a Badass. She serves on multiple boards, is an Ambassador for the African Diaspora to Ghana, and proudly considers motherhood her greatest achievement.

Episode highlights: 

[03:53] Applying the Molecular Theory of Change to Lead with Authority — Bozoma Saint John introduces the idea that leaders function like molecules—when you enter an organisation, you fundamentally change its structure. For CMOs in established companies, this reframes authority: you are not a supporting element but a catalyst. She warns against shrinking yourself to gain acceptance, noting that withholding perspective weakens both leader and organisation. When she joined Uber as its first Chief Brand Officer, she immediately defined the brand problem and acted decisively. Embracing your full experience positions you as essential to meaningful organisational evolution.

[11:04] Learning to Separate Fear-Based Advice from Real Guidance — Bozoma explains that much career advice, even from trusted mentors or loved ones, is rooted in fear rather than insight. People project their own risk tolerance and experiences onto your decisions. She shares how nearly everyone discouraged her from leaving PepsiCo after a personal loss, advice that would have blocked a pivotal opportunity. For leaders facing major pivots, the lesson is discernment. Understanding where advice comes from allows you to protect your agency, move forward with clarity, and access opportunities others cannot imagine for you.

[14:40] Building Strong Intuition Through Daily Decision-Making Practice — According to Bozoma, intuition isn’t mystical; it’s trained. She challenges leaders to stop outsourcing small daily decisions, like what to wear or which meetings to attend. Constantly seeking opinions weakens internal judgment and creates dependency. By practicing self-trust in low-stakes moments, leaders build the confidence needed for high-stakes decisions. She applies this by listening closely to her gut when evaluating opportunities and walking away when something feels off. Over time, this discipline turns decision-making into confident, grounded action.

[20:35] Planning Career Pivots with Strategy, Milestones, and Intention — Bozoma pushes back on the myth that successful career pivots are spontaneous. Meaningful change requires planning, especially for leaders with real responsibilities. Her approach is to quietly set three-month milestones: specific outcomes that signal whether a role is improving or it’s time to move on. If progress doesn’t materialise, the exit plan activates. This method allows leaders to stay intentional rather than stuck or reckless. By preparing transitions in advance, pivots happen from strength, clarity, and readiness, not burnout or impulse.

This week has been another revolving door of hires and promotions at brands, from marketing reshuffles to high-profile appointments.

We’re rounding up the U.S. and global marketing leadership moves you should know about for the week ending Jan. 16.

– The Walt Disney Company announced that it is creating a new enterprise marketing and brand organization to be led by Asad Ayaz as its first-ever chief marketing and brand officer.

– Coca-Cola has expanded the remit of its top marketer, Manolo Arroyo. From March, he’ll take on the role of executive vp and chief marketing and customer commercial officer. The soda giant has also introduced a new chief digital officer role, appointing former marketer Sedef Salingan Sahin to the position.

– Gap is going to Hollywood with the hire of Pam Kaufman to the newly-created role of executive vp, chief entertainment officer. The former Paramount exec will be tasked with building the retail company’s “Fashiontainment” platform, which spans entertainment, content, and licensing across music, TV, film, sports, gaming, consumer products, and cultural collaborations. 

– Greg Revelle, former Best Buy and Kohl’s CMO, is now chief customer officer at EV maker Rivian.

– Coach has appointed Bel and General Mills vet Arjoon Bose as vp marketing for EMEA and India.

Marketing no longer runs on broadcast thinking. Modern brands win by behaving like participants in culture, not distributors of messages. 

In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Matt Britton sits with Selina Sykes, VP of beauty & wellbeing and global head of digital marketing and social at Unilever, for a deep look at the company’s marketing transformation. 

Selina breaks down how Brand DNAi, AI in content creation, digital twins, creators, and cultural insight come together to build “desire at scale.” She also explains how AI agents and agentic shopping will rewrite the future consumer journey, and why authenticity and community matter more than ever in global beauty.

She also shares why the “Vaseline Verified” campaign became a turning point, how the company builds for a many-to-many marketing model, and what brands must understand as AI agents consumer journey tools start shaping real purchase decisions.

