Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart - 370: Marketing is a Team Sport with Katie Krum, SVP and CMO at PURE Insurance

370: Marketing is a Team Sport with Katie Krum, SVP and CMO at PURE Insurance

06/07/23 • 38 min

2 Listeners

Katie Krum started her career at PURE in 2006 as the sixth employee at the insurance start-up. She played a significant role in shaping the brand, and throughout this process, she discovered her passion for marketing. Katie eventually left to develop her skill set at Nickelodeon, Marriott, Under Armour, and Weber Shandwick. She now leads a "small but mighty team" as the CMO at PURE, where she oversees all aspects of marketing communications and PR. One of the driving factors that drew her back to PURE was her incredible boss and her determination to explore innovative approaches to generate interest in insurance. She firmly believes in the power of collaboration, as she sees teams achieve more together than as individuals.

In this episode, Alan and Katie discuss the challenges involved in transitioning PURE from a company to a brand tailored specifically for high-net-worth families. Katie highlights the significant impact that service experiences have on driving progress. Katie's expertise from other industries is instrumental in bringing attention to PURE's distinctive "membership model" that sets them apart. Despite boasting a strong membership base with high renewal rates and an impressive net promoter score, consumer research revealed a lack of understanding of what PURE is all about to prospects and what they do for their members. This led to the launch of the "Join the Club" campaign, the development of a mobile-first brand book, and the redefinition of "excellent service." As a first-time CMO, Katie infuses the insurance industry, which typically lacks excitement, with her enthusiasm and fresh perspective. She actively spearheads transformative changes and anticipates significant shifts in marketing team structure, performance evaluation, and the utilization of AI.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why Katie returned to PURE
What sets PURE apart in the insurance industry
The benefits of having marketing communications and PR handled by one team

Key Highlights:

[01:25] Katie’s dearest dad
[05:00] Starting at PURE, leaving and learning, then coming back
[10:15] Why did she come back to insurance?
[12:30] What does PURE do?
[15:15] How is Katie building the brand?
[18:05] Research and ideation inform the plan.
[19:10] The history of insurance and what makes it PURE
[21:10] Benefits of blending marketing and PR into one team
[25:10] First-time CMO excitement
[26:00] Marketing is a team sport where we embrace crazy ideas.
[28:50] Pat yourself on the back and be the one that shows up.
[31:20] 3 important topics
[33:45] State and brands to watch
[36:45] The importance of post-pandemic reconnection

Thank you to our sponsor:

PartnerHero: to waive set-up fees, go to https://www.partnerhero.com/marketingtoday and mention “Marketing Today” during onboarding!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why Katie returned to PURE
What sets PURE apart in the insurance industry
The benefits of having marketing communications and PR handled by one team

Key Highlights:

[01:25] Katie’s dearest dad
[05:00] Starting at PURE, leaving and learning, then coming back
[10:15] Why did she come back to insurance?
[12:30] What does PURE do?
[15:15] How is Katie building the brand?
[18:05] Research and ideation inform the plan.
[19:10] The history of insurance and what makes it PURE
[21:10] Benefits of blending marketing and PR into one team
[25:10] First-time CMO excitement
[26:00] Marketing is a team sport where we embrace crazy ideas.
[28:50] Pat yourself on the back and be the one that shows up.
[31:20] 3 important topics
[33:45] State and brands to watch
[36:45] The importance of post-pandemic reconnection

Thank you to our sponsor:

PartnerHero: to waive set-up fees, go to https://www.partnerhero.com/marketingtoday and mention “Marketing Today” during onboarding!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

369: Capitalizing on Shifting Consumer Behaviors with Tony Marlow, CMO at LG Ad Solutions

Tony Marlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for LG Ad Solutions, where he uses data-driven insights to lead all aspects of marketing and communications. Since the beginning of his career, Tony has always been interested in technology, thought leadership, and helping people understand why they should embrace emerging tech. He has served as CMO at Integral Ad Science, CMO at Data Axle, Global Head and VP of B2B Marketing at Yahoo, and a consultant for Nielsen Online. As an avid athlete, his training for triathlons and Iron Man races has taught him a lot about efficiency in planning and tenacity in execution, which he brings to his professional life as well.

In this episode, Alan and Tony discuss "The Big Shifts" in consumer viewing behavior and how CTV is accounting for the new ways in which people consume media. LG Ad Solutions is a CTV advertising company with over 150 million smart TVs worldwide, where they deliver video and native units on the biggest screen in the home. The first phase of the shift in consumer viewing behavior coincided with the beginning of the pandemic when people were staying home and streaming more than ever before. The second phase is happening now, with people moving away from subscriptions and leaning into ad-supported TV to get free or less expensive on-demand TV. In contrast to the "spray and pray" approach of traditional TV advertising, the increased user data associated with CTV allows advertisers to reach a target audience with more sophisticated and relevant creative messaging and then track performance and brand objectives all in one place. Tony highlights the importance of marketers being cognizant of how they are connecting with their audience on the different screens they are engaging with, as well as finding the balance between relevancy and data privacy.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Causes and Impacts of "The Big Shift" in consumer viewing behavior
Performance and optimization opportunities with CTV
How LG is balancing ad relevance with data privacy

Key Highlights:

[02:00] Bike, swim, and rum
[03:20] Tony’s path to LG
[07:45] What are LG Ad Solutions?
[10:20] What should we know about the big shifts happening in TV?
[16:30] We can do TV better.
[19:50] Balancing ad relevance with a sense of privacy
[22:00] Data-informed ads
[24:30] The correlation between relevance and effectiveness
[25:30] It’s less of a walled garden and more of a gated community.
[28:10] Brand safety in CTV
[30:40] Performance and optimization opportunities with CTV
[35:15] How high-performance training impacts Tony’s life
[37:50] The Eisenhower Matrix
[41:30] All marketing is storytelling.
[42:00] Causes to watch
[48:00] We’re on the precipice of a new era of human productivity with AI

Thank you to our sponsor:

PartnerHero: to waive set-up fees, go to https://www.partnerhero.com/marketingtoday and mention “Marketing Today” during onboarding!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

371: Complexities in Marketing to a Broad Audience with Zach Kitschke, CMO at Canva

Zach Kitschke is the CMO of Canva, the online visual communication and collaboration platform. In his comprehensive role as CMO, Zach oversees the international brand and drives growth initiatives. He closely collaborates with teams responsible for product marketing, PR and communications, affiliates and performance, content, SEO, brand development, creative innovation, advertising, and product growth. Zach joined Canva in 2013, the year it launched. Since then, with a mission to empower the whole world to design, it has grown to over 130 million users each month in over 190 countries around the world, with more than 13 billion designs created.

In this episode, Alan and Zach discuss how visual content fits into our world today, Canvas's approach to marketing complexity, and the inspiration behind their newest "What will you design today?" campaign. Additionally, Zach provided insights from the recent Visual Economy Report, sharing noteworthy findings from a survey of 1,600 global business leaders. These insights revealed how visual content is being leveraged to foster stronger audience engagement. The business landscape has shifted towards a widespread need for employees to communicate visually and adopt creative roles, even if they don't specialize in design. Zach highlighted the role of technology in fueling the creator economy and offered valuable tips on how to stand out in a sea of visual content.

In this episode, you'll learn: