How Today’s CMOs Think About Growth, Technology, and Impact: Chats with Valeria

Could you please give us a quick introduction of yourself, your role, and your company?

I’m Valeria Balaro, the CMO at Star. I look after marketing and new business activities at our company, which is a technology consultancy that thinks and builds together with our clients. We help enterprises and startups at every step of their digital journey, from conceptualising and creating products to taking them to market. I’ve been here for about three years, and my 18-year career has always been in B2B marketing, starting in financial services and moving through market research before landing in technology.

 

You studied finance. How did you get into marketing?

That’s an interesting question. I was looking for a more finance-based career, but when I joined a graduate scheme at a bank, I rotated through different departments and found that I quite enjoyed marketing and strategy. To me, they are very closely linked.

I love the variety, the constant innovation, and the proximity to clients. It’s the behavioural and psychological elements that I really enjoy as well; it’s not just a science, but also an art.

 

What is your main focus right now?

Of course, growth is the top priority. Specifically, we are looking at embedding AI much more into our processes to take advantage of the technology and work smarter. We have to be open to learning how we can do our core jobs better with the tools available.

The other major focus is navigating Star’s journey as we shift from our heritage of serving startups to working more with large enterprises. This requires learning how to market effectively to the enterprise buyer, which is a different reality with different procurement processes.

 

What would you say is your biggest challenge at the moment?

I’m sorry that it sounds like such a cliché, but the biggest challenge is doing more with less. It’s the reality that we are having to be so much more effective with what we have in terms of budget and resources. The goal is to extract as much impact and ROI as possible, which means using tools like AI to be as effective as we can and free up time and investment for the more creative aspects of the role.

 

Can you share an example of a really successful marketing campaign?

One that I really loved was a campaign called “Ten Forward.” We wanted to create a trend report that would actually get people’s attention and showcase our ability to think strategically and creatively.

So, instead of releasing a standard report, we created an immersive, video game-like experience. Users would fill out a questionnaire based on their beliefs about the future and would land in one of four versions of the world—from a high-tech utopia to a cyberpunk world or even a post-apocalyptic one. We then explored how different industries, like automotive, would look in each of those scenarios. It was a really interesting and fun way to showcase our forward-thinking capabilities.

 

How do you measure the ROI after an event?

Typically, we look at commercially driven ROI metrics. We have a list of tiered target accounts, and our goal is to get as much face time with them as possible. We look at how many meetings we had, how many of those had follow-ups, and how much pipeline we opened. We will then follow that journey to see if those initial meetings led to closed deals, which we then attribute to the event.

 

How does Star stay ahead of its competitors?

Star has quite a unique niche with our “consult-to-build” model. We’re not a pure-play management consultancy that just advises, and we’re not just a product development partner that just builds. We have long-term relationships where we help clients solve challenges strategically and then help them implement the solution.

Another differentiator is our people. Our clients constantly tell us how impressed they are with the Star team members who work as a part of their own teams. It’s hard to communicate that in marketing, as everyone says their people are amazing. So, we focus on creating credibility by showcasing the thought leadership and technical expertise of our people.

 

In your opinion, what does the future of marketing look like?

The future of marketing is very technology-enabled. I think marketers need to work more and more with their CTOs and CIOs; the CMO and the CTO are the new “dynamic duo.” The people who are curious to learn about technology are the ones who are going to stand out, because the old ways of doing things will just put you at a disadvantage.

If you could describe the role of a CMO in one word, what would that word be and why?

To me, that would be Curiosity.

You have to be curious to keep learning, to keep improving yourself, to learn what your competitors are doing, and what your customers want to see from you. But you also need to instill curiosity in people to make them want to learn more about your company. You can learn any skill, but if you don’t have that innate curiosity, I don’t think that’s something you can really learn.