CMO Chats with Mat Zucker, CMO at Prophet

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and about your role. (0:05)

I have two related jobs at Prophet. Firstly, I guide clients with marketing strategy and planning, which is something I’ve done for many years. Although I have a creative background, I switched into management consulting about 11 years ago. My second job is as the firm’s Chief Marketing Officer, where I’m responsible for our corporate marketing, covering both brand and performance. The two roles are quite connected; in my CMO capacity, I am essentially practising what I preach to our clients. (0:18)

Can you please expand on how those two roles intertwine? (0:48)

The advice I give to clients is the same strategy I follow for our firm. Whether it’s creating an integrated brand and demand plan, taking a program-centric view, or rethinking the puzzle of search because of generative AI, I’m tackling the same problems for both my clients and my own company. There’s a constant and valuable exchange of learnings between the two, especially within the B2B space. (0:56)

Your background is in creative writing and visual arts. How has this creative mindset helped you as a marketing leader? (1:27)

A creative background teaches you the importance of both the idea and the craft. You learn to swing for big, ambitious concepts, but you also learn how to execute small, pragmatic steps to show momentum and build a proof of concept. As a leader, you need to operate on two levels: championing the big ideas while also engaging in the daily, hands-on work of achieving success through data and insights, ensuring decisions are informed, not just creative. (2:07)

What are your biggest challenges right now as a marketing leader? (2:39)

We have two primary goals that also represent our biggest challenges. The first is building awareness of Prophet among new audiences. While many marketing leaders know us, we need to appeal to new leaders entering the field, as well as business and growth leaders who may not be familiar with our brand. The second challenge is broadening the frame of reference for what we do among those who already know us. Like many firms, Prophet has evolved and added many new capabilities over time, and we need to ensure our entire expanded skillset is understood. (2:54)

How do you define success in marketing? (3:39)

Ultimately, we look at business growth metrics: net new business, returning business from past clients, and growth within existing clients. Marketing’s direct contribution is measured by our ability to drive new leads and improve consideration, positioning us as a provider of choice. We know we’re making progress when we see growth in our database among our target audiences and when those audiences are engaging with us more deeply, both through our marketing content and direct business interactions. (3:43)

As a leader managing so many moving parts, how do you approach your marketing strategy? (4:26)

I believe most marketers today have to operate at two speeds. You have immediate marketing activities in the market designed to capture existing demand, and at the same time, you must have future-forward activities aimed at building the brand and capturing future demand. Our teams are organised to work on integrated programs, not just siloed channels. A lever like an event, for instance, can be designed to close deals now or to build awareness for the future—ideally, it does both. The goal is to have all levers working together cohesively. (5:02)

How does your background in creative writing specifically help you today? (5:55)

Content marketing is the lifeblood of any B2B business. It’s a huge currency, whether it’s high-level thought leadership or everyday content. This is a great passion of mine. At Prophet, I helped build our content strategy offering, which was a natural evolution of my copywriting background. I probably spend more time on our content marketing than I should, but it’s fundamental to what we do. (6:07)

It seems a core part of your success has been a commitment to a growth mindset, evolving from creative pursuits to now even taking data analytics classes. How do you view this journey? (7:03)

You learn to get a rush out of topics that might be foreign or adjacent to your core skills. I’m taking data analytics classes because I need to embrace it to close important knowledge gaps, both for my clients and for myself. My career has been very iterative; I’ve worked in advertising, direct marketing, digital marketing, content, and even had a dabble in journalism and strategy. In many ways, this diverse path has all added up to preparing me for a marketing leadership role. (7:16)

AI is a huge topic right now. How do you approach it? (8:57)

We all need to embrace it, and the more you use it, the more you appreciate its potential. It’s a fascinating puzzle to solve. We’re all moving from using it for simple productivity tasks to leveraging it for more insightful and strategic applications. The key is not to be daunted by it. I try to think about it in different buckets of use cases—assistive, analytical, etc.—and realise that we don’t need to have it all figured out yet. The most important thing is to keep exploring what it can do. (9:12)

What is your main marketing focus at the moment? (10:15)

Right now, our primary focus is on rolling out an updated articulation of our firm’s positioning as “The Uncommon Growth Company.” For us, uncommon growth isn’t just exponential; it’s growth that is smarter, faster, more human, actionable, and sustainable. We recently launched a campaign around this in The Wall Street Journal and are working to integrate this bold, cohesive story across all our channels. The main challenge, as with any new positioning, is articulating it cohesively both internally and externally while allowing for flexibility. It’s a massive undertaking that also requires us to prioritise and say ‘no’ to things that no longer fit the agenda. (10:42)

What is the relationship between sales and marketing at Prophet? (12:49)

Our job in marketing is twofold. First, we create demand for our sales teams. Second, we provide continuity in their client relationships, keeping our brand present when they can’t be. We do this by arming them with the right materials, interesting content, and helpful tools. We’ve worked hard to integrate sales and marketing, not by merging the departments, but by creating a shared view on data, objectives, and priority clients. One of our biggest thought leadership pieces is titled “Brand and Demand, a Love Story,” which is about how these two functions are more successful as partners. It’s a healthy relationship built on collaboration to find the best answers together. (13:08)

Which marketing initiatives has your sales department been most excited about? (15:42)

They are currently very excited about our brand advertising campaign in The Wall Street Journal. There’s a lot of pride in it, and while expectations for day-one results are modest, they understand the long-term value. They also get very excited about practical tools. We recently created a brand diagnostic tool that allows a company to assess the strength of its brand engine. It gives them something useful and interactive to put in front of clients, which is often more engaging than just sending another article. (15:52)

Which marketing strategies have wielded the most success in terms of engagement and lead generation recently? (16:48)

Bringing back conferences and meetings has been highly successful. We’ve approached it a bit differently this time by forming strategic partnerships with organisations like the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). These in-person events, which we sometimes host at our offices, have generated a tremendous amount of energy and high engagement. They serve multiple goals at once: awareness, engagement, and even direct sales opportunities. (16:57)

What career advice would you give to anyone aspiring to become a Chief Marketing Officer? (17:52)

Don’t chase the title; chase the knowledge. I believe it’s incredibly useful to become cross-channel and cross-discipline proficient, if not fluent. Having a working knowledge of media, data, PR, advertising, events, and databases will make you a better director and a better facilitator. You might spike in one or two areas where you have deep expertise, as I do, but having a diverse background makes you a more effective strategist and practitioner. (18:04)