Selina has spent nearly 20 years at Unilever, moving through roles in brand building, ecommerce, incubation, and global transformation. Her path includes serving as marketing director, running The Uncovery as CEO, stepping into multiple VP roles, and now shaping how Unilever competes in global beauty marketing through culture, creators, and technology.

Her work speaks loudly across the industry. At Cannes, she shared her vision for an AI-driven Unilever marketing transformation the same week her team took home 11 Lions, two Grands Prix, and a Titanium award for “Vaseline Verified.” 

Key Takeaways:

[01:27] Global Trends, Local Nuance, and the Forces Beneath Them — Selina explains that trends may surface differently in each region, but the real story sits underneath them. What looks like separate cultural waves often comes from the same human shift, which is why Unilever looks beyond aesthetics to understand the deeper forces shaping people. This perspective is essential for global beauty marketing, helping brands stay relevant without chasing noise or copying what’s viral in one market.

[03:12] AI Is Only Useful When It Solves Real Problems — Selina treats AI as a foundation, not a headline. Her team starts with human friction, what slows people down, what complicates decisions, what marketers cannot scale alone. Only then do they decide how AI should help. This is the core of the Unilever marketing transformation, prioritizing real outcomes rooted in behavior, growth, and clarity. It keeps the work grounded while still unlocking the power of change.

[05:38] Building a True AI Content Engine — To reach people through their passions and communities, Unilever needed more content than traditional systems could ever support. Selina describes how the company built an AI content supply chain capable of producing volume, variety, and speed without sacrificing creative intent. This shift allows Unilever to operate within a many-to-many marketing model, where brands connect fluidly across cultures, creators, and platforms.

[07:34] Brand DNAI: Guardrails for Global Creativity — Selina shares how Brand DNAi turns decades of brand equity into a modern, living context layer. Teams anywhere in the world can query it like a creative partner, grounding their ideas in what the brand stands for while evolving it for today. It protects heritage, strengthens judgment, and gives creators confidence. It also ensures AI in content creation elevates the brand instead of diluting it.

[10:02] Digital Twins and Performance Gains — Unilever’s use of digital twins in marketing has removed a huge amount of production friction. Instead of reshooting product packs across markets, teams now generate endless variations, new angles, textures, languages, or lighting within seconds. Selina highlights how this shift lowers cost, speeds up work, and improves results. It is one of the strongest proof points of the AI content engine Unilever has spent years building.

[13:49] Vaseline Verified: Community-First Done Right — The “Vaseline Verified” campaign started with real people sharing hacks online. Instead of entering as a distant brand voice, Unilever validated the hacks in its labs, invited creators into the process, and built the story with them. Selina sees this as a blueprint for modern collaboration that is deeply human, culturally aware, and rooted in value. It now shapes Unilever’s creator economy strategy and broader social-first marketing Unilever efforts.

[16:35] Authenticity, Creators, and the De-Influencing Era — Selina reflects on how audiences now move past content that feels transactional. People want creators who genuinely use and understand the products they endorse. Unilever responds by investing in long-term, thoughtful partnerships instead of quick visibility boosts. It strengthens trust, supports creators’ credibility, and ensures the brand earns attention rather than renting it. Authenticity has become a strategic advantage, not a nice-to-have.

[19:53] Agentic Shopping and the Rise of AI Agents — Selina describes how agentic shopping will reshape discovery and decision-making. As people rely more on AI agents to interpret needs, filter options, and take action, brands must understand how these systems “see” them. This shift rewrites the AI agents consumer journey, introducing new ways for brands to show up and earn relevance. It becomes a new frontier of competition, where human insight and machine logic meet.

Seven Bucks Companies, the business founded by Dwayne Johnson, has hired former Unilever and SheaMoisture exec Cara Robinson as its first chief brand officer.

In the new role, Robinson will oversee growth, brand strategy, and creative direction across the company’s brand portfolio, which includes Teremana tequila, men’s grooming brand Papatui, energy drink business Zoa and Project, and Project Rock, an apparel range backed by Under Armour.

Robinson was most recently CEO of beauty and wellbeing for Unilever North America, where she spearheaded a $2 billion portfolio including Dove, SheaMoisture, and Vaseline.

Previously, the exec was the CEO of the SheaMoisture brand. Her 25-year career spans commercial, marketing, and operational leadership roles for brands including Clinique, Nars, and Johnson & Johnson.

“Cara brings an exceptional combination of strategic vision, brand-building expertise, and proven leadership to Seven Bucks,” Johnson said in a statement.

The WWE wrestler-turned-entrepreneur and actor added, “Her track record of transforming iconic brands and driving meaningful growth aligns perfectly with our mission to create authentic, innovative content and consumer experiences. I’m thrilled to have her on our team.”

In a statement, Robinson said she’d level her CPG experience to help Johnson and his team “shape and scale a diverse portfolio of brands,” while “staying true to the authenticity and passion that define everything Seven Bucks creates.”

“I can’t wait to get started,” she added.

Currently, Johnson fronts many of his own brand campaigns, including a recent one for Papatui, which expanded into fragrance in 2025.

Correction 6/13 7.15 am: A previous version of this story stated that Dany Garcia was the co-founder of Seven Bucks Companies. This is incorrect; she is a co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions.

This week has been another revolving door of hires, departures, and promotions at brands, from chief marketing officer (CMO) exits to high-profile appointments.

We’re rounding up the U.S. and global marketing leadership moves you should know about for the week ending Jan. 9.

– AI chipmaker Nvidia has hired Google marketing executive Alison Wagonfeld as its first CMO. She’ll start in late January. Wagonfeld has spent almost a decade building Google Cloud’s marketing organization. “I’m thrilled to be moving from one AI leader to another at such a transformational time,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Google and Nvidia share a strong partnership, and we look forward to continued collaboration.”

– Pinterest’s first global chief marketing officer, Andréa Mallard, is leaving after more than seven years with the business. The company confirmed her departure to ADWEEK but did not yet share plans for her replacement.

– Puma has appointed Nadia Kokni as vp, global brand marketing. She’ll report directly to the brand’s chief brand officer, Maria Valdes. Kokni has held senior leadership roles at H&M, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and, most recently, Hugo Boss as svp of global marketing and comms. In her new role, she’ll oversee brand marketing strategy and brand marketing creative direction, replacing Richard Teyssier, who recently departed.

– Grindr has promoted Tristan Pineiro to CMO. Pineiro has already led a significant repositioning of Grindr’s brand through its “Global Gayborhood” platform since joining as svp of brand marketing and communications three years ago.

– The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the trade association for the U.S. OOH advertising industry, has promoted Olivia Oshry to CMO.

Creative scrappiness can take brands where no one else has ever gone before — that’s BodyArmor’s story, and we’re diving deep into it on the latest episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast. 

Tune in as the brand’s CMO, Tom Gargiulo, opens up his playbook on succeeding as a challenger brand, from how to build winning athlete partnerships and leverage unconventional media channels for outsized ROI to executing a brand rebirth that resonates with both consumers and retail partners. 

What you’ll learn:

• How to build a disruptor/ challenger brand positioning in a saturated category
• Why athlete-first partnerships outperform big-budget league deals if you’re a resource-constrained brands
• The power of the bottling community’s alignment in driving execution
• How social media ROI dramatically outperforms traditional TV
• The value of transparency and space-giving in high-performing marketing teams
• Why strategic media partnerships (Barstool, Dude Perfect, Savannah Bananas) create household brand status without massive budgets

Tom Gargiulo is the chief marketing officer of BodyArmor at The Coca-Cola Company, bringing extensive expertise in brand marketing, sports partnerships and challenger brand strategy. 

With a career spanning the NFL, PepsiCo, Danone, Kind and Coca-Cola, Tom has successfully navigated marketing across competitive CPG categories, including his instrumental role in growing Danone’s yogurt business during the Greek yogurt boom. 

His work at BodyArmor — including the brand’s spring relaunch and the official partnership with the NHL — demonstrates how data-driven storytelling and collaborative customer relationships can drive category growth, making his strategic outlook essential for CMOs seeking to build disruptor brands within established markets.

Episode Highlights: 

[10:36] The Secret Behind Disrupting Saturated Categories — Tom reveals that accessing Coca-Cola’s world-class marketing tools and resources fundamentally transformed BodyArmor’s ability to compete against entrenched category leaders like Gatorade.

CMOs managing challenger brands within larger corporate portfolios often struggle to balance autonomy with access to enterprise-level capabilities that can accelerate growth. The key is using these resources strategically to modernize visual identity, simplify messaging, and clearly communicate product differentiation rather than simply increasing media spend.

This approach transforms potential integration friction into competitive advantage, enabling you to reclaim disruptor status while maintaining the challenger mindset that built the brand.

[19:36] Athlete-First Strategy vs. Expensive League Deals — Tom Gargiulo explains that BodyArmor deliberately partners with rising athletes like Mike Trout, James Harden and currently Jalen Brunson, Connor McDavid and Joe Burrow, capturing them before they reach superstardom rather than competing for expensive league partnerships.

This resource-constrained approach forces brands to be smarter about capital allocation and creates authentic equity-building moments that resonate with audiences. The strategy works because early career athletes are hungry, relatable, and their growth trajectory mirrors the brand’s challenger positioning, creating a shared narrative.

When combined with media partners like Barstool Sports and Dude Perfect, these athlete relationships generate organic content integration and cross-collaborations that feel earned rather than purchased, delivering greater authenticity and ROI over time.

[24:39] How Social Media Helps You Punch Above Your Weight Class — Tom reveals that BodyArmor’s partnership with high-engagement media properties like Barstool Sports, Dude Perfect, and the Savannah Bananas, combined with influencer “playmakers” and heavy investment in Meta and Snapchat, delivers 4-5x ROI compared to traditional TV spending.

For resource-constrained brands, this isn’t a secondary tactic; it’s the primary media strategy that enables you to reach youthful, passionate audiences at scale without matching competitors’ TV budgets. The key is selecting partners whose audiences align with your brand values and whose content naturally integrates your product organically rather than forcing sponsorships — an approach particularly useful while targeting young consumers.

[29:12] Transparency, Humor and Earned Autonomy Build High-Performing Teams — Tom shares that his leadership philosophy centers on three pillars: infusing humor and fun into daily work (because “if you’re not having fun, why are you doing this?”), maintaining radical transparency by sharing all available facts and decisions openly and granting autonomy based on demonstrated results rather than title.

This approach empowers team members to make informed decisions and take ownership of their work, directly improving both engagement and execution quality. However, autonomy must be earned — if results don’t match expectations or standards slip, the leader steps in to provide more direction and coaching.

For CMOs building high-performing marketing teams, this framework demonstrates that psychological safety (created through humor and transparency), information access (radical transparency), and clear accountability (earned autonomy) are the three levers that unlock exceptional performance — especially in fast-moving, high-pressure environments like challenger brand marketing.

Pinterest’s first global chief marketing officer, Andréa Mallard, is leaving after more than seven years with the business.

Mallard joined Pinterest in 2018 from Gap Inc. brand Athleta. The company confirmed her departure to ADWEEK but did not yet share plans for her replacement.

“We are grateful for Andrea’s contributions and impact at Pinterest,” said a Pinterest spokesperson.

They added: “Under her leadership, our marketing and brand campaigns became best in class. We wish her the best of luck in her next chapter.”

Building a brand-friendly platform

During her tenure, ADWEEK Brand Genius honoree Mallard expanded her remit to include external communications. She built Pinterest’s global marketing function from scratch, steering the brand through its 2019 IPO and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The marketer also helped reposition Pinterest as a positive, inspiration-led alternative to traditional social media feeds, and launched tentpole initiatives, including its yearly Pinterest Predicts trends report and flagship advertiser showcase, Pinterest Presents.

These efforts resulted in Pinterest sharpening its cultural relevance among Gen Z, upping advertiser appeal, and scaling to reach 600 million monthly users.

The visual platform has been busy upping its advertising and commerce ante over the last few months.

Towards the end of 2025, it unveiled a tool called Pinterest Media Network Connect, which allows advertisers and retail media networks to see if Pinterest ads drive sales. Elsewhere, at CES this week, it announced plans for an original shoppable series with Roku